Russian River Deification

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

Poured cloudy orange with a creamy white head. Aroma of citrus, apricot, graitfruit, floral hops and pepper. Peppery taste along with melon and apricot. Very tart. Certainly a unique Belgian which I would love to try again.

im going to keep this review simple. tart and delicious...wish i could drink it every day.

On tap at the Brewpub. Pours an orange gold color. Small sized white foamy head. Aroma is fruity and citrusy, touch of brett and tart. A medium bodied ale. Malts are fruity and sweet. Lots of orange and orange peel. Lots of tartness. Nice mixture of tart/sour/funk that blends well with the fruit sweetness. Nice lively carbonation. Extremely nice, subtle beer, this one will grow on you. Awesome. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet with some tartness.

Wow!!!!!!!! Pour is nice slightly hazed golden with a thin sticky white head...smell was light citric pine compined with a nice funk from brett...taste was like a more hopped and more sour Orval...wonderful chewy mouthfeel and great malty flavors up front, with a slight bitter then sour finish...wow.

Draft. Bright, burnt copper with almost no head. Brett aromas fill the air as soon as the glass reaches the bar. Onxce I focus a bit more I pick up some more fruity melon notes as well. Flavor is lighter with a wheaty, fruit note. Strong brett flavor as well. Very dry finish.

Growler thanks to DaveCooks. Poured a hazy gold with a large almost white head. Aroma was semi-sweet and earthy. Caramel and yeastiness. Mild leather aroma. Lightly tart with some notes of gum. Nice and complex. Flavor was sweet with a light malt that drys out quickly. Light bitterness with a touch of leather on the finish. Yummy.

2005 hand bottled sample shared with SuIIy on 2/9/06.
The beer has lost nothing to hand-bottling and shipping, seemingly, pouring with a large amount of fairly dense, white head that leaves a mess of lace all about and is retained quite well. The body is a soft, vanilla wafer orange with a bit of ripe lemon skin. Small bubbles stick to the glass and rise reluctantly to bolster the head.
The nose has a crusty/crackery graininess that is supplanted with sweet honey and pale malts which, in turn, give way to the brett. Oh glorious brett! Quite pronounced, tart and playful, mingling easily with the grainy and sweet malts. Dosent provide the clarity and utter jaw-dropping brett aroma of Orval (or even Matilda) but then, I don’t think it aims to. Some light hoppiness, farmy and lightly floral comes in to play, though surprisingly, the aroma doesnt come off overly dry.
Taking a sip, I figure out why that is. The beer is very well-malted, sweet and fruity, though importantly, not doughy. A fair helping of brett gets things rolling and then one is treated to overripe fruits; tart-like notes of nectarines, peaches and pears. In the middle, I seem to find a smidgeon of diacetyl, just a hint of light buttercream or white pepper like dryness, but perhaps that is just my imagination. It certainly is nothing worth dwelling upon. The brett resumes and clears the palate, wiping the fruitiness away and nearly balancing the sweetness, while hops vibrancy (hay, cut grass, sweat) melts in to a sea of finely carbonated bubbles, quite tight and engaging. While the beer is quite sweet (relatively speaking), and less attenuated than Orval and Orval knock-offs, it is not doughy or overyeasted (with saccharomyces) by any means. Alcohol is no where to be found.
In other news, I seriously need to stop comparing every Belgian pale ale that has brett in it to Orval!

Had this as part of the Monk’s Russian River / Pizza Port dinner awhile back. The beer poured a nice bright gold color with a thin white head and good carbonation. The aroma is very pleasing to the nose. A nice fruity mixture throughout and hints of the yeast that they talk about so much with these beers. Very nice. The taste is just as pleasing as the aroma. This was now ranks up there with my favorite RR beers. It had a nice balance of the fruit flavors, the carbonation and yeast. Well done.