Russian River Temptation

Brewed by Russian River Brewing
Style: Sour Ale
Santa Rosa, California USA

Pours a light orange with a medium white head. Aroma is of sour fumes, white wine fumes, and fumes. Flavor is a little more elegant: The fruitiness here actually differentiates it from the other 500 Russian River sours. Other than that it’s just another sour. Medium body/mouthfeel. Overall good.

375 ml bottle - batch 2; glowing, hazy light gold; huge foamy white head settles quick leaving lace; apples, pears, oak, brett; sweet and mild sour; drinks dry and sweet with sour apples, mild funk, lemons and a bone dry finish; killer nose and lovely texture; perfectly sweet and never acidic; fruity sourness blending together

draft @ Brouwers Big Wood - cloudy light orange with thin white head; apples, oak and brett; absolutely crushed the deviation in a side by side, which seems to have temptation as part of the blend; not sure how fresh this keg was, but on this day it was without a doubt my fav sour; unbelievably good this day

750 ml bottle - batch 4; reasonably fresh as opened right after it hit the seattle market; big pop and thick eggy white head settles slowly; sour apples, grapes, oak and plenty of sweetness and brett; texture is soft, subtle and delicate; richness comes out as it warms; fruit goodness and bone dry finish from the brett; fresh is certainly where it’s at with this one IMO b/c you get that big burst of fruit before the brett takes over completely

Hazy gold in the glasss, nose is green apples, a little lemon, and a nice barnyard-y sourness. Taste is really complex alll t through - sour apples and grapes up front, melding really nicely into an earthy brett-y funkiness and a crisp lemon-pepper finish. Bottle didn’t last through 4 rounds of my fantasy football draft. Well done, RR.

Bottle @ Monk’s Cafe, Philadelphia. All I can say to this is WOW....Pours a hazy golden color (at least it looked that way in the low light) with noticeable lacing and a small white head. Aroma is lemon, earth/grass notes, and a definite brett characteristic toward the end. Taste is the same, with an incredible citrus/earth characteristic, a very tart finish (though not distracting), and a wonderful dryness throughout. I think I got a little sweetness and an ever-so-slight bitterness in there - it’s so sublimely balanced and complex. I love it, I absolutely love it, and I need to get more from these guys STAT.

Bottle shared by Chris at Ebenzer’s. Thanks! Pale hazy golden yellow with head and lace. Lemon pixie stix and hoseballs and hay aroma. Extremely dry sweaty horseballs hay mild leather throat-clinching tart dry finish. Soft warm efffervescence. Awesome.

Draft at Pizza Port. Clear yellow pour with a thin white head. Woody sour aroma with citrus. Very sour flavor, but not overpoweing. Woody citrus notes with ahint of vanilla. Very nice

courtesy of Greg Gaughan - pours a hazy orange colour with a little persistent white foam; aroma of almonds, vanilla and apple, slightly woody; some acidity, creamy mouthfeel and with a good malt body; fair carbonation; some residual sugars with more notes of vanilla and almonds - a superb beer

2009 Bottle, Batch 4 - Pours a translucent pale yellow with a large off white head...aroma is green apple, oak, lemon, tropical fruit...flavour is more subdued that other RR wilds, slightly vinous, massively oaky, tart lemon and the lightest spiciness that starts in the nose and has the most ephemeral presence in flavour...very tasty...