Russian River Temptation

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

Bottle shared with the crew in late November. Cloudy yellow, foamy white head. Sour, funky, yeast aroma - strong and good. Taste is simply amazing - yeast, soft malt, funky organic characteristic, bread - wow, good stuff, complex. Soft mouthfeel. Wonderful stuff here, as advertised.

Bottle Batch 003: Thanks golubj! Pours a lively cloudy golden with a creamy thick white head that leaves a spotty lace. Aroma is vinous, oaky, hints of aged swiss cheese, lemon, white pepper, apple cider, honey and vanilla wood. Amazingly complex. Frothy and crisp body. The flavor is a perfect marriage of sweet and tart. Very subtle honey notes, smooth oak presence, herbal subtleties, sharp citrus fruitiness, mild Gouda, sharp Parmigiano-Reggiano, acetic apple cider, and just a touch of vanilla in the back somewhere when it warms. A Sour Ale of vast complexity, superiority and drinkability.

Bottle: Courtesy of DarkElf via trade. Aroma of yeast, apple, light orange peel, and moderate lambic sournes. Pours a transparent golden-orange with a moderate white head that lasts a minute or so. Moderate apple presence up front with some other sweet fruits. Finishes with a light lemony tartness and woodiness. Lambic qualities in the finish are there, but more subdued than the Supplication that I sampled earlier today. Very impressed with the few RR beers I’ve had.

Batch 001 from a bottle picked up via HiTime. The beer pours to a fizzy white head atop a straw colored hazy body. The aroma is characteristically Brettanomyces. Lemons, sour funkiness, sour green apples, pears. The flavor starts off tart with green apples. Cinnamon sticks and apple skin fill out the mid-taste. Oaken earthy wine on the finish. The flavors are quite complex and very good. The palate is like drinking a champagne or spritzer. Very lively and refreshing. Light dryness to it like a dry wine. I’m glad to have tried this. I just wish the $$ wasn’t so much. It’s sorta geueze-ish and winey. I’m liking it. 8, 3, 9, 4, 17 = 4.1
3-liter bottle of Batch 2. Simply phenomenal. Sour but balanced. The beer violently wanted out of the bottle. Have a large pot and a ladle available!

Sampled at Hellbilly’s Hellraiser II. Good sour and tart aroma. Yellow body with white head. Dry sour just as the style says.

Yeasty nose, deep yellow color, creamy clingy head. Green apple sourness, tart. Almost like a gueze. Medium body. Really Belgian-like beer. Excellent beer overall.

In the words of my friend, this beer "smells like going down on a farting hooker". Or, in other words, not so good. So bad it’s hard to drink it and it doesn’t taste much better. Perhaps a very vey bad bottle????? I can only hope. The new no. 1 bad beer at Bill and Steiny’s party. The second beer made with this brettanomyces - perhaps I really hate that stuff.

Light coloured blonde body with a frothy white head and literally trillions of bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass - really neat looking. Aroma of really strong spices - sage, thyme, cumin and marjoram are all noticeable, along with a little malt and some light toffee. Light to Medium-bodied; Strong tartness up front, masked with a malty flavour along with that meaty characteristic attached to a sweetness which finishes the beer - probably the most complex beer i’ve ever had. When you take that first sip - be cogniscent of all the aforementioned, and you’ll be in for a a real treat. Aftertaste is mellow - some of that tartness and acidity is left...with some sweetness and good oaky flavour. Overall, a damn good beer - definitely worth trying...just be ready for it! I sampled this split (37.5 cL) bottle purchased from Norm’s in Vienna, Virginia on the Eastern Shore of Virginia on 29-October-2005.