Propitiation
Russian River Brewing Company

PropitiationPropitiation
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From:
Russian River Brewing Company
 
California, United States
Style:
Wild Ale
Ranked #463
ABV:
7%
Score:
91
Ranked #6,534
Avg:
4.1 | pDev: 10.73%
Reviews:
36
Ratings:
165
Status:
Active
Rated:
Feb 03, 2024
Added:
Jun 27, 2013
Wants:
  29
Gots:
  6
Propitiation was born from one of the six components of the Toronado 25th Anniversary beer. It was aged in used wine barrels for 12 months before being removed and carbonated. The beer is dry and light in body but full of rich chocolate and coffee notes with a mild sour/tart finish.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by UCLABrewN84:
Photo of UCLABrewN84
Reviewed by UCLABrewN84 from California

4.17/5  rDev +1.7%
look: 3.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
On tap at 38 Degrees in Alhambra, CA.

Pours a hazy reddish-brown with a foamy tan head that settles to wisps of film on top of the beer. Foamy streaks of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is slightly sour with dark roasted malt, fruit, acidic, and wood aromas. Taste is much the same with sour cocoa powder, fruit, acidic, and wood flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of acidity on the palate with each sip. This beer has a good level of carbonation with a crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a very good beer with a nice mix of sour, roast, and fruit all around.

Serving type: on tap.
Jul 26, 2015
More User Ratings:
Photo of rand
Reviewed by rand from California

4.19/5  rDev +2.2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
On tap at O’Brien’s for Tion weekend, 2024

Into a snifter

One of these mash-up styles of brews that’s kinda fallen out of fashion in recent years. Same complexion as their porter that I just reviewed (aptly called Porter). Aromas are notes of balsamic vinegar, oak, cocoa. Subdued nose.

Flavors are a little more pronounced. Tastes like a Russian River sour, but barely. Lots of roasty, toasty notes, squished up against unripe cherries, touch of holiday spice.

For the style, this is damn well executed. I just never saw hoards of beer geeks clamoring for sour stouts
Feb 03, 2024
Photo of BEERchitect
Reviewed by BEERchitect from Kentucky

3.48/5  rDev -15.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Ever sit to have a cup of coffee and wish, "hmmm... I wish this was sour."? Then Russian River has a beer for you.

Popping, foamy but quickly falling still, Propitiation's body shares a similar dark body as most other porter. As it's curriously tart, toasty, coffee and chocolaty scents cross the nose, a fruity berry, pitted and citrusy fruit flavor follows. Any sweetness on the tongue is light and dryly malted with only hints of caramel, cola and chocolate.

The rise of tart barrel character means that it brings its vinous sourness along side of the toasty flavors for a swirling balance of roast and acidity. Complex for sure, but also quite complicated and caught in conflict of flavors, this intertwiing of flavors lead to burnt cherry, grape, lime and grapefruit flavors with sour coffee and stale toast, all trailing into a woodsy coffee-like bitterness to close.

Medium-light in body, the dark sour ale, or wine barrel aged porter finishes malty-dry and with a brisk sourness that helps to rid the session of stale toast and watery cola for a challenging finish and aftertaste.
Feb 02, 2024
Photo of hman43
Reviewed by hman43 from North Carolina

3.71/5  rDev -9.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Look: It pours brown with a tan head. Head retention is very low.

Smell: There are some roasted aromas with moderate sourness. There are light wine like notes as well.

Taste: There are some roasted elements with tartness and wine like flavors.

Feel: It has a medium body with strong tartness in the finish.

Overall, too much tart and not enough flavor for me.
Sep 03, 2023
Photo of rodbeermunch
Reviewed by rodbeermunch from Nevada

4/5  rDev -2.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Its not every day that you drop a review 6000 for Next Glass, owner and proprietor :) you guys did it.

Pours brown. Robusto. Now the fun starts. Leaves a little 1/4" beige ring of head. The aroma has a wine like porter existence. Roasted malt, coffee and tartness. Dark fruit.

The taste reminds of New Glarus's Old World Porter. Has that mixed up fresh beer and infected beer (sour) mashup feel to it. Retains characteristics of both. Leather, earth, wood, coffee, red wine tartness and acidity. Makes you think it was aged in cherrywood. Its a decent and welcome addition to the Russian River portfolio, a portfolio of such depth that it allows for a new iteration to be pushed as a special review at #6000.

I'm not sure if I agree with the commercial tug job regarding this being dry and light. I mean, its not a sludge porter, but its also not dry or light. Its good though, and a style somewhere between the past and present. Not too many I could think of doing this.
Aug 14, 2023
 
Rated: 4.17 by Blazer22 from Colorado

Jun 01, 2023
Photo of sweetbrew82
Reviewed by sweetbrew82 from California

3.23/5  rDev -21.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25
Man I usually love all Russian River sours but this just ain't my cup of tea.

Smells like a porter at first with roasty malts, chocolate and a little coffee. The more I dig in and the more it warms it smells more of tart cherry red wine with oak and earth.

Taste follows the nose with porter flavors right off the bat and the wine character taking over from there to the drying finish. Roasty toasty malts bring out the chocolate and coffee and are quickly overtaken by a lactic sourness, tart red cherry, oak wood and dark berries.

