Russian River Deviation (Bottleworks IX)

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

Draft, Toronado. My first beer from Toronado’s RR -tion night. The beer pours dark orange with a sour-ish fizzy head. The aroma is fruity and deep but fairly subtle. I smelled peaches, apples, funk, earth, candied lemon peel, oak and an assertive sourness. The sour is definitely present in the flavor but it’s restrained and allows the fruitiness to come through in a very pleasing fashion. The beer is quite dry from both sourness and oak. The balance between oak, fruit, sour and funk is what really made this beer special for me. Most sours seem to favor certain notes, but I found Deviation to be quite balanced in that respect. A very fine sour that I’m happy to have tried.

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

God made this, an amazing beer: i refuse to write anything else about this beer.... How could you?! Haven’t you learned anything from that guy who gives those sermons at church? Captain Whatshisname? We live in a society of laws! Why do you think I took you to all those Police Academy movies? For fun? Well, I didn’t hear anybody laughing, did you?.. Where was I? Oh yeah! Stay out of my booze.

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

As I pour this brew I get a nice aroma of sour grapefruit and spicy oak. The beer is topped by a frothy, initially three-finger thick, light tan colored head that leaves some light lacing on the sides of my Tripel Karmeliet tulip as it slowly recedes. The beer is a ruddy, amber hue and shows a lightly hazy, copper color when held up to the light. The aroma is quite tart and lactic; a mix of sour grapefruit, sour-orange & slightly moldy lemon notes. Other than the tartness the nose has alight, underlying funkiness that reminds me of some light musty leather notes, some Brett influenced butyric acid, damp cellar aromas and even a touch of cat piss. Some fruit notes reminiscent of a mix of pears, tart plums, aromatic apples and some star-fruit are also found in the nose and add some needed, additional complexity. I really like the nice, bright acidity that is noticeable in the nose, it makes this quite appetizing.

Bracingly tart, as much or more so than many a Lambic. This tartness melds quite well with the light, yet substantial oak and a tannic, chewy body. Like the best Gueuzes, this beer is quite light and quaffable, yet still has a fair amount of heft to it; this heft seems to come from a tannic texture that in this beer is clearly barrel influenced. Lactic acid notes provide the bulk of the tartness, but there does seem to be a touch of acetic, hints of uriatic acid & some funky butyric acid notes. Oak flavors play a role here, but thankfully they form a part of the supporting cast; the oak provides a bit of spiciness to the flavor more than anything. The oak does provide some hot, oral-nasal notes that hit me as I am taking a sip, this provides a bit of warmth that is almost like that from Bourbon. Brett influenced notes play a supporting role here that provides a lot of subtle complexity; flavors of phenolic soaked cotton balls, light horse blanket and a soft general funk.

Fruit flavors provide a light touch of sour-plum, pear, some sour-cherry notes (this is accented by the tannins that evoke thoughts of tannic cherry skins), definite grapefruit (though more from the tartness than from Kloeckera) and apple essence, all without any accentuating sweetness. As the beer warms the tannins really start to contribute a texture / presence that coats the roof of my mouth and back of my teeth. A bit of hot alcohol also becomes a bit more noticeable in the nose as it warms up, but so does some toasty grain & soda-cracker malt aromatics. My second & last pour is a bit more hazy, but not enough to really effect the flavor. Biscuit malt and soda-cracker grain notes also provide some character to the finish of this brew.

I like that the oak plays a supporting role here; it really provides a nice texture and body to this brew as well as a touch of spiciness that works sort of like hops do (though there really is no sweet malt character to balance here). Actually the texture of this beer is quite divine, the tannins provide a satin-like texture without really interfering with the light, quaffability of this brew. This is much more sour than I was expecting, luckily I am a complete sour-head, and I really am quite happy about how tart this is. Makes me want to crack open one of the batch two Beatifications, that will be the next beer to go into the beer fridge.