Russian River Redemption

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

This really is a Wish List beer without actually being on my "published" Wish List. Huge kudos to Travis for sharing this one. Batch 012. Pale straw yellow pour with a bubbly white head and little lacing; decently carbonated. Wet wheat nose and flavor, a touch bready, some yeasts and spiciness, floral and funky, still subdued though, like it wants to be bigger and zestier but can't. Still refreshing although lighter than I hoped.

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

My 3rd Russian River thanks to Dave! Pours hazy cloudy yellow with a low bright white head. Aroma is zesty sour. Flavor is sour and peppery along with some tangy goodness. Fun stuff, very drinkable!

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

Another big thanks to pfoxyjohn for sharing this with us last night. The "blonde ale" on the front is so decieving. Don't even think that's what is inside before you try it, because it's not! First of the 3 RR beers I tried yesterday. Bright golden, huge rising frothy head. Instant nose of tropical fruit, ginger, yeast and other spice which I can't put my finger on. Taste is tart yet balanced, grapefruity, lemon zest and bubblegum.

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

It pours a hazy yellow-gold with a thin white head and excellent lacing. An aroma of sweet malts, bananas, golden apples, grapefruit, lemon, pear, light bread and yeast, and light spiciness. The mouthfeel is smooth and quite rich. Flavors of pear, light banana, golden apples, light grapefruit and lemon, bread and yeast, grassiness, bitterness, and light spiciness. Excellent flavor and refreshing ..

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

I had this beer as part of a 14 beer sampler at the Russian River Brew Pub on 14 July 2011. I also had a full glass of this beer. Both my wife and I REALLY enjoyed this beer - it was superb and VERY easy drinking for a Belgian style beer. Wonderful!

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

man...thid has a pretty good rep but i just wasn't feeling it. a pretty standard belgian ale to me. there's some subtle fruits and spices in the aroma and flavor, but they're too subtle. doesn't look much different than a Coors. 8/11 has grown on me a bit over the years...not a RR favorite, but not bad either :)

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

This is only my third Russian River beer but it doesn’t take long to figure out these guys know what they’re doing. Thanks to zythum for trading this to me. Pours a golden color with a huge fluffy off-white head. Pretty good retention. The aroma is nice, yeast, light fruits and flowers with malt. Everything seems to blend together quite nicely with this. Slightly sweet malty flavor, some grass and straw or somewhat of a barnyard taste, bananas and cloves with some spices kicking in towards the finish. This is light but there’s enough there to set it apart. Good one, I look forward to trying more from Russian River. Re-Rate 11/9/09. Batch 6 courtesy of cloudskipper. Sometimes simple is a good thing. Golden color huge lively white head. Very soft and slick, refreshing, nice crisp spice to compliment the fruity and floral flavors. I like Damnation but I think this one is even better.

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

Batch 005; Sampled July 2008
An average pour still manages to produce a four-finger thick, pale, off-white colored head into my large Tripel Karmeliet glass. As the head slowly recedes it forms a mesa that sits in the middle of my glass and slopes down to meat the sides of the glass where ample lacing patterns are left sticking to the walls. Amazingly enough, despite slowly working my way through this beer, the head never has anything less than a full covering of white froth. The beer is a clear, amber color that shows a brilliantly clear, bright, lightly orange tinged, full gold color when held up to the light. The aroma starts with a blast of expressive fruit notes; these are a mix of ripe pear, honeydew and golden raisins. Other fresh aromatics of honeysuckle, sweet flower nectar, and wild flower honey also add the sweeter smelling notes in the aroma. A backdrop of spiciness is here though; substantial enough to anchor this beer solidly I can smell notes of bergamot, white pepper, piquant ginger, light clove and some sharp, though light, herbal notes. Hints of crushed saltine crackers and crushed malt are just noticeable if you really dig for them. This is a fantastically expressive aroma for a smaller beer like this; I could go on just smelling this for minutes on end.

Sweet tasting up front, as much from fruity esters as any actual sweet malt sugars. The beer is actually quite light and quite dry, but the sweetness really is accentuated by other flavor components other than residual sugars left in the beer. While sweet and fruity up front this finishes quite dry; both a noticeable hop bitterness and a spicy, almost astringent, piquant spice character helps to significantly dry the finish out. Fruit flavors of spicy grapes, honeydew, super-ripe pear as well as perfectly sweet, wild flower nectar are offset by spicy notes of pepper, dried ginger, spicy higher alcohols, sharp clove, . This is light bodied, but definitely has some heft to it that keeps this clinging a bit to the palate. An ample carbonation offsets this as it scrubs the palate with a peppery carbonic bite.

This manages to pull off a huge presence in both nose and palate, despite being a pretty easy drinking, lighter brew. A deep complexity manages to be eminently well integrated; this is a perfect beer for those who want to contemplate the intricacies of their beer as well as those who just want an incredibly solid, great tasting beer to session a couple of. A second pour of this beer accents a touch of yeastiness in the nose that seems to temper the fruit notes a bit with some raw dough aromas. This really is just a fantastic interplay between fruity esters, piquant spiciness and quaffability.

Wow, I knew this should be good, but I can't believe how good this really is. I wasn't expecting to like this as much as the Brett-laden batch 001, but I might even like this one more. A fantastically tasty creation; I am continuously wowed by Vinnie's craftsmanship and ability to achieve such well integrated, balanced beers. Russian River seems to operate on another plane of existence than the other American brewers.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

courtesy of Per Samuelsson - cloudy dark orange colour under a big creamy white head; nice lace; aroma of orange peel and cream, also light citrusy and spicy notes; tart acidic/bitter mouthfeel, moderate malt body, long and very dry bitter fruity finish - deeply pleasant and refreshing - something between an Orval and a Petite Orval

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

Bottle (Courtesy of Jimbowood): Poured slightly hazy yellowish ale with a super huge foamy head with great retention. Perfect aroma of Brett is very nice with dry hops and some floral malt. Taste is mildly sour at first with some nice floral peak and ends with a dry finish. Body is quite full which kind of surprise me because of the low ABV I was expecting some light beer. Overall, this is a truly wonderful beer and I very much appreciated the fact that even though the alcohol is low enough the taste and body are reasonably strong.