Supplication - Pray and It Will Come

Unexpectedly came across a bottle of Russian River Supplication, batch 002, at the aforementioned Lone Hill Liquors. Decided this afternoon was a good enough time to open it up. A quick bit from the Russian River website about this beer...

Brown Ale aged in French oak Pinot Noir barrels for one year with three strains of Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, & Pediococcus.

Sounds good enough huh? Of course if you hadn't noticed, this is one of Russian River's 14 "-tion" named beers. Supplication meaning 1. to ask for humbly or earnestly, as by praying. 2. to make a humble entreaty to; beseech. It's one of six (now that they are releasing a barrel Aged Damnation for batch 23) barrel aged beers.

I guess up to this point the only sour beer I have had is Boon Geuze, and I thought the taste of that was of course very unique and nice. When I popped the cork on this bottle of Supplication it started immediate effervescence, but did not overflow the bottle. The pour is visible from the picture, a nice light brown and red colored beer with a head that doesn't factor in too much. The minute you start pouring this you can smell it at arms length. Amazing tart fruit bursting in all direction. Get this in your glass and swirl it each time before you smell it. The swirl really releases a ton of aromatics from this beer. The taste is tart of course, from the wild fermentation, and there is an abundance of fruit- cherries and grapes. I thought I picked up very light oak, but who knows, I'm not an expert. The carbonation is very high and very fine, fizzy if you will. The only thing I thought was a bit harsh was its acidity. Even so, I couldn't help but score this high on BA- 4.5, right on track with everyone else.