A Whale A Week: Russian River Beatification 2013

Now in my second year, A Whale A Week is my challenge to try (with an array of beer loving friends) a rare beer for every week of the year.  Last year I had a great time with this and have continued it for 2016.  Not every beer will be a truly "white whale" beer, but all are hard to find and a treat to try!  I've been kind of bad about keeping up on this the past few months--maybe I should rename this to A Whale Every Other Week...

Russian River Beatification 2013

Russian River Brewing has been putting out some amazing beers over the years (Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig IPA's) but have really been one of the first American breweries to put out sour Belgian style beers.  Not content to do everything by the book, the the brewers certainly put their own spin on things.  Not available here in Minnesota, I managed to get my hands on some vintage bottles and figured this would be a good time to break one out!

Beatification is a golden ale that is based loosely on old school Belgian wild fermention like that seen at Cantillon.  The hot wort is left in a wide, open, coolship overnight to cool and become inoculated with wild yeast and bacteria from the brewhouse.  It is then transferred to oak wine barrels and fermented several months.  It comes out about 6% ABV and of variable tartness/funkiness. Beer Advocate gives this a score of 99 and Rate Beer a 100.  

The word beatification is used by the Roman Catholic Church as a papal declaration that a dead person is enjoying the pleasure of heaven and is worthy of religious honor.  This is the first step toward becoming canonized or sainted.  Interesting!

Cast of characters for this tasting: Me (homebrewer for over 25 years, lover and brewer of sour beers); Sarajo (my wife and fan of sours); and fellow Jack Of All Brews member and award winning brewer Josh Welch. 

Beatification

Aroma:

Eric: Bright.  Pineapple is very strong.  Tartness is powerful.  Tangerines or Mandarin oranges.  Light plastic notes as warms.  Wax--honeycomb.  Thai basil.
Josh: Strong phenolic funk aroma.  Fresh leather.  Light solvent.

Appearance:

Eric: Straw in color, very light.  Crystal clear.  Small white head with tiny tight bubbles.  Head fades to edge of glass quickly.
Josh: Very good looking beer.  Crystal clear, pale golden.  No head.

Flavor:

Eric:  Very tart up front.  Fades to a tart middle.  Ends with a tart finish.  So...tart.  Puckering.  Unripe pineapple and green apple skin.  Very mild wheat malt.  Acetic acid is very strong in this beer.  Some mild brett funk, but mostly acetobacter.
Josh: Acidic tangy, lemon, salty.  Slick on the mouth.  Light.  Acidity lingers for some time.

Overall:

Eric: A very zippy and interesting beer but somewhat one dimensional.  All acid all the time!  I want more brett character in the flavor like I get in the aroma.  Not quite refreshing since I feel the need to wash my palate with water after this.  And a Zantac.  I have had another version of this that I gave a 5 to, but this one is a 4.
Josh: 4.25
Sarajo: Acid-O-Licious!  4

Overall Score: 4.08

A Whale A Week: Russian River Sanctification Batch 006

Now in my second year, A Whale A Week is my challenge to try (with an array of beer loving friends) a rare beer for every week of the year.  Last year I had a great time with this and have continued it for 2016.  Not every beer will be a truly "white whale" beer, but all are hard to find and a treat to try!

This week we try a rare (at least in Minnesota!) sour beer from the famed Russian River Brewing Co.  in California.  The brewery started as an offshoot of Korbel vineyards.  In 2003 Brewmaster Vinnie Cilurzo and his wife Natalie took over the business. In 2004 they built/opened a new brewpub in Santa Rosa, and then expanded with a production brewery nearby in 2008.  Since then they continue to put out some amazing beers, but in small enough quantity that all of them are much sought-after.  The brewery is probably most well known for putting out what was possibly the first Double IPA Pliny the Elder, as well as it's incredibly rare tap-only cousin Pliny the Younger.  They were one of the first American breweries to start working with brettanomyces yeast and other wild/sour organisms in their beers as well.  This place is on my bucket list for breweries to visit.

I've tasted both Plinys as well as several of the sours over the years, thanks mostly to my mom muling some back for me from her trips out to Oregon.  I also received a few vintage bottles in a large cellar buy a few years back.

Sanctification is a fairly low gravity (6.75% ABV) golden beer that is fermented with 100% brettanomyces yeast.  The beer is bottle conditioned (initially with standard yeast, but now using brett for that as well).  The beer was first brewed in 2004 and was one of the first commercially available all-brett beers.  The brewery's website actually has some of the brew logs from the first several batches of their beers which is fascinating to see.  The first few years of this beer they added lactobacillus, then the third year they added some mixed wild culture to it.  In 2009 and 2010 they moved to pure brett fermentation for this beer.  I believe that it is fermented in stainless steel and has no oak contact.  I'm pretty sure that batch 006 came out in 2012, but batch 005 is the last one on the brew logs so I'm not sure of this.

This week's tasting panel was made up of: Me (Eric Wentling)--Homebrewer for over 20 years, BJCP National ranked judge, lover of sour and brett beers.  Beau Hammel--Homebrewer of tasty Belgian ales.  Sarajo Wentling--My other half.  We served this beer into tulip glasses.  We did do this tasting at the tail end of a couple others, so our write-up was a little shorter than usual... By this point Beau and I were perfectly calibrated in our judging.

Russian River Sanctification Batch 006

Aroma: 
Eric: Pineapple.  Tart apple.  Sweet honey and malt.  Light barnyard funkiness.  Some lemon-orange citrus character.
Beau: Acid.  Rotten hay.  Lemons.  Tropical fruit--guava.

Appearance: 
Eric: Very light straw to golden color.  Fine tight white head.  Excellent clarity.
Beau: Light golden.  Clear.  Medium head.

Flavor:
Eric: Very tart and dry apples.  Sour mango rind.  Slight sweetness, but that fades fast--like the first bite of an orange slice.  Body is light, but not thin.  No hop flavors.  Not incredibly complex.
Beau: Pleasantly sour with lemon flavors.  Slight funk of decomposed grass or hay.

Overall:
Eric: Very fruity. Dry and tart but not really puckering.  This is infinitely drinkable and refreshing.  Complexity is not crazy, but for what this beer is, it's near perfect.  I wouldn't mind a little more funk. 4.5
Beau: Very well balanced.  Nicely sour without being too dry or puckering.  Nice lemon and fruity flavors.  Nice complimentary funk.  4.5
Sj: (Too distracted to come up with a pithy comment this week...) 4

Overall Score: 4.33


Photo info:  I simply used a shot of the bottle label and did an overlay layer with another shot of Val Dieu Abbey (a brewery in Belgium but not actually run by monks).  The abbey picture was very underexposed and was almost a silhouette, so I just accentuated that before blending the two photos.