Russian River Supplication

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

Batch 002. Poured hazy reddish-brown, with decent amount of head. The aroma is incredibly alluring, sucking me in with huge funky sourness along with cherries and some oak presence as well. The taste, well it’s amazing of course. Sour cherries hit me first, then comes the Bretty funk, and last as if it weren’t enough, the oak and wine provide the finale to this wonderful beer. Mouthfeel was kind of light and spritzy, looking for a little more here I must say. People seem to think this is nowhere close to batch 001. If that’s the case, then I need to get my hands on one somehow. Superb brew.

I made a mistake. Pantanap hooked me up with a bottle of this beer in one trade, so I cancelled a bottle of it I had going on in another trade. Pours a caramel brown pour with a small white head. Nose is full of sour and sweet notes, a bit of funk, apple cider, cherry and other light fruits. maybe a little pear. Flavor-wise it was obviously sour, but a delicous not over the top sour. Apples and pear and cherry a bit of barnyard precense. Notes of wood, oak it seems. Hints of lemon, grass, leather, oh and a bit of sourness. Honestly the best beer I have consumed in a long time, maybe ever. Give me a case. At first I thought, fantastic beer.....4.5 maybe a little higher. But as I sat here and took down a whole bottle it quickly and continuously kept getting better and better. I went into this beer with very mediocre expectations.

This beer is batch 002 and consumed on 3/15/07. When I popped the cork, the beer rocketed out. The beer is dark amber in color with little yeasties floating in suspension. Floating yeast is to be expected from a bottle conditioned beer. The head fell quickly, although I did leave the bottle for a bit after it ran over. The aroma has a strong brett presence with a cidery aroma in there as well. The tart cherry taste, brett, and carbonation make the glands in my neck tingle. The brett is very pronounced and seems to make the body seem lighter and thinner. Overall, the only disappointment is the lack of body.

Foamy out of the bottle but it is a quickly thinning head. Cloudy reddish brown beer. Super sour nose with notes of cherries. Sour brown start moves to huge sour. I like it like a college prank that is fun for it’s own sake. So dry my tongue shrivels up. Very fizzy sour body. Amazing how similar this style of beer can be to a particular style of sour candy with a fizzy baking soda characteristic. Offers up sour shivers. Sourness runs roughshod over the malt and cherries. Admirable more for artistry than flavour.

Jesus, this beer is alive! Pours with a foamy head that quickly turns into nothingness. Beer is dark orange and brown like a really dehydrated piss. Aroma can best be described as brown: subdued cherry, a slight sourness, and funk. Taste is sourness and cherry with a lot of off flavors. Oh man, I think I got an infected bottle! Okay, seriously... The yeasts and bacteria compete for dominance in this beer with the sour cherry adding another layer to the beer- as if it really needs to be any more complex. The only detraction I could see is that the mouthfeel is a little oily. Very decent. 748316 ---re-rate-- batch 3 8/21/2009 Aroma is lactic sourness, vinegar, cherries, lots of Cantillon-esque flavors. Wow. Aroma is beautiful. Oak, cherries, lambic sourness. Taste is very, very dry. Barnyard- horse, cat, et cetera.... Dried cherries, lactic sourness. Yum Mouthfeel is very dry, but filled with a ton of the aforementioned flavors. Wow. Great. 949417

bottle. pours red/brown with a dark tan head. Cellar funk, cherries, yeast aroma. Taste is sour cherries and sweet grape. oak finish. Nice.

Corked and caged bottle from JCB - thanks! 375 mL from Batch 002. Superb, robust sour cherry aroma, leathery with some nice funky brett (still young, though). Tart and brings liquid to the eyes. Letting it sit for a while brings out the wood. Cloudy brown-red particulate body, pretty classic with a short, noisy beige head. Powerfully sour taste, tart and acidic, assertive without being industrial. Dark sour cherry and a buttload of brett. Woodiness isn’t readily identified as oak and is more of a minor player here. The blend, however, is rather fine - complex and unified, sprinkled here and there with spice and pittless skins. More drinkable than just about any sour not named Rodenbach, way too flavorful even for 7% and not dominated by its potent acidity. Full body is effervescent and puckering, a little harsh on the throat but not off-putting. Dry, slightly balsamic aftertaste. Teeth brushed by cherry stones and walnut hides, dry tannic leather and refreshing boldness. One of the best sours in the world, let alone the Left Coast.

Side note: Is anyone else annoyed that the label defines supplication, a noun, as if it were a verb?

Batch 1 - fresh, at 6 months and 1 year. After 1 year Batch 1 started to lose its lustre, and batch 2 never was anywhere nearly as exciting. Deep amber pour with varying red highlighting and a cloudy swirling center. A bold, frothy head is beige and recedes quickly. The nose is spectacular! Grapes, brown sugar, twisted funkiness, vinous qualities everywhere, tart cherries, light must, vibrant yeast including loads of brettanomyces, horseblanket, ginger and a formidable blast of old oak. Alcohol is almost undetected. The flavor is astonishing! This completely destroys just about all of its sour brethren, concerning taste, drinkability and mouthfeel. Sparkling carbonation evenly disperses malts and sourness to the farthest reaches of the mouth. Tart fruits and brazen acidity battle funk like it’s the last chance either will have to propagate their future. Sweetness is mild and soothing, cooling the fiery spice and complimenting the funk that gives this beer the feeling that it’s been brewed by dozens of dedicated generations. The finish is very tart and highly acidic, breaching into a refreshing sourness and leaving cherry and oak notes to dry out the tongue. I dream of the day a fresh batch of this is re-released that shares the assertiveness and glory of the first bottles of this I sampled. A profound, startling experience. Russian River is the best brewery in the United States.