Russian River Supplication

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

Caged corked 375 ml. dark olive green bottle, description and serving suggestions on the back portion on the label, Batch 002, glassware recommendation on the cork, sampled in my Russian River tasting snifter. L: Poured carefully to keep the yeast sediment in the bottom of the bottle, hazy orangey amber with a compact beige head, fair amount of lace sticks to sides of the glass. A very impressive start. S: Caramel and brown bread, new leather, earth, wine soaked wood, a light herb spiciness, and, of course, tart, acidic sour cherries, I am really enjoying the nose on this. Everything comes through, the brown ale, the brett yeast, the barrel it was stored in, and incredibly fresh smelling sour cherries. F&T: Lightly creamy, pleasant rounded feeling in the mouth, smoothly tart and dry. Sorta of lambic like, but not really, the backbone of the brown ale is noticeable, tastes of brown bread and a pinch of caramelized sugar. Mildly tart sour cherries with a sharp, but balanced acidity. Just after the middle, tastes of carambola, oak nutty woodiness, earth and a soft spiciness emerges, giving some bite to the overall taste. Finishes with a nice tart arid dryness with lingering tastes of sour cherries and wood. Everything about this is a testament to how extremely well crafted it is, when I reach the end of the bottle, I long for more.

Batch #3. Very distinct vanilla component comes through from the barrel aging over the funk and tartness and unifies the flavor beautifully.

WOW! What an unbelievable brew. Tart, sour, cherries, vanilla....just an INCREDIBLE brew. Quite possibly one of the best I’ve had. The sours just make this one unbelievable. When I will get my hands on this again, who knows but I know that this has changed my thoughts on how beers can taste.

Bottle Batch 3: (Thanks golubj!) Pours a deep hazy copper with the slightest pink hue and a pillowy off white head that retains perfectly. Aroma is amazingly complex. Oak, dust, vinous qualities, touch of leather, currant, almond notes, acetic/vinegar, earthy old wood, and some tart kriek-like qualities. The mouthfeel is crisp and creamy with a sharp cleansing character. The flavor has a powerful, Lambic-like acidity, as well as vast funkiness of cork, dried oak, sharp rind-like sourness, and a subtle almond note comes through under all the complex dryness. There is also red wine tannins, currant, leather, acetic vinous notes, cherry skin tannins, more woody character, and just a myriad of enigmatic layers of complexity into the dry, delicious finish. An unbelievable Sour Ale!

Bottle at Falling Rock Taphouse, Denver. Cloduy reddish - white head. Dryness, high sourness, berries, cherry, wood, wheaty, brett, oak, wine notes. Fantastic.

Warning: Open this bottle over a bowl so that when it overflows you can still pour it into your glass. I did not use a bowl so the table got to drink a few ounces. Batch 002 Pours a hazy reddish-brown color with a quickly dissipating off-white head. Smell is very tart, there are aromas of cherries, but there isn’t a whole lot to them, predominant smells of sour and funk. This is not as sour as some other beers of this style, but that’s not the goal, the goal is to create a damn good brew and I would say mission accomplished. There are sour cherries in the taste as well, but it’s more of a vinegar-like sourness mixed with some oak and some grapes. Mouthfeel was medium bodied and had medium levels of carbonation, finish was dry. Extremely drinkable, I would have plenty of this often if I were given the chance.

375ml batch 003 thanks to DRINKNDRIVE thanks man. I took the cage off this sucker and admired the label, bad idea. The cork blasted out of the bottle with a fury and I was scrambling for my snifter as this precious beer began spraying my kitchen counter... The label says this is a brown ale but it sure looks orange to me. The smell leads me to believe this will be very sour. I can smell some oaky-woodiness and a wine like smell but not really any funk or must. The first sip I took was very meager and still exploded in my mouth hitting one side of my jaw with sourness and then leaving a cherry note. The smell keeps drawing me back with an interesting note they makes me think I have either had this beer before (GABF?) or it is very similar to another sour? This beer also coats the mouth very well, despite the tiny carbonation bubbles, which leaves a flavor that seems to evolve after you swallow. The flavor also reminds me of sour candies, lime pixie sticks (do those exist?). This is an excellent beer and perfect for those who enjoy sours because this is a serious mouth puckering beer. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 05-21-2008 02:46:26

June 2007. Batch 002. Impenetrable pour, rusty red in color. A thin layer of foam stays the course. Nose of pears, cherries, old leather, some honey. Rose blossoms and almonds. Cayenne pepper and Italian dressing are first on the tongue; taut and precise. Powerfully tart cherries, white grapes, vinous oaky notes, lactic acid. Many shades of pepper, finishing on a brilliant, firey kick. A bretty lemon juice pulse, with a salty flourish of attic-kept cured meats. The wild character of the yeast is flawlessly integrated, gnawing at the rinds of the sweet cherries with the right rub of sawdust bite. Wrought fully with strange intrigue. An unpolished diamond, and rightly so. Thanks Keith! 9/4/9/4/19 4.5

July 2008. Batch 003. Pours a bloody gold. Aroma is tangy and tart with a soft sweetness of wildflower honey and feathery rose essence laying as a blanket over sour cherries, musty pinot wood, and white and black pepper. The soft nuttiness of its sweetness gives it an angel food-pistachio creme cake feeling. Yeast is cooling, gravelly and rustic.

Flavor hasn’t yet settled into the biting crunch of apple cider vinegar that I remember. It’s more a soft champagne vinegar and caramelized pear concoction, erudite and relaxed, and smartly balanced between sweet and tart; at this point of youth it really strikes a calm and comforting pose balancing sharp cherry tartness, leathery wild yeasts, and the soft sunny sweetness of jammy pinot flavors.

Yeast poured. The gravelly character that keeps recurring is so musty and dry that it recalls the sharp edge of a dry white cheese aged in basement cobwebs. White pepper spice lends a searing quality reminiscent of a gorgeous gueuze. And this opens up in the aroma as well.

Medium palate is sprightly with carbonation and highly acidic. Youth shows again in the finish, which is gorgeously soft and only lightly leathery, with a pomegranate aril and lemon juice flavor eventually yielding that punchy cheesiness that showed up mid-palate. I love how this is dominantly quiet and calm in semisweet tartness, while also offering a glimmer of visceral lambic-like sour violence throughout. The rustic and refined happily together. Thanks Steve! 9/4/9/5/19 4.6