Russian River Supplication

The smell of farmhouse brett is thick in the air as soon as a pop the cork on this beauty.  Bonnie’s Notes:  oh god I hate farmhouse brett, not another sour you’re going to try to get me to taste.

375 milliliter bottle poured into my Surly Darkness Tulip.  This particular bottle was received as part of Sours BIF 4.0 from Lauren aka ThoreauLikeAGirl.  At the time the trade went down it was on my want list, thanks Lauren for sending this my way.  Bottle was warmed to 50+ before opening,

Appearance:  Dark amber color, I'd say almost a light mahogany color with some warm wood tones.  The very thin head seems to halo the surface of beer around the edges of the glass.  A tan head appears but disappears quickly upon pouring.  Swirling the glass does seem to reinvigorate the head however this too quickly fads.

Aroma:  Grapes?  Wet raisins? Definitely getting some semi-funky nose also there is something very sweet with some farmhouse aromas.  There is something very familiar that I just can't place, maybe a slight stone fruit, like a ripe date or plum. Bonnie’s Notes: There is something sweet like grape jelly.  Then I figures it out cherries, the smell I was picking up was cherries particularly tart cherries. The beer has a slight cherry pie smell to it. 

Mouthfeel:  Very slick around my tongue that also coats my mouth.  It is thin bodied with low to medium carbonation which tingles, tickles and pricks the tongue.   Very much to style as with most of the sour beers I’ve had.

Taste:  Very tart very sour, you can tell by the look on Bonnie’s face when I got her to try it.  There is a very slight amount of wood.  It seems to have a lot of sweetness but not in a cloying way.  It’s a very complex taste, I pick up slight amounts of the cherries, not overpowering, that I picked up in the aroma along with notes of the Pinot Noir barrels Vinnie used to age it.

Overall:  Supplication is one of my favorite Russian River Sours.  I had a glass of it when I visited the brew pub in July and from the bottle it was even more complex than I remembered. It’s very complex in all aspects but also very nicely balance in that no one bug seems to dominate.  I’m glad I have another bottle of this to age as it is just a spectacular beer definitely worth the price point.