Russian River Supplication

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

375 ml bottle, batch 001. Pours a clear orangish dark copper colored body under a small very fizzy beige head that receded to a thin ring. Aroma is quite sharply acidic with some tart sour cherries, oak, and a moderate bretty funkiness. Flavor is quite dry with lots of crisp cherry up front, light acidity, light green apple. Finishes very dry with a lingering but restrained bretty funk combined with oak tannins. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, very dry, with active efforvescent carbonation. The carbonation is extremely fine, like pinpoint fireworks bursting on my tongue. Pretty frickin awesome. This beer had it all. I didn’t like this quite as much as the Beatification, but still very good.

Batch 2 Re-Rate. Purchased at the Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA. Pours amber with a think chunky white head. The aroma is devine, very guezey and lambic lke with a lots of sour notes. The cherry flavor comes through yet is somewhat hidden at the same time. This is a stellar beer, really damn amazing. bottle batch 001. Happily consumed at the Brickskeller in Washington DC on 11/25/06, first brew of the night. Pours cloudy straw with a small head. The scent is robust and fully of cherry and oak. The taste is much more like the description then the type, more like a dark ale heavily infused with cherries. The taste is wonderful it flows over the tongue and leaves a nice sweat aftertaste. My brother commented that it tasted sort of like a lambic, its certainly different from other flemish sours I have had, it was damn good I’ll say that much.

Murky light brown, golden around the edges with a light fizzy head that stayed low. Great aroma in which all the aspects of its production show well but never take over. Oak, then brett, then wine and a touch of cherries. (duh, i guess). Carbonation is low despite the loud pop upon uncorking. Flavor is big on the oak, moderate (perfect) amount of funk, plenty of red wine, although it stays where it should, and really just a touch of cherries in the finish that linger next to the other flavors. Not incredibly sour, more wine like than tart. Overall this was a more suttle beer than i expected, but top-notch nonetheless. I got light-headedjust trying to take in all the complexity in the aroma. In one word... Lovely.

Bottle from aspidites; Thanks Mike! Nose was cherries and woodiness; hazy orange with a small off-white head; flavor of tart cherries and the everpresent oak.

GABF-pours a white head with cloudy orange color. Aroma is fruity, sparkly. Taste is fruity, sparkly, secondary hops, sour. Good effervescence.

Smells funky. Very malty and cherry-flavored. Much better than the last RR beer I had, the temptation, which I’m beginning to think from all the others from them and other people’s ratings, must have been a bad bottle.

Sampled at Dr. Bill’s party, and I am sure glad I did. One of the samples was straight diacetyl, and was worthy of a drain pour, but I will rate the good sample. Sampled from a beautiful 1.5L bottle, probably the most gorgeous bottle I have seen to date. Pours a murky/cloudy golden orange with a small white head. Aroma is quite nice and not overly sour. Mustiness, sour cherries, and oak are everpresent. Flavor is amazingly well balanced, and definitely moreso than most interpretations of this style. Hints of cherry tartness and oaky vanilla work perfectly together. The finish is very tight and not overly sour. Definitely an amazing brew.

bottle-sampled at the brickskeller in DC. pours orange with a small white head that was fizzy. really didn’t look all that special. noce of sour and oaky cherries, vineous wine, cocanut and dark cherries. soft palat with light carbonation for the style. long sour and oaky flavors with a touch of vinegar and lots of cherries. palate is very nice i must say. nice and truely unique. very complex and im very happy to have been able to try this fine brew.