Brewing For Impact celebrates Brewmaster Garrett Oliver’s thirty year anniversary at Brooklyn Brewery. Garrett collaborated with seven breweries around the world to showcase fonio, a remarkable West African grain that can light the way towards a sustainable and equitable brewing future. Each collaboration will also support the Michael James Jackson Foundation’s scholarship program for BIPOC brewery and distillery professionals. Learn more about Brewing For Impact here and look for more releases throughout 2024.

Russian River Brewing Company is renowned for their cult classic IPAs and legendary Belgian-inspired beers. But our Brewmaster Garrett Oliver knows Russian River as the brewery helmed by two of his oldest friends in beer: Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo.

Garrett, Vinnie, and Natalie have swapped ideas, shared methods, and created beers like the transcontinental Refraction over the years. But the basis for their work on fonio was more recent: a shared trip to the Westvleteren Trappist Brewery in 2022.

Natalie points to that day as the seed of their fonio collaboration: “I think that is what ultimately transpired into this collaboration with Brooklyn Brewery – because we’re such good friends with Garrett, our values and our purpose as brewers align perfectly.”

“I remember just geeking out with Garrett on this blonde beer, and discussing what it would be like to brew it at home at each of our breweries,” recalls Vinnie.

“That was a truly spectacular day,” agrees Garrett. “A Belgian beer garden at one of the Trappist monastic breweries, two of my oldest friends in brewing, and all that beautiful beer.”

Inspired by their shared love of Belgian styles and that day in the beer garden, Vinnie and Natalie focused on using the unique aromatics of Belgian yeast to showcase fonio in this collaboration.

“The fonio has that really nice fruity, wine grape, lychee note to it that is just perfect for a Belgian yeast,” says Vinnie. “The Belgian yeast gives it that fruity, estery profile that’s really going to complement the fruity notes from the fonio in both the flavor and the aroma.”

“It’s been a really cool project for us to start exploring these alternative brewing grains,” says Natalie. “We’re really excited to share this beer with the world.”

Russian River’s focus on sustainability also made fonio an intriguing grain to explore. Fonio grows without inputs – no pesticides, irrigation, or fertilizers are needed for the African-grown grain to thrive. Since Russian River is located in a particularly water-sensitive area, the potential of fonio hits home.

“[It was important] to be able to put sustainability as one of the main criteria,” says Vinnie. “We’re using greywater to irrigate the property, and we can reclaim all of our wastewater from the brewery effluent and bring that back into the building and use it for cleaning.”

“And having built the brewery during one of the longest drought cycles that we’ve experienced in our lifetime here in California made it even more important to be water-friendly to not only our community, but the local environment,” adds Natalie. The brewery property includes four acres of wetlands, providing key stewardship for their local watershed.

Garrett is passionate about the agricultural and community impacts of fonio as the world continues to change. “Climate change is altering the world right in front of our eyes, right now. If we can take steps to try and reduce our impacts on the environment, that’s automatically a good thing.” Garrett says.

“I for one take huge inspiration in seeing how Vinnie and Natalie are making a change on a local level, and that’s the very essence of Brewing For Impact.” Garrett continues. “And community is everything – look what can come out of a nice drink on a sunny Belgian afternoon.”

Russian River Fonio Belgian Blonde Ale will be available as a limited release on August 15th. Follow Garrett and Russian River Brewing Co. for more on their collaboration, and follow us for more to come from Brewing For Impact.

Looking for more stories and beers from Brewing For Impact? Check out Garrett’s work with Maison Kalao, Thornbridge Brewery, Omnipollo, and Carlsberg, and stay tuned for more.