Russian River Compunction

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

12oz hand bottle acquired in trade with tytoanderso (thanks!). Poured a medium and slightly hazy golden color with a smaller sized head. Aromas of mustiness, dusty, funky, tart fruitiness, and some citrus. Tastes of funky tartness, green apples, plums, tart cherries, fruity, and some citrus. Nice tartness.

Growler carefully hauled back from California by Ken’s better half. Straw colored clear body from a first careful pour sits underneath a medium to large bubbled white head. Instant acidic nose of cider vinegar, honey, straw, and mild dried peach and apricot skin/rind. There’s a tremendously high level of acidity in this beer, sharp and vinegar-like, like a Flemish red, but without the typical cherry/cedar/nut Flemish red flavors. It’s prickly, bright, corrosive, assertive and then it shows it’s fruity side - dried peach skin, sweet and oily apricot and fruit cocktail juice, but then that’s once again destroyed in the next sip by a stinging acidity, and it’s really nice how both of these qualities, the acidity and the sweet fruit, stay nearly completely separate. It’s like drinking two beers one after another. Overall it’s a very, very nice beer, well-made and flawless in execution, if not the most deep or complex Belgian blonde/golden recipe used as a base, but the plouts certainly help. The sourness and acidity, though, is spectacularly executed.

Many thanks go to <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?UserID=2 for making sure that I didn’t miss this one.
It poured a slightly hazed golden body with a dinkus head, mainly bubbles. The aroma was funky and tart, had a healthy dose of pluots (Yeah - like that’s a real word!) and young crabapples, and a soft citrus sweetness. It had a face puckering mouthfeel and caused much salivation, but the actual flavor relected the sensations from the nose fairly truly. Nice sour/tart/fruity finish. When is RR coming to the Chicago area?

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eve Lord Day 2008 at Three Floyds, Munster, IN, 4/26/2008.<font size=-1>

DLD guest tap: Glowing deep golden hue with a lasting frothy white head and left excellent lace upon the glass. The aroma has notes of plum, tangerine, spicy white wine (Gewurtztraminer?), grass, wild yeast funk, some clean oak, and dusty yeast esters.

Starts with and mostly ends with a dry acidic tartness, sour fruits and funked up yeast all over the place. YEP, it is a Russian River beer alright! Some light biscuity pale malt and wood as well with a touch of white pepper to round out the palate. The mouth feel is highly refreshing and sprite. Outstanding offering and something I wish I had a bottle of the enjoy in the future. Every bit the equal of the Supplication IMO!

On draught as guest beer during Dark Lord Days ’08. Pours a hazy golden yellow sour brew with a thick white head that has excellent retention and lacing. Aroma of barnyard funk, sour citrus or oranges, lemon and a touch of lime, with yeast galore. Taste is medium bodied, spritzy with flavors of sour fruit, lemon and grapefruit. Finish remained sour that lingered after the finish. I was unaware that Russian River has some outstanding sour ales.

[Draft @ Monks] Poured a clear amber color with a medium sized white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of rotted plum, raisins, citrus, apples, brett and the other RR funky cultures. Taste seemed to be devoid of any oak, with some citrus, dark fruits, green apple, light nutmeg, and a really sour, dry, wild yeast finish. This is really missing the oak or a sweeter fruit involved.

Draft at DLD. Pours blonde/orange little to light lacing around the plastic cup, ha. A good blend of fruit that was slighly tart, plums and peach maybe. Semi dry in the finish, with no dectable etoh. A solid beer.

Draft at the brewpub. Poured a clear golden color. Head was white, reduced quickly to a thin film, and left only a little bit of lace. Attractive aroma of sour fruits with white wine and oak. Very acidic with flavors of sour cherry, plum, and oak. I loved the acidity and white wine character of this beer. An acquired taste, to be sure, but very good.