Russian River Supplication Sour Ale turns tongues inside out on our Napa Valley trip

First day in Napa! We're here with over 16 people and staying at the same hotel as we did for my parent's 40th wedding anniversary 3 years ago, the Wine Country Inn http://www.winecountryinn.com/. I'm reallly excited about the wine and all, but the breakfast at this place is AMAZING. Make your own waffles with peanut butter and nutella and a rotating eggs casserole every morning that is to die for. Everything one needs for a good wine drinking base.

This post will be mostly pictures and the beer review at the end. Now why did Walker wait until the end of the night after drinking wine all day to drink his Russian River beer? Hmmm...is it because it was a sour ale? Mayhaps

Parents rule

Dudes rule

Miner winery has a wild yeast chardonnay, which creates a flavor profile similar to that of a wild yeast beer. Interwesting...

This is Napa on a bad day...psych, Napa doesn't have bad days fool.

This castle was fun and all, but the wine was blah. It was like going to Disneyland only to realize that Star Tours was broken after you waited in line for 45 minutes. And then a bird pooped on you.

So I'm very excited about this trip, because not only are the wines amazing, but the beer is rated highly too. Russian River makes amazing beers IPA's and Sour Ales, although I really detest Sours. All but one sour I've ever tasted made me want to write a strongly worded letter asking why they would want to put those particular flavors in someone's mouth. Tonight's beer, Russian River Supplication, is one of the highest rated sours in the world and since I'm in Napa, near Russian River, I feel compelled to heed the Sour's Siren Song.

The Supplication is a Brown Ale aged in French oak Pinot Noir barrels with three strains of Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus and sour cherries. The whole gang is outside here tasting the beer. A few like sour candy, etc and somewhat like this. Others think I just poured them a cup of panther piss.They're accusing me of shenanigans but I tell them "I said that you should try this, not that it was a good." Ha. Now they know what a sour ale tastes like. Some things really have to be experienced.

I'm getting used to it, but IT IS SO OVERWHELMING. WHY WOULD YOU MAKE ANYTHING THAT SOUR THIS INTENSE. Imagine Emril saying "BAM" while kicking you in the balls while jamming sour starburst on steroids into your mouth over and over again.

Here is the Beer Advocate review, which rates it as an A. If you might like a sour ale, this review is for you because I can't say anything, good or bad, other than what I wrote. It's just too wild:  http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/863/22227/?ba=bros


The good news is, I also bought Russian River Pliny the Elder for my dad and others, who LOVES IT. It makes me very happy to see my dad enjoy beer so much. We're sitting out on a deck above a winery under a cloudy night drinking great beer and wine. This is an amazing.

I'm afraid to rate this beer, because it's so well regarded but I hated it so very much. TRANSFORMERS 2 rating? Nuts