Russian River Supplication

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

Batch 002. 375 ml bottle shared by John Bryan, enjoyed at my Holiday Mini Tasting. Pour is hazy orange-ruby with a quickly fading off white head. Aroma of flowers,cherry fruitiness and cotton candy sweetness. Taste is big sour black cherry fruit, woodiness is present throughout. Super great acidity and bight sourness. Everything is perfectly smooth and in balance. This was one helluva beer. Right up there with Castleton as the best Sour I have tried to date.

2nd batch thanks to the Great Utah tasting. Pours a light orange/red with a decent thin head. The aroma is so unique; sour cherries, aged wine, and some sweet hints of fruit and malts. The taste does not let you down; a really rich sourness that dances in your mouth, a nice acidic/ alcohol burn that really adds a ton. The flavor is mostly sour cherries up front, but later leads to a yeasty flavor also with some oak barrel and sweet rich malts. High marks for uniqueness. Great!

June 2007 - Batch 01 - This beer might have the most beautiful red amber body I have ever seen, with a big and small bubbled some what lasting head; Maybe I expect to much from these BA sour RR’s, but I get slightly disappointed evey time I have one. The nose is great it has everything, it just gives it self up way to easy, it lacks the Belgium (sour Belgium’s) toughness, roughness, the "you wont get me that easy" attitude, they need more MALE attitude. You can feel the lactic sourness in the nose but it is hidden by the sweet cherry cinnamon perfumed to easy aromas that is also way to present in the NB Enigma; The body is good and a little more complex then the nose, a wooden barrel like tannin harshness is a little to present otherwise it is balanced with a very little sourness, a little bitterness and to much to big bubbled carbonation; It finishes a bit to short, aromas and feel grows big right when the beer is swallowed, but fades to fast, a very small lactic touch, again lots of barrel tannins, some barrel aroma but also tons of this sweet cinnamon cherry aroma that is much better fitting in a cake then in a beer. It is very strange that the cherry aromas in US beers are so very, very much different from the cherry aromas in Belgium beers, uhh there are some good Belgium sours!

Bottle, at various locations during the Zythos weekend, March 2006. Golden orange with a slight haze, thin off white head and good condition. Big barleywine malt and toffee sweetness with a gentle barnyardy tartness in the nose, quite thin and alcoholic in the mouth with a gentle fruity tartness that lingers long into the finish before becoming dry.

Pours a hazy burned orange/caramel with a white head that dies completely. Smells of huge sourness, a little cherry and oak as an afterthought. Taste starts out mild then BAM, huge rush of tarty goodness. You want to pucker its so sour. Finally mellows out with the oak and cherry peaking through. Medium in the mouth and a tickle of either carbonation or the tartness giving its finishing move. You want to sip this because larger samplings at a time would be a waste. A very tasty and different libation.

Batch 02. Pours a hazy copper-amber color with an even off-white that fades quickly, but can be roused up. Fantastic sour acetic notes touched by sour cherry and oak. The acetic aroma has an interesting unique sharpness to it. The taste is a perfect blend of sour supplied by the funk and fruity sourness of the cherry. The dryness in the finish really gives a vinous feel to the brew. Just enough carbonation to deliver the tartness on to the palate without being overbearing. A great sour ale.

Batch 002, 300th Rating! Courtesy of Irishboy Thank you very much Richard! Pours a hazy amber ruby colour with a small frothy offwhite head. Nose begins with a sour overlay with barnyard funk and vibrant cherries. In the background aroma oak, red wine and apples are also apparent. Initial taste of a sparkling mouthfeel with a puckering sour cherries that coat the mouth incredabily. Flavor is far from somedued here. Moving into lots of brett yeast. Lemon & apple also lingering the background. Finishing with a citrus rhine bitterness, but not overwhelmingly harsh which is usually the case. But just enough to be pleasant and enjoyable. The palate duration is average. Good head retention. Medium body.

Simply put, one of the best sour beers I’ve ever had. Low acidity, but very nicely sour. i love this brown ale. Yummy! Go Vinny!