Russian River Compunction

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

Drank this from a 13 oz tulip glass at the brewpub. Color is a cloudy orange, with a small white head. Light lacing. Nose is tart and sour fruit. Mouthfeel is lively. Flavor are incredibly complex and while sour you can taste apricots. Long dry finish. Far and away the best fruit beer I have ever seen. Simply amazing stuff.

Sampled with my cousin krkearn. Thanks keith. What a treat this is. The beer poured a clear golden color with a thin but bubbly white head that stuck around for a bit. There was nice fruity (based on the pluots that are aged in this) aroma and some funky earthy tones as well. the taste is fruity up front, apricot maybe and tart throughout. This is another fine example of a wild ale from RR and I can’t see anything wrong with this one. There is a lingering fruit taste that runs around the mouth and sticks on the tongue and some peppery notes that are mixed in as well. I think the plummy taste at the end is a nice finish to this fine beer. I really wish this made it to bottles but this sampling will do me for now.

Backlog. Got a small sample of this after it was realized what was supposed to be Compunction in fact wasn’t Compunction at all @ DLD. Light yellow with a white head. Aroma of sour, peachskin, plum, vinous notes and oak. Flavors of sour plum/pit fruit, oak and dry malt. Light body sour/dry finish.

On tap at DLD, the real stuff. Slight hazy light amber with fizzy, small white head. Aroma is sour apricot, other tart fruit and orange. Flavor is big sour tart, earthiness, grapefruit, lemon and apricot. Medium body with big pucker. This is about the best American example of a geuze tasting beer that I have ever had. This is close to a 4.5 for me.

growler shared by carlos at the port 2nd anniversary...thanks so much great nose with a funky edge that hints at pluots.....a little citrusy even.... the taste is much of the same...with the funky edge taking over and making it oooohhh soo good.....thank you sooo sooo much carlos!

8oz pour at DLD 08. Highly anticipated beer. Pours cloudy dark yellow/orange with a small white head. Aroma is nice and funky. Acetic, vinegar-like qualities of a good Flemish sour balanced with a nice shot of brett, fresh peach and all around funky sourness. Really nice aroma. Taste is tart, sour, slight oak and white wine with a very dry, cidery finish. The sourness is significant but certainly not overly intense(though honestly I wouldn’t have minded if it was). This succeeds on a whole bunch of levels. Super flavorful and complex yet thirst quenching and even sessionable. This was better than I thought it’d be. I would give a lot to have access to this on a regular basis.

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.

small pour at DLD 2K8; thanks to kajerm. terrific beer. big sour aroma, really balanced flavor. kajerm said it was super mouth puckering but i didn’t think it was the sourest thing ever. some light fruit, texture is perfect.