Russian River Beatification (Batch 001)

Formerly brewed at Russian River Brewing
Style: Sour Ale
Santa Rosa, California USA

Batch 1 (thanks Guy) pours daffodil yellow and effervescent. Aroma is tart, body very lean and prickly. Rich grapefruit dominates crisp flavors.

Beautiful gold body. Very tart aroma very citrus. Wonderfully sour with smooth ending.

375 mL bottle courtesy of Numenor. Thanks! Rating #1500. Batch 001-PH1. Pours a lemon orange color with a medium head. Poor head retention and lacing. Fantastically tart aroma with funk, citrus, earthy, herbal. Taste is almost bitterly tart with notes of green apple, citrus (pithy grapefruit), tannins. Slight earthy and herbal notes. Soft carbonation. Medium bodied.

Batch 001-PH1 Nice golden body with a thin white head. Nice sour aroma with a good fruit kick. Taste is very sour with light oaking. Nice citrus ending. Awesome stuff.

I had previously sampled Beatification at the RR Brewpub in October of 2005, straight from the barrel and again in January of this year at a RR dinner at Monk’s Cafe but this is my first review of this fine beer from the bottle. Batch 001 (PH1) is waiting patiently in my cellar. The beer poured a nice brilliant hazy straw color with a bit of a white head that didn’t last very long and gave way to a good ring around the glass and strong lacing. The aroma of the beer definitely had the characterstics of where it was aged, in an oak barrel, but it was not overpowering. Notes of cherry and other fruit. The taste was very impressive, tart and acidic and a bit of funkiness but not overbearing, just perfectly complimenting each other. The taste lingered in the mouth for awhile and did have a bit of a dry champagne burn to it which I like in a beer. There is a lingering sweetness to this beer that is very pleasant and I just can’t get enough of. It would be interesting to taste this along side Redemption which is where this started and also with the PH1 to test the subtle differences in each. Vinnie and Natalie hit this one out of the park as they do with so many of their beers. A real winner, too bad there is not much of this out there.

Wowo, thanks for sharing this rare gem Yaniv! Lightly hazed light orange with a thin film for a head. Subtle herbal sour nose. Light lemon to citrus, with perhaps Brett dominant over the bacteria. Light body with average carbonation. Astringent! Light wheaty sort of esters and grain flavors. Very oaky with something distinctly peppery. Lemongrass perhaps? Rather different than my memories of batch 2, and not in a bad way!

Hazy orange with medium off white heas lasting shortly. Sour aroma with with woody, barnyard and grapefruit notes. Sour flavour with wood, barnyard, leather brett and grapefruit. Excellent.

37.5 cL bottle, courtesy of KimJohansen. Pours hazy orange with a fizzy off-white head. Solid citric to acidic aroma. Barnyard and horseblanket too. Citric, orange fruity, apple and solid fruity flavoured. Lingering and smooth and fruity flavoured, citric and orange fruity with a nice wooden note following. Dry and wooden dryness into a lasting fruity and dry fruity finish. Lasting fruity impression, quite fresh. Biting acidic finish, quite tart.