Russian River Redemption (Batch 002+)

Batch 4. Again, ginormous thanks to Naka for sharing. Super strong spicy aroma - ginger, pepper, floral and grassy. Grapefruit, peach, pepper, spicy, doughy, bready, and a slight funk in the background. Full & creamy mouthfeel. Amazing.

On tap @the brewpub. This is a fantastic Belgium! Pours a pale straw color with a huge white head. Taste is dominated by the malt sweetness with a hint of yeast. Nice dry finish. Outstanding!

750ml bottle, Batch 002. Head is initially large, frothy, white, mostly lasting. Body is hazy medium yellow, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain), moderately hoppy (flowers, herbs), lightly yeasty (cobwebs), with notes of lemon/lime/orange zest, Juicy Fruit gum, clove, spearmint, pepper, honey. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, velvety texture, lively carbonation. Belgian golden ales just don’t get much tastier, cleaner, or more complex than this. Yes, it’s got a bit less going on in the nose and less tartness than the perfect 5 that was Bretty Redemption, but what’s left is still nothing short of amazing. And here I was all prepared to give it a mid-3 score. Sheesh.

Lots and lots of full pours at PP Belgian Fest on 3/24/07
I proudly proclaimed that I’d give this as high a score as the bottled version, upon trying it. But I think that was a bit of overzealousness caused by the moment and how incredibly good this stuff is. But, I can’t deny that the brett makes it a more enjoyable beer, with light tartness, more crispness and complexity and, in my mind, no drawbacks. The brett dosent dominate the beer, nor does it take away from the generous, but well-attenuated maltiness and clean, elegant, plastery-like saccharomyces nuances.
The appearance is similar to the bottled version, almost identical, of course, but for the much more controlled, smaller white head. Still a good bit of it, with light lacing left behind on the glass and a high clarity in the blonde liquid.
I’ll just say that for my money, this is about as good as saccharomyces gets. Very light, clean esters are neither overly sharp or exuberantly fruity, but yield more pear/nectarine/grapeskin-like notes. In concert with the delicate honey notes collected from the malt, it’s one of the most elegant and understated aromas out there. Soft dough/plaster and very light vanilla sit on the end, further emphasizing the yeast. Minimal, peppery and grassy hops show only light aromatics and no bitterness, as an abbey singel should. Tough to put in to words such an understated, reserved beer, and for most, it will just come off as "too light" or "weak". Not in my opinion, that’s for sure.
Terrific balance is foremost its greatest factor in the flavor, possibly tied with drinkability. Very slightly chewy malt adds almost a wheat-like consistency and gives light vanilla, cream and lemon notes through the middle, that give quite a bit of flavor, for the beer’s size. A flavor that I can only describe as rose water, or some type of floral-infused spring water, with a touch of pearskin, hangs about as well, climaxing on the finish, along with a pinch of nuttiness and light grain. Divinely clean with just a pinch of spicy phenolics on the end. Light carbonation, very strong texture for its size. Delicious and the best session beer on the market, IMHO. A lot of craftmanship to see here, if you take your time with it (or drink 5 or 6 glasses of it). Repeat after me, "Quality, not Quantity."

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.