Russian River Deviation (Bottleworks IX)

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

light brown pour. Aroma is funky, bretty, overripe fruit, cheese and wood. Flavor is woody and cheesy with some tropical fruit. This is good, but not quite the beast i expected it to be.

Bottle. Amber beer with a low off-white head. Nice sour acetic aroma with oak and a light fruitiness. Acetic (but not over the top) flavor with oak and soft malt to round. Some green apple notes as well. Medium body. Acetic not lingers nicely. Brett shows nicely in combo with the acetic quality.

Draught @ Brouwer’s Café for rating #2500:   Huge rocky white head, good retention, nice lacing, hazy amber, very fiery.   Looks fantastic!   Big bouguet on the nose.   Farmish, very wild, tart Peach and Apricot skin.   Certainly musty and basement like.   Sour on the tongue, dry but its not overly acidic.   Very pale fruitiness, much like unripened Peache or Apricot skin.   I like this one because it is not overly done.   Very palatable without being harsh.   Could stand to be a bit more bubbley on the tongue as it does flatten out a bit as it warms.   Does start out prickly though.   Moderate to full body and mouthfeel otherwise.   Sour to start out, becomes more tart like near the finish.   Moderate dryness.   Noticed that it seems more aggressive on draught than in the bottle.   Good stuff!

Draft at Brouwer’s. Pours a murky orange-ish dark amber with virtually no head or lace, just a few stray bubbles. Enormous tart and sharp nose of lemon, green apples, and a bit of peach. Nice firm medium-sized body with just a bit of soft carb. Jammin’, slammin’ lemon, green apple, peach, and mineral acetic notes on the mid-palate. Refreshing and bracing. Makes your eyelids flutter a bit. Decent finish of lemon and mineral.
Those in the know say the bottles got the brett later, so won’t have this pucker and mineral yet. Once the brett softens (later in the bottles than the kegs, of course), this will be a seriously fantastic sour. Right now it’s hovering ready to break through the "very, very good" ceiling.

Guess I am the first to rate this huh? I had it on tap at Brouwers a couple of hours ago. Pours a hazy orange brown with a nice head and great lacing. Aroma of sour fruits candy, like peach and lemons, wet wool, bretty funk. Good stuff. The flavor consists of a mouth puckering tartness like liquid warhead candy, peach, lemon, nice funky barnyard notes, a little oak and wine going on in here too. Finish dry and acidic. Great stuff. Glad I have some more laying around here.

Bottle. Rich amber hue, slight haze, enthusiastic foam. Joyous bretty aroma, filled with succulent wildflowers, seafoam, moonlight, and stars...soft, gently caressing mouthfeel. Leather and lace. Cherry pits ground up and served with laughter. Smooth, the sweetness on the sides of the tongue could smooth the pavement on the street. Endless complexity reveals itself like a poem, slowly capturing the attention at first then etching itself deeply into the soul. Fruit peels, rinds, and piths. Like capturing ancestral wisdom in a glass. Brilliance.

750ml Bottle: Tart aroma. Smells of tart fruit, Brett, oak, acid, and light spices. Poured amber/apple juice in color with a small white head. Sparkling. Hazy. Aroma is very sour and tart. Tastes of tart fruits, oak, and lemon. Medium body. Dry, puckering texture. Lively carbonation. Tart, dry finish.

750 ml brought home to me by Enniskillen; Nose of funk, fruitiness, oakiness, and citrus; cloudydark gold with a small beige head; flavor quite tart, with apricot,(does it have Compunction with pluots in it), grapesfruit, and horseblanket. Finish is more funk!