Russian River Deviation (Bottleworks IX)

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

750 ml bottle courtesy of after4ever. Pour is golden ruby orange, with an off white head that falls fast. Aroma is sour tart and a lot of the Bretty yeastiness. The tartness is very fruity, cherries, pineapples, acidic for sure. Much complexity in the nose. Taste is like drinking an entire cherry - fruit, sour, pit, stems, dirt. All is well blended and melded together. Really nice sour character to it. The aftertaste features a lot of natural earthiness. Palate is solid, light enough to feature the sour - bulky enough to carry the big earth and funkiness. Drying finish. Some of the oak woodiness is present in the aftertaste, I hadn’t noticed much of the wood prior to that. Huge thanks for this one Tom!

750 ml bottle shared by theisti. The pour appear golden to amber with a lasting dirty white head that coats the glass as you drink. The nose has some oak, bretty funk, a bit of pineapple, and a bit of a cottage cheese or yogurt. Very tart and tangy. Mixed fruit flavors, and tannic. Medium working on full body. Average amount of carbonation and a bone dry finish. A very good beer from a style that I don’t typicaly appriciate.

Thank you Carl for sharing (I’ve been trying to get one of these for a while now). Poured a hazy brownish color with a smaller sized off white head. Aromas of funk, bretty, citrus, oaky woodiness, and some green apples. Tastes of brett, cherries, oak, caramel and funky. Very easy to drink and I wish I had a bunch of more!

Poured a hazy golden red color with a small, white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of brett, funk, light citrus, bread, oak, cheese, and some green apple. Taste of more brett, strawberries, cherry skins, light vanilla, oak, a bit of toffee, and a dry, sour finish.

Thanks to Carl for sharing this in the Weyerbacher parking lot :) Pours a hazy brownish orange with a medium creamy off white head. Aroma was floral, tart cherries, acidic, citrus, lightly funky, mixed berries and some barnyard. Flavor was lightly acidic, tart cherries, oak, dry, floral, horseblanket/barnyard thing going on, perfume, lemon and bready.

Bottle generously shared by mreusch. Pours a translucent caramel brown with a small creamy head that diminishes leaving behind patchy lace. The nose is a pleasant, lightly "dusty" tart sourness and mild brett funkiness. Medium-bodied and tart it transitions to a dry, sour finish. I can feel this one duking it out with my stomach lining. The flavor is a nice, tart, sour funk with Sweet-Tart and fruity/woody undertones at the swallow. This is a very tasty brew. Thanks for sharing it with me, Matt!

Rating #400! 750ml bottle, with a huge thanks to Enniskillen for this rare treat! Pours a cloudy apricot juice color with a fluffy white head that maintains a whispy cap. Aroma is more sour than funk, but both are well represented; grapefruit and lemon rind as well as some grass. Flavor is very tart and sour with more funk coming out on the finish. It’s difficult to properly describe everything going on here. One of the more complex sours I’ve had to date; drinkable, but almost too much going on here for my preferences in sours. Very well done and certainly unique, good stuff. Thanks again Chris!

Big thanks to 5K (apparently almost everyone has to). Pours with an orange shade of amber colored body with a small head that quickly fades. There is a nice ring of bubbly lacing left. The body glows but does not allow one to see through it. Aroma starts with a nice sour twang. It’s an earthy - faintly musky and sweaty - citric lemon, sort of sourness; presently strong sourness. Taste is a bit grapefruit skin-esque bretty sour. There is a short burst of the sourness and then very light acidity and a drying light rubber and leather. It is very smooth for a sour beer, the acidity is barely there. I am surprised that it does not come off obviously blended like the Tornado. It seems to be very dominated by the Sonambic part, which is awesome.
750mL bottle, Derlirium Tremens snifter.