Interesting to say the least and glad I got the chance to try it but the flavors just don't work that great together in my opinion.
Apr 22, 2023
 
Rated: 5 by doctorgary from New York

Apr 20, 2023
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Rated by Jugs_McGhee from Colorado

3.49/5  rDev -14.9%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Bottle:

High B- / WORTHY
Apr 02, 2023
 
Rated: 4.25 by Wisconsin_IPA_Lover from Wisconsin

Feb 25, 2023
Photo of MonDak_Joe1953
Reviewed by MonDak_Joe1953 from Minnesota

4.16/5  rDev +1.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
375ml bottle. Label is stamped for 'BOTTLED ON: 061021'.
Black colored body. One finger of beige head, which retreats to a bubbly skim and ring. Leaves behind small webs of lacing.
Aroma is red wine barrel lingering over roasted malts that have a chocolate and woodsy smells. The oak from the barrel adds to the woodsy smell.
Taste is roasted chocolate malts with a soaking from red wine oak barrels. Some sourness but this is mixed in with the red wine flavor. A coffee flavor comes out in the aftertaste from the woodiness of the barrel.
Medium mouth feel. Creates dryness in the mouth but does not scrape the teeth. Good carbonation.
Meld of a dark roasted malt beer with red wine barrel that yields slightly sour flavors of chocolate, oak wood, and red wine.
Feb 23, 2023
 
Rated: 3.33 by Beecham from California

Nov 09, 2022
 
Rated: 4.04 by NolaHopHead from Louisiana

Jun 11, 2022
Photo of Harrison8
Reviewed by Harrison8 from Missouri

4.04/5  rDev -1.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Pours black with dark brown hues around the edges of the glass. Head is two fingers of off-white foam, with good retention. Aroma is toasty, roasty, earthy malts with a lactic sour bite, followed by oak. The lactic sour bite is driven by red grapes. Flavor profile is much the same with tart red grapes leading the way to toasty, earthy, bready malts. Barrel character is present from the start, but really builds up towards the finish. While the aroma has a lactic sour bite, the flavor profile is more of a mild sourness / tartness. Mouth feel is medium in thickness with a very fuzzy texture to it. Overall, a very interesting dynamic shift between porter, dark beer notes and heavy red grapes. The sourness matches up with it pretty well.

Served in a 15.5oz Spiegelau tulip from a 375mL bottle. Bottled on 12/30/2020. Consumed on 06/05/2022.
Jun 05, 2022
Photo of HipCzech
Reviewed by HipCzech from California

4.12/5  rDev +0.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
375 ml bottled poured into a Libbey Embassy snifter. Pours deep, dark brown with several fingers of dense, bubbly tan foam that sticks as lace. Aromas of roasted malt, vinous barrels and dark fruit. Flavors follow with a roasted malt base, earthy bitterness, tart wine vinegar and black fruit (plums, blackberries). Medium body, creamy feel and moderate carbonation. A less common pairing of porter and funky wine barrels that still marries harmoniously.
Apr 04, 2022
 
Rated: 4 by mdfb79 from New York

Mar 26, 2022
Photo of augustgarage
Reviewed by augustgarage from California

4.42/5  rDev +7.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Packaged on 6/10/21 - consumed on 3/15/22. Poured from a caged-and-corked 375mL bottle into my Rodenbach flute/tulip.

Burgundy/chestnut body spports four fingers of almond soft peaks. Multiple rings of lace with a wide variety of bubble sizes. Superior retention.

Complex Brett. and barrel notes in the nose - wildflowers, grape must, fermenting orange, with a touch of roast malt and faint esters left over from the base beer.

Tart, vinuous palate entry leads into a rich malt base with hints of burnt toast, loam, and a low earthy bitterness. Hints of balsamic vinegar and raisin. The peppery funk of the Brett. accentuates the drying, faintly tannic bittersweet porter notes in the finish. Wonderful balance.

Medium-light bodied, low astringency, and alcohol. Excellent carbonation.

Right up there with their other sour offerings - worth seeking out.
Mar 15, 2022
Photo of JohnnyHopps
Reviewed by JohnnyHopps from Indiana

4.2/5  rDev +2.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Appearance - From the bottle, the beer poured a brownish black color with a sizable tan head.

Smell - The nose had sour notes with oak and stone fruits.

Taste - The profile brought to mind a Flanders ale. Notes of plum and strawberry highlighted the fruits profile, followed by oak and a light acidity. The finish dry, making the next sip eagerly anticipated.

Mouthfeel - The body had aggressive carbonation, helping to reinforce the dry finish.

Overall - This was well done!
Feb 20, 2022
Photo of StonedTrippin
Reviewed by StonedTrippin from Colorado

3.96/5  rDev -3.4%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
neat stuff here, fun to have it on tap at the source. its light for a porter, looks and feels more like a brown ale as a base, and doesnt have a ton of deep roast grain character in the flavor, lighter then, and with the acidity and red wine fruitiness from the barrel makes it drink like an oud bruin, even a little vinegar thing to the sour profile from the wine, but all up its quite delicate too. lighter brown in the glass without much head, glowing cognac colors in the daytime light, same shine too. the nose is dark fruit from the wine barrels, boysenberries, huckleberries, and blackberries to me, a prune note and maybe some fresh plum too, a bit of red wine vinegar and tannic character, some oak, and maybe more of a chocolate malt thing than a roasted barley thing on the grain side, tobacco and raisin rather than coffee and char, real compatible with the oak and wine. a hint of brown sugar and cocoa in the taste, even a flash of hazelnut, most of the wine on the back end, rich and dark and nutty like port. light funk and a lot of wood, but quite a bit of acidity too, sagging just a little with lighter carbonation. unique flavors, mature beer heavy on oak, at first it threw me off being a little light for a porter by most standards, but it really grew on me. i wonder how different it is from the bottle...
Feb 19, 2022
 
Rated: 3.94 by dexterk1 from Illinois

Jan 11, 2022
Propitiation from Russian River Brewing Company
Beer rating: 91 out of 100 with 165 ratings