Russian River Consecration

Brewed by Russian River Brewing
Style: Sour Ale
Santa Rosa, California USA

This has a very distinctive aroma of currents, sour cherries, vanilla oakiness, and leather. This reminds me very much of a fine red Burgundy. Good tannins and acidity; this beer needs fine food.

Bottle.

Pours a red brown, like a Flemish brown, ample head. Gorgeous aroma of fruit with vanilla oak coming abundantly on as it warms. Tart - lemon - but not overwhelmingly so, wood and caramel driving through the middle of the sour flavors. Very nice balance, dry tannic finish with a hint of must, recalling and old red wine and just a really fine whisper, very late, of sweet current skins. Sparkling mouthfeel with abundant but not overdone carbonation. Superb beer. 9/4/9/5/17=4.4

Revisit at the Naked City sour tasting. To my surprise, this one was not particularly close to being the beer of the night. It’s good, sure -- but it’s buttery and despite gorgeous tart cherry it’s in the low fours, not the mid fours. I’d have called it at 9/4/8/4/16= 4.1. I’ll drop it to a 4.3 and consider myself generous.

200th rating of this beer. Batch 001x4. Strong pop from the bottle. Dark red brown in the glass. Not much head to speak of, but a light ring and small amount of lace. Cranberry nose. Deep tartness. Smells great. Light pucker power in the mouth. Nice deep tartness with the fruity spicy background. Beautiful.

SourFest II. Bottling #1. Courtesy of Skyview. Dark brown color with no head. Sweet malt aroma. Very fruity taste. Some currant notes. Heavy and thick malt. Finishes off with a bit of oak.

Bottle thanks to an american chap had over at mesandsims. Alround rating: Spicey tartness, some cherry berry fruityness, very peppery, seems to have more bitterness than expected also. Its kind of like a quad thats got infected or like its got red wine in it or something. Its not really my scene, i prefer my sours clean and sour, where as this is sweet and spicey, infact it doesnt really seem to be a sour to me, more just a beer with berry fruit in it.

hand bottle from my favorite person thats ever left iowa for santa rosa. OK, you may be the only one, but don’t feel less special. Thanks joey. High light of the night for me. Amber pour with a nice little head coming off of it. Flavor was up front cranberry, plums, an plenty of tannic wine notes. Very tart, mildly refreshing and yum. I had a good time with this one, so did everyone else. Thanks a bunch.

Minimal head, wonderfully ruddy dark bronze color, big, slick (almost) body from the currants. Aroma is deeply fruited, sweet and sour mixing. Quite fruity flavors; sour but not heavily so. Wonderful melding of flavors includes tannins (leather, 9 volt battery) and a raisin quality to the fruit. Drinks very easily, and not much hint of 10% (bottle split among three people). Delicious and worth investing in (which is what I have done).

Ruby with no head. Aroma is a light funk, currants are strong, light oak, vanilla. Taste is a nice sourness, currants showing, light grapefruit zest, oak. Body is a bit more lively then I like, but with these beers it’s hard to get dead on.