Russain River Tempation

Felt like a lighter beer (in body, not in taste) after getting home from school today and this was about all I had that would be new to me. The Russian River Temptation is a blonde ale that is inoculated with brettanoymces and aged for about a year in french oak chardonnay bottles. It was finally bottled in October of last year meaning it was about 2 years ago that this was brewed and put into barrels.

This bottle was from batch 002, and the Russian River bottle log told me to cautiously open the bottle under very cold conditions due to being overcarbonated. It ended up fizzing over a little but I didn't lose much beer. The smell was a great blend of chardonnay wine and sourness. After it warmed up a little and with some swirling I could also get a bit of very mellow musty/earthy/barnyard type funk. I won't say it was horseblanket because I don't know what a horseblanket is or smells like (and I don't think half the people that use that term do either). The taste was standard Russian River sour beer amazingness. Very chardonnay winy (imagine that), and a pleasant but heavy sourness. In many ways this beer is what I remember Sanctification tasting like, though maybe that was higher on the sour side and less on the wine side. In addition this beer is very "drinkable." The acidity doesn't burn me as much as Supplication did, which I thought was that beer's only drawback. This blonde ale is very puckering yet easy to drink. Another great beer from Russian River. I haven't had a bad one yet. I haven't had a mediocre one yet for that matter. From their Pale Ales, to their Stouts, to their Belgian's and wild beers, each one is top notch. In fact, they are so good I'm thinking about making a return trip up to Santa Rosa this Winter break. 4.65 on BA for this one.