Ken (K. M.) Weaver

New Brewery Spotlight: Odonata Beer Company

The section of I-80 between the Reno/Sparks area and San Francisco’s North Bay (passing over the snow-capped mountains of Truckee, before leveling out into sleepy towns known for harvest festivals and car dealerships) encourages frequent travelers to identify a comfortable stopping point near Sacramento and Davis. When my wife and I were traveling back and forth looking for apartments in Sebastopol, Sacramento Brewing Company proved to be ideal for grabbing a pint and getting out of the car for a bit. Their Brett Blond featured a nicely potent Brettanomyces strain, and their guest taps consistently showcased some of the tastiest and hardest-to-find releases from breweries like Stone, Deschutes, and Sierra Nevada. We had only been to Sac Brew a handful of times, but the rather sudden news of its closure in October was disconcerting even to us.

Certain things were already set in motion. Friends Peter Hoey (then Brewmaster at Sac Brew) and Rick Sellers (Beer Director at DRAFT Magazine) had already taken steps to get Odonata Beer Company up and running. Peter had worked as a production brewer with Sierra Nevada for some time, then as brewmaster at Bison Brewing before settling in at Sac Brew. The initial idea had been to contract brew through Sac Brew’s existing facilities.

The Sacramento beer scene hasn’t been particularly forgiving, and Sac Brew was the area’s third brewery to close its doors in 2009. But there’s a supportive community of craft brewers in the area, and Odonata’s industry friendships and unique projected lineup of beers (the majority of which will spend some time in a barrel) will hopefully give them a more reliable foothold in NorCal markets. The Beer Company is actually the sister company of Denis Hoey’s Odonata Wines.

I highlighted Odonata’s very first release, a wine-barrel-aged Quadrupel with sour cherries called Rorie’s Ale Batch 001 (named after Peter’s daughter), in a previous article. I was one of the first people to review it on Ratebeer, having managed down to track down the last two bottles at The Shack in Sacramento. Even before it had reached most local Ratebeerians’ radar, it was already sold out at most places! Only 75 cases of this Reserve Series beer were made, and it is currently tied for the 6th best of its style (with not one review below a 4.0).

When I had heard earlier this week that two new beers from Odonata would be featured as guest taps at Rubicon Brewing Company in downtown Sacramento, a friend and I headed out from North Bay to check things out. Again: those two familiar hours of cow pastures and sparkling dealerships and industrial parks.

Odonata Water Witch

Odonata Water Witch was a beer that I had first heard about a couple months ago, a 9.5% dark Belgian Strong Ale aged in Malbec barrels and slated to be bottled later in the year. While it was the second of the Odonata beers we sampled, it’s the one more likely to be found again in the coming months. The focal point of the beer is its huge display of sweet bubble gum and cotton candy esters, alongside a cola and brown sugar core. The alcohol is hidden, the barrel character is quiet, and the edges are very soft. An excellent beer as is, this beer will be stunning if they can get the residual sweetness down in subsequent batches. Looking forward to the future bottling.

It’s one thing to make a trip down to your local bottle shop when something new comes out, and it’s another thing to travel two hours each way to sample (in my case, as I was driving) two 10-oz pours of beer. As much as I had been looking forward to Water Witch, it was the second Odonata release that sealed things.

Odonata Rosa

Odonata Rosa is part of a collection of beers Odonata has brewed in collaboration with the Homebrew Chef, Sean Paxton (who’s based near yours truly in Santa Rosa). The base recipe is based on traditional Belgian lambic (minus the spontaneous fermentation) and utilizes a turbid mash, raw wheat, and aged whole-flower hops. The wort was partitioned and finished with various yeast cultures, including a culture from 3 Fonteinen (which will be released as Odonata Beersel). The Rosa turned out to be the most acidic of the group, finished with the same yeast and bugs used in Russian River Beatification. All of these sour ales were aged for 20 months.

For me, that’s well worth some time in the car. Odonata Rosa, first released at Rubicon this past Thursday, presents itself quite similarly to how I remember Beatification Batch 003: a heavily focused acidic citrus character and lemony notes, lots of complex funk and sourness. The relaxed carbonation brings to mind unblended still lambics, with the main distinction being that it’s a touch less ripe and cheesy. An impressively complex, mouthwatering sour ale. Like most things I want to see bottled, this is likely to remain draft-only for now.

For those attending San Francisco Beer Week in early February, Rosa and Beersel should hopefully be making an appearance at the Triple Rock Sour Fest, and a keg of something soured (Rosa?) should be headed out to The Brewing Network’s Winter Brews Festival near the end of January. These are in addition to the various venues currently pouring Water Witch in the Sacramento area.

Odonata should be releasing both the Water Witch and their flagship Saison in bottles in the next few months. The Saison will be based on Peter’s GABF gold-medal-winning recipe, with the first batch being aged in stainless steel (due to the difficulty in acquiring enough white wine barrels at this time of year), while the subsequent batches will enjoy some relaxing time inside of some barrels.

It’s worth emphasizing that Odonata is still in a transitional phase: looking for their own equipment and production facility, setting up distribution partners, and nailing down their recipes for year-round brews. Both Peter and Rick have been especially pleased with the response to their beers, and it was encouraging to see how many folks showed up for the recent release at Rubicon. It’s never easy for fledgling experimental brewers (especially, it seems, in Sacramento), but I’m personally looking forward to whatever’s up ahead for these guys. Best of luck.

The Odonata Crew: Rick Sellers, Peter Hoey, and Rorie Hoey

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