Russian River Beatification (Batch 001)

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

4-5-08 bottle shared at tasting
Cloudy medium yellow in color with a thin ivory white head. Smell is sweet and subtle and sour. A nice balanced tartness hits the tongue and is quite enjoyable. Mild, but so very well balanced! Drinkable and very easy smooth dry finish. I would easily have again

A Mes rate: Batch 001 bottle at Chris_O’s Ha Ha Ha Ha Gimme the Cheese Tasting.
Firstly MASSIVE thanks to Phil for putting up with me pestering him for about 6 months to open this. He eventually obliged and I’m SO glad he did. Looks wise it’s nothing much. Murky blonde with little to no head. Beautifully sour nose on top of what is clearly a very good Belgian style blonde. Once in the mouth the fireworks really kick off. It’s utterly amazing and everything I wanted it to be. Such amazing wood and funky sourness. Perfectly tart, perfect balancing sweetness and a glorious show of hops. Peppery, piney and a ton of lemon. Mouthfeel is about as good as it gets. Bloody glorious beer and considering Phil was a little worried about how well this would be holding up all I can say is...
EPIC WIN!!!

Bottle @ Chris_o.
Pours hazy pale yellow with slmost no head. Aroma has typical gueuze character, light citric, hay, good funk, vanilla, apples and wood. Low carbonation, quite oily. Nicely tart flavour, good woodiness, lovely balance. Wonderful.

Bottle shared at the Cleveland tasting. Dude! Pours hazy dark blonde color with a soapy white head. Aroma is oaky, musty, grass, floral, lemon. Flavor is oak, brett, funk, grass, hay, lemon. Dude! Palate is between medium and light bodied, medium carbonation, finished tart and sour and citrusy, and ooohhhh sooo friggen good. Dude!

Bottle shared at tasting courtesy of Randy. Thanks!
Pours a faintly hazed yellowish color with light whitish head. Smell is bright, lightly funky and sour, yet soft overall. Taste is much of the same mild tartness, oaky dryness and very pleasant funkiness. Very easy to drink, now that I’m more accustomed to sours. This is really nice stuff, and very mild compared to some.

Bottle, batch 1. A controlled pour out of the bottle results in a crystal clear honey amber orange colored body beneath a white filmy head. The second pour later on turns it a hazy soft wheat orange. First impressions of the nose is musty pears and white grapes, the distinct scents of brett funk, coarse oak wood, some cedar, some woody nuts, very funky, very fruity, very nice. The yeast-heavy pour shows the true funk in the nose - insanely cheesy and sweaty BO... is this limburger cheese I smell? Up front it’s prickly sour pears and white grapes, then the body thins somewhat, it’s velvety, soft, delicate, and the sourness is heavy but also complimented well by the soft tart pears and grape notes. Finishes with a prickly buzz on the tongue, with the La Folie character showing up as some cedar, oak and nuts. The funk is amplified in the final pour with a bit of sediment mixed in. The funky, sweaty, buggy horseblanket and mold just jumps out of the glass. All in all a very complete, amazingly delicious beer. Outstanding. As with any lambic or lambic imitator, it’s likely best to pour in a bit of the yeast to get the true funk. The second pour from the bottle was insanely better than the clear, careful first pour.

Bottle shared at the Cleveland tasting. I certainly wish I appreciated sour beers more! Smell was actually quite sweet! Tasted truly, like sucking on a lemonhead candy. Not to my liking!

Tap at City Beer.Not sure why it is marked as retired. IN any case this is pretty sour. Unlike Supplication where tart cherry notes are present, this one is very lemonish and just sour so that your whole face puckers up. It lacks subtleness in my book.