Russian River Temptation

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

750 mL bottle, sampled at the 2005 Festival of Barrel Aged Beers, Chicago: Brilliant golden, streaming bubbles feeding a creamy, dense, white blanket. Elegant, soft aroma of buttery, floral hops, sweet vanilla pudding, and cobwebby yeast…sour flavours lightly pucker that soothes this funky yeast lover…soft, supple palate with a lingering creaminess and fruity flavours, simply fantastic and elegantly complex. wow.

#500! Bottle via trade with irishboy. Batch 002. Aroma has plenty of lemon zest tartness. Some light wood. Mildly sour. Quite pleasant. Pours bright gold with a billowing bright white head. All elements show through on the palate quite well. Sour yeast, malt, wine, oak. Very well balanced. Lightly tart. Medium bodied. Quite crisp and refreshing. Finishes with a lasting mild tartness. Thanks Richard for trading this wonderful beer!

Tart ,lemony jowl puckering aroma,taste is creamy smooth sour lemon,like a less sweet meragiune piewith a lemon peel on it,lemon and sour dominate all else here. If your into sour s this is a wonderful blonde version. Thanks again Kingpin

Pours a golden color with a small quick dissipating head.Aroma is sour.this was full flavored with lots of sour cherries, almost wine like.The sourness kind of mellowed out at the end.

June 2007. Batch 002. Glowing, almost the color of sunrise on water. Letting shadows through and retaining a constant sipping crown of foam. Wet leather and farmhouse aromas, peat and cayenne pepper, pungent vinegar. Fades softly into a kind of pistachio-crème white cake sweetness. The sourness here is soft and balanced, while the Chardonnay barrel lends a rich almond-butter depth. Wild notes of sea mist and wet oak rafts. An acidic pulse of lemon seed blossoms with a confident, imposing strength upon swallowing. Ringing with crystal clarity, sour but bright, complicated but melodic. One to savor and treasure. Thanks Ernest! 9/5/9/4/18 4.5

July 2008. Batch 003, thanks to Steve. Sunshine blonde pour and a wispy cream of meringue. Almond cake batter, leathery brett and lemon juice, hay must and attic dried spice in the aroma. The sunshine of the orchard and the evocative calm of the farmhouse dusts. Acetic acids and a range of tangy spice effects a jagged edge, while the Chardonnay barrel maintains its cool and reservation, lending polish. Far out horseblanket salt, sweat and grimy earth.

The restraint of the sourness, the pristine shimmer of pale malts in the glow of chardonnay oak, and the bittering calm of floral earthiness sleep gracefully together in the flavor. The essence of morning in the meadows. The angular impartation of wild yeasts is somewhat submerged, and integrates itself with ease into oak and white grape tannins. This makes for a truly spectacular drinkability; while marked with the distinctive sour flair of bret and pedio, the lactic yeasts seem more prominent in lending a silky, soft tartness; wholly perfect to accentuate that Chardonnay presence that already works so well.

Yeast dropped lends a pit of stone fruit quality throughout alongside a sharpened and more detailed sourness. The gravelly character of the white wine is pronounced, again just exaggerating how perfect the blend of these yeasts with this barrel actually is.

Sparkly palate is medium in body and maintains a gorgeous balance of velvet texture and diamond-sharp acidity. Pineapple and a distant doughiness alongside the drying leather of animal yeasts in a long but understated finish. AGAIN, it’s the amazing balance of the elements here that’s truly breathtaking; it’s one of those moments when art grabs hold of you and simply demands to be revered. 10/5/10/5/20 5.0

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

Slightly hazed shadowy gold body. Frothy white head. Bretty bright white grape and amber ale aroma. Flavor is hard to pick out. Nicely soured grapes with fresh fruit and wood. I don’t know... I like it but I chalk it up to another brett beer.

This is a beautiful glass of beer. Effervescence and color of a glass of Champagne with the head of, say, Duvel. Nose is tart and sweet at the same time, with a touch of oak. I love the complexity of the flavor. It starts out quite tart, but under lying sweetness that soon takes over to produce a very nice mid and finish. Great mouthfeel. Smooth yet at the same time lively on the tongue. I think this one is the most interesting of Vinnie’s sours.