Russian River Beatification (Batch 002)

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Bottle: Poured a bright golden color ale with some white hue and a generous pure white bubbly head with average retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of oak with some lactic sourness and some funky barnyard notes. Taste is quite complex with mix of sour lactic notes, some oak notes and some funky barnyard notes as well. I must admit that this is pretty close to some Lambic brewed in Belgium while lacking some complexity. Full body with great carbonation. I would love to have access to this on a regular basis.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Bottled (from Cracked Kettle). Golden colour, small white head. Aroma is hops, sour fruits, yeast, some mild zestyness and also wood. Flavour is sourness, dry wooden notes. A brettbomb, which is very drinkable and pleasant.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

Batch 003. 5.75% abv. Courtesy of zythum. What a beer this was! Pours a hazy golden color with a fluffy white head that fades rather quickly to a patchy thin layer. The aroma is acidic, musty and fragrant with yeast, cherries, banana, and some straw or hay, just a wonderful scent with many layers. This is jam packed with flavor, especially for a beer with a relatively low abv. Very puckery and tart right up front with sour apples, grapes, funk, grapefruit, just wonderful, then it mellows to a dry finish. Delicious and refreshing. Damn, Russian River just doesn't mess around. This beer was a treat. I can't thank you enough Ron!

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Bottle shared by sloth, a very nice young man indeed. The pour was hazy amber-straw colored with very thin faint head that dissipated into about nothing. Aroma was strong leather, funk, horseblankets, citrus, wood, and hay. The flavor was whamo, darned puckered up little sucker, lambic-like. Along with all the aroma flavors, tart and sour base beer with strong citrus, white grapes, and fruity elements. Mouthfeel is acidic and clean, moderate body for the style, light overall. A very big thanks to my buddy, Bert!

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

This is one serious f'n beer. I mean that with all sincerity. There is nothing lighthearted about it. This is a punch-you-in-the-mouth, kick-you-in-the-ball kinda beer. Just...wow. The beer pours out a cloudy yellowish-orange color with a small sized 1/2" thick head. That's about the only thing that's not hardcore about this beer. A aroma that goes from 0-100 in the blink of an eye. Huge tart aroma, stinky baby-poo, grapefruit rinds, oak, funky, musty, earthy...heavenly. The beer has a acidic, mouth stripping feeling that I only seem to get from Cantillon Organic Gueze and La Folie. Feels like the enamel on your teeth is melting away with every second this beer in touching your teeth, yet its so enjoyable. Flavors are absolutely wonderful with pineapple/grapefruity funk, oak, sour apples tartness and dry as a freakin' bone. Just a pleasure to consume. Now looking for my next bottle.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Batch 002; Sampled May 2008
A light carbonation coupled with a soft pour produces only a half covering of frothy, wispy white froth. The beer is a hazy, yellow-gold color and the aroma is quite divine. Nicely tart with notes of grapefruit, lightly spicy oak, musty toe-cheese, light urea, light cedar, celery seed, light nail-polish-remover, a woody mushroom note and a slight, savory, cooked vegetable note that is actually quite nice. While the nose does have a dominant tartness to it up front, the backdrop is what makes this so interesting; a solid base of funk has been layered in to this beer in a very subtle manner.

Very sour tasting, even more than the aroma would have suggested. The carbonation is somewhat soft (especially if one is expecting Gueuze levels of CO2), but it does provide a nice tickle of texture to this beer. Puckeringly sour with a mix of lemon and sour-grapefruit flavors, yet still eminently drinkable for this lover of sour beers. This beer is almost devoid of malt sweetness and thus is fairly light bodied. There is some texture to this beer though, it has a light velvet-like touch that seems to stem from some tannic presence that is especially noticeable in the finish as it clings to the roof of my mouth. Really this has a perfect texture to it, quite light and quaffable yet with some structure an palate presence such that it is nothing like watery. This is actually fairly clean tasting, the funk notes of the nose seem to not have really translated to the flavor, other than a sort of oral-nasal interaction during each sip. The finish does have some interesting things going on, in addition to some light tannic oak, there is a soft, almost savory thing going on, that I can't quite pin down flavor wise. Also there is a nice, supporting Brettanomyces funkiness here that provides some musty, moldy horse-blanket notes.

A 375ml bottle of this is not nearly enough, this is so drinkable that I find my self drinking from my glass quite frequently, enjoying the tart funkiness that is this beer. I really should have put two bottles of this brew in the fridge, this just disappeared too quickly and leaves me wanting at least another glass. It is not the most complex of beers (in fact the batch 001's where both more complex), but it is so drinkable, so well balanced, and such a pleasure to drink. I can't wait to see how this & further batches evolve.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

This sour ale pours a slightly murky orange gold color from a 375ml bottle. Small sized white foamy head, with decent lacing. The aroma is funky, tart, yeasty, yet there is some fruitiness in there. A medium bodied sour ale. WOW. It’s tart and sour and funky and then tart and acidic and funky some more. There is a lot going on here, the tartness sort of drowns everything out, but there is a nice funk and some yeast and fruit going on in the background. As with Batch 01 this beer is almost Berliner Weiss in its tartness. It will be interesting to see how this one ages. It has that Cantillon like quality to it. Very nice. Wish I still had some 01 to match it against. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is crisp and bond dry. Aftertaste is tart and sour.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

On draft at some guys house in San Diego during CBC week. Yes, he has connections. Pours with a slightly cloudy golden body topped by a thin white head with some lacing. Wow, this sucker is sour and tart with some nice citrusy notes and a little peach. Light bodied and dry.