Russian River Deviation (Bottleworks IX)

Formerly brewed at Russian River Brewing
Style: Sour Ale
Santa Rosa, California USA

25.4 oz bottle. Misty golden brown with white froth. Nose is crabapple, kiwi, oak, spice, honey and light funk. Glancing at the bottle i see the foam rising almost to the neck. Time for another pour. Medium body, verging on syrupy, with a muted tingle. Taste is lemon peel, green apple and pineapple. Dry, puckery finish with hints of custard. Classic.

What better way to celebrate Christmas than with this bottle, provided by a very generous BA. Pours crystal-clear amber (subsequent pours are cloudier and cloudier) with a steady stream of bubbles feeding a small creamy white head, allowing it to remain a small cap for the duration with spotty lacing. The aroma is a perfect blend of sweet, sour and funky. There is an underlying sweet/tart green apple aroma with some apricot as well. There is a solid but very understated brett presence that doesn’t dominate the aroma at all. On top of all this is the oak character - stunning nose on this one. The initial tartness of the taste completely puckered my lips - big lemony tartness with a hint of vinegar sourness as well. The fruits are still in the taste, with pears and green apples, but the scale is tipping more on the sour side than the sweet side in the taste. The finish is very dry, with the oaky tannins and brett taking a final bow. The mouthfeel is light to medium bodied and almost effervescent with lots of carbonation - a very wine-like feel overall. Well, I’ve been waiting a long time to try this one and it is definitely one of the best wilds I’ve had this year. I don’t think I’d put it up there with my favorites (J&J Blauw, for example). Still, a damn fine beverage.

Draught @ Brouwer’s Café for rating #2500:   Huge rocky white head, good retention, nice lacing, hazy amber, very fiery.   Looks fantastic!   Big bouguet on the nose.   Farmish, very wild, tart Peach and Apricot skin.   Certainly musty and basement like.   Sour on the tongue, dry but its not overly acidic.   Very pale fruitiness, much like unripened Peache or Apricot skin.   I like this one because it is not overly done.   Very palatable without being harsh.   Could stand to be a bit more bubbley on the tongue as it does flatten out a bit as it warms.   Does start out prickly though.   Moderate to full body and mouthfeel otherwise.   Sour to start out, becomes more tart like near the finish.   Moderate dryness.   Noticed that it seems more aggressive on draught than in the bottle.   Good stuff!

Backlog. Yellow orange pour with an off white head. Aroma of sour fruits, brett, horse blanket, bit of vinegar and malt. Flavor was cheesy malt, sour, bretty, oaky, barnyard notes. Light body with a sour finish.

750mL Bottle, received in a trade with brigadier. A beer for celebrating the end of the month, the coming of Christmas chaos, and some time for reflection. With a furious pop, this long-awaited liquor glushes into my tulip. A brilliant clear pale maple syrup fills the glass, building a lacy, silky off-white head as it grows. The aroma is delectably funky. All the chewy gueze, barrel, white grapes, and pickled lemon peel anyone could ask for. Vibrant, yet soft, tickled, and bright. Flavors are quick and electric. A strong hand of citric acid moves forward immediately, bringing oak and aged cheese rind. Rising. The clean lactic and citric acids would be abrasive if it weren’t for the presence of a very clean, sweet refined sugar in the beer, that pulls the whole thing together for balance, allowing the complexity of the funk to persist. A stunning American sour that digs deeper on every sip. My only regret is not having a bloomed-rind goat’s cheese to pair with.

From the Bottle at the Falling Rock Tap House, Denver 26/09/2009 Sour aroma. Golden amber coloured hazy in appearance fruity and sour with a little dryness in a crisp malt finish.

light brown pour. Aroma is funky, bretty, overripe fruit, cheese and wood. Flavor is woody and cheesy with some tropical fruit. This is good, but not quite the beast i expected it to be.

A lot of hype behind this one, and I have to say while this is a worthy drink indeed, it rides on the shoulders of it’s rarity rather than it’s own merits as I feel that this isn’t even as strong a beer as some of Russian Rivers regular rotating sour lineup. That negative aside, this is still a damn good drink. While the taste is very nice and sour with a character I have never tasted before, palate is a little bit of a weakness as it needs more carbonation. Look is rather average as well. I know this review comes off as nitpicky but don’t get me wrong I love this beer.