Russian River Supplication

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

Bottle from Ross. I had a very shitty day, and I no longer enjoy my job. Kids and wife are asleep, SERENITY NOW! Pours deep reddish amber with pourous off white head. For an unfiltered beer, this has a lot of clarity. Aroma is very pleasant, with notes of cherries, brett, oak, and red wine. Soft mouthfeel with fine carbonation. Initial flavor of sour cherries that transitions to an oaky middle. Finish is tart and dry. Some acidity and yeast flavors linger slightly on the palate. Man, this hit the spot. Vinnie is a great artisan brewer that creates complex beers that are not "monster" beers. I really enjoy the softness or subtleness of them. Ross, I ’ll take another..........bitch.

Samples provided by knweaver and Beerdrenched at The Brickskeller. Slightly hazy, amber body with a tiny, off-white head. The aroma is cheese, horseblanket, cobwebs, some cherry and caramel. The flavor is sour cherry pie and caramel, with bright acidity and fairly dry. Medium body with soft carbonation and crisp tartness on the finish. Amazingly good.

Tasting at TAR’s. Batch 001. Pours a clear amber. Smells lightly sour. Sweet and sour with some bitterness. Light grassy and leathery aromas. Hints of alcohol. Medium bodied. Soft carbonation.

Lots and lots of samples at the GABF 06. This thing wreeks of funk and tart cherries. I love it. Golden straw color with lively carbonation with a spritzy white head. The cherries come through very nicely. Oat and then the bugs. Awesome stuff. Next time they are selling the barrel stuff online, I’m pulling the trigger.

Batch 2, purchased online from Russian River. Wow, is this beer amazing right now. Dusky brownish-red pour, with a fine frothing head. I let some yeast droplets find their way onto the top of the head, giving it even more character. Sweet smell of intensely sour black cherries along with the deep funk that sits between a Flanders red and an oud bruin. Of course, it’s bretty as hell too (this is Vinnie, right?) and also has a shit-ton of oak in the flavor. Mouthfeel is delightfully full, and the carbonation is nicely lively, not distracting at all. A very piquant, dry finish to this superb brew. Do these guys just rock, or what? Glad to make y’all my 1000th.

GABF 2006. Clear brown. Aroma is rich with sour cherries. Taste is nice and acidic, mild cherries. Very bready, yeasty, and delicate. Nice long sour finish. Medium body is appropriate here. Great stuff!

6/05 bottle. Hazy red-amber body, thin white bubbly head. Ripe sweet cherry aroma with cinnamon-laced apple pie and an acidic linger. When I first started sipping on this guy I thought it was a simplistic cherry kriek but with patience it gets better. The biggest flavor component to me is bready yeast followed by sweet cherry skins, vanilla? and a chocolately malt pushed waay into the background. As with the aroma there’s an acidic aura over the whole flavor. Finishes with tart cherry skin and citric acid. Bubbly but medium-strength mouthfeel that leaves a bit of satisfying sweet stickiness on the tongue. The beer with the cherries+barrels is pretty nice but the special yeasts do a fantastic job of offsetting the sweetness, and not with too much tartness/acidity! This certainly isn’t some bombastic Cantillon, this stuff has restraint. This is a special beer exhibiting the best American utilization of Belgian bugs that I’ve seen. Great job!

so many thanks go out to lilkem for scoring this fine brew for my going away fiesta. the color was a hazelnut brown with a dash or sunset. the aroma was very smooth fruits and a bit of the good funk. the taste was damn good, lots of sour strawberries up front and then it mellowed into some other fruits. damn fine brew i must say.