Russian River Supplication

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

Bottle shared courtesy of egajdzis (thanks!). Batch 0001. Poured a darker and cloudy amber color with a small sized off white head. Aromas of tart cherries (not overpowering), vinous, and brett. Tastes of the same with the brett and wine lighter on the tongue than the nose. This one took me by surprise! Very good!

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

Muddy amber-orange. Surprisingly buttery nose takes a minute to get accustomed to. Good oaky, cherry, dusty and woody flavours underneath, but the diacetyl is a wall you have to filter your way through. Spicy pineapple juice soaked in oak casks, nutty and lactic flavours.. Once again a territory owned by rancid butter, but the lactic aspects are gentle. Popcorn reminiscent finish in its burnt buttery feel. Nice thin bubbled carbonation, lightly oily medium body. Alright, it seems like we were unlucky and I’m excited enough about Russian River to re-sample that again for sure, at GABF in the worst case, but may this rating serve as a warming. This was a batch #1 bottle and I can only push the lucky souls holding onto bottles of this to be very patient and let it ferment well because it seems the bottles are still quite variable. 6-3-5-3-11 = 2.8

I finally got to try this on tap at BCTC 2005 and there was no diacetyl component at all which left us with beautiful vinous, nutty sweet and sour flavors of cherries, vanilla and a miraculous drying finish. Generous earthiness with a funky soily apple skin yeastiness. This goes from a 2.8 to a 4.1 in my book and is a piece of art.

Bottle thanks to wetherell! Aroma is sour, dusty funky yeast, cherry character is subtle and as it warms the oxidisation kicks in and is awsome. Taste is similar, very lambic like, perhaps this woul be perfect if there wasnt so much bitterness(of which there is very little) but the bitterness that is there is slightly falts the finish. But im just being pernicity, its an amazing beer, and probably beer of the month.

Bottle... Murky, burnt orange ale with a small, frothy, off-white head. Great retention. Woodsy, Flemish aroma with lots of fruity, vineous notes... black cherries, red wine, lemon and light caramel. Tart and tangy flavor with lots of oak and red wine. Light-bodied and fizzy. Tangy, dry finish. Wonderful brew.

Lightly hazy copper orange color has a thin, wispy, yet frothy, white head. Aroma is tart, yeasty and complex with some light cherry fruitiness and lots of brett. Body starts tart, earthy and fruity with lots of complex Belgian yeasty character. Nice wine flavor and cherry tartness throughout. An enjoyable, unique and authentic brew.

Bottle, with ClarkVV and Sully. Beautiful stuff. Hazy deepish orange/amber. Aroma is sour and oaky, slightly wild, citruc, berries and oak. Beautiful mouthfeel and flavour. Juicy, acidic, sour, yet quite smooth and refreshing. Lightly caramelly malts also noticed, but this is more about the bret characters, and that wonderfuly vinous, oaky, juicy cherry character (or characters as it were). This was very well balanced, and something i really would like to try again. Fantastic.

Reddish-orange, hazy; good pinkish fine and dense head. Cherries and old wine just JUMPING out of the glass, unbelievably inviting, bit of yoghurt, lots of old vintage-year Bourgogne (Burgundy). Sour, cherries, vanilla, velvety Bretts as in the best of gueuzes with an retronasal flavour of, once more, aged Bourgogne. Point of lactic acid, fruit acids and oak (see the vanilla). Velvety, rich, fiery and yoghurt MF. One word. WAA-UUWW. This is the closest to real lambic-based beer I’ve ever tasted from abroad, and actually it can rank amongst the best of the Belgian ones. BIG THANKS to Logan Perkins for sending me this gem.