Russian River Saison Blonde is Vegan Friendly

Company email (February 2019)
"Good news, almost all our beers are vegan now at both breweries, this includes Pliny the Younger at both breweries this year. We stopped using gelatin a while ago at the downtown Santa Rosa brewpub. Temporarily we are using a fining agent called Biofine which is formulated from silicic acid. In a month we’ll stop using that as we are in the middle of installing a centrifuge which is the same piece of equipment we use in Windsor to remove yeast and hops.

"I think the only beer that will be left that won’t meet the criteria of being vegan would be our beer She’s so Italian, we use some local honey in this beer. We don’t produce our beer at any other facilities and other than the honey in She’s so Italian we don’t use any other animal products."

Company email (February 2017):
"Pliny the Younger is not vegan, we use gelatin to filter the beer though all of the gelatin is filtered out in the process."

Company email (February 2013):
"Thanks for the email, everything brewed at our Production Facility is vegan, everything brewed at our brewpub on 4th street is not."

Note from Allison (November 2012):
"Hello, I have been informed by the company (Russian River) that there beer is not vegan. She didn't give me details, but said all their beer is not vegan, if you'd like to update."

Company email: Oct 2010
"At our brewpub we use gelatin to fine our beers, none of the gelatin remains in the beer but none the less, we use gelatin. All our bottled beers do not use gelatin and these are for sale at our pub so even a vegan guest can at least drink a beer at our pub that is vegan."

Company email : feb 2010
"Actually they (the sour beers) are filtered as we have to filter out any fruit particulates, even the sour beers without fruit I filter as the process just seems to work better."
Ed note: Being filtered is vegan but fined is not.

Company Email: Dec 2010
"The sour / barrel beers regardless of bottle or keg do not use gelatin. Also, any beer out for distribution from the brewery, such as beers on tap at Toronado do not have gelatin as they would have been made at the production brewery where we filter everything. At our pub is just isn’t cost effective or labor effective to run a filter and honestly, the gelatin does a better job as it leaves more flavor behind."

Company email:
UPDATE: KevinM
"that the draft offerings of Blind Pig, Damnation and Pliny the Elder that get served in Philly are also vegan. (Not too many other areas outside of CA get kegs of Russian River)
Yay, this is so exciting (Pliny the Elder is considered by most to be the best example of that style - Imperial/Double IPA)"

UPDATE: JULY 2009 via KevinM
" Russian River started out as a small brewpub. At the brewpub they use gelatin to fine all of the beers for clarification purposes. This year, they started a production brewery to go along with the brewpub. They were able to score a nice centrifuge (big machine that spins the beer around to get the yeast out) for this. At that production facility they make Pliny the Elder (Double IPA), Blind Pig (IPA), and Damnation (Belgian Golden Strong Ale). They bottle those beers and distribute them all over the country. However, they also keg those beers (kegged => served on tap) and ship them to a few select markets outside of California. (Philadelphia being one of them - yay for me!) There's a good chance most other markets outside of California, Philly, and NYC don't even get draft Russian River stuff.

So....

Blind Pig, Damnation, and Pliny the Elder on draught in bars, or in bottles = good
Anything else (primarily only in bottles - these are barrel aged mostly sour beers) = bad
Anything served in their brewpub in California = bad

Here's the email I got from Vinnie on Friday:
Kevin,
Yes, the draft that makes it out to Philly is run through the centrifuge as
well.
Vinnie"

UPDATE: JULY 2009 via Nicole
"The bottles of Blind Pig IPA Pliny the Elder, and Damnation do not employ gelatin in the production process. They are ALWAYS made at our production brewery where we make beer in larger quantities and thus use a centrifuge to remove the yeast and not gelatin, we end up with the same results as we do at the pub where we use the gelatin."

DECEMBER 2007
"Unfortunately, I use gelatin in all of our beers to fine them. We do this to eliminate the filtration process, but, it does put an animal product in the process."