Help! Lambics / Gueuze / Sour / Wild Ale / etc

As far as widely available Gueuzes go, Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René can't be beat in my opinion!

Some other good and, at least to my knowledge, pretty available things to look out for would be:
Oud Beersel Oude Geuze Vieille
Oud Beersel Oude Kriek Vieille
New Belgium Lips of Faith La Folie
Bacchus
plus all the other ones mentioned above that people beat me to haha

And no, some age on any of these bottles will be absolutely fine (possibly better but you be the judge of that). Also, if you find yourself liking a majority of these beers/styles, I would definitely recommend trading for any(/all) of the Russian River sours at that point!

 

Gueuze is a blend of 1, 2, and 3 year old lambic so some age is perfectly fine since at least part of the beer is already 3 years old. Keep in mind that the bugs that turn a beer sour take longer to work than normal yeast so these beers have already been aging much longer than say an IPA would before it goes into the bottle. These beers will continue to get more sour in the bottle so older bottles will be more sour or funky than new bottles of the same beer. Orval is a perfect example of this.

 

It is definitely SOUR! Really really good.

 

The store I get my Jolly Pumpkins from has a pretty big stock of it. I bought some a couple weeks ago bottled in 09. It's pretty awesome.

 

For me it does because sweetners (e.g., sugar) are not used in traditional lambics. In addition Lindeman's uses artificial sweetners not sugar. The only product they make that does not use artificial sweetners is the Cuvee Rene Gueuze.

 

Having been a HUGE IPA fan for a long time, I never got into anything else. Starting the past couple of months, I've been searching for the top 250 beers rated by BA members, I came across RR Supplication, Consecration, and Sanctification at a local restaurant, bottles. I told the waitress I'll take all 3. She gave me the bill for $50+. I was floored! Never spent that much for beer before, but I took them anyway.

Anywho...I started with the Sanctification...ugh...yuck! I finished it anyway. Did my research and saw that it was a sour. Had no clue what it was. Disappointed that the other 2 were sours also. A day later, the Consecration. Ick...bleh...drank it anyway. Third day, Supplication...mmm...not bad...1/2 bottle went by...wow! Done. WOW!!! It was a complete 180 in 3 days over 3 beers. Delicious, delicious stuff. I literally craved it the next day and went to the local store and got a Cuvée des Jacobins Rouge. Loved it! I never had dreams about beers, but I had 2 in the past month about the Supplication. That's pretty fucked up if you asked me.

What's the point of this whole story? GET INTO SOUR before you look back regret not having started earlier! Get yourself some Russian River gems. Worth every penny spent.


Al

 

I live in NE Ohio as well. Go to Lizardville they have a large selection of sours, I recommend La Roja and Petrus for the prices.

 

For me, yes. Lambics to my knowledge are traditionally brewed with no sweeteners, and even ignoring that fact Lindemans doesn't actually use sugar per se, but chemical sweeteners. I think their Cuvee Rene doesn't have any sugar products added, and as I said regardless of what they do during production I genuinely like their Cassis--but save the Cuvee, I don't view them as lambics. "Surprisingly tasty fruit-infused malt beverages", yes, but not lambics.

Edit:

Hah, I just saw this...nicely done covering my main talking points well ahead of me!

 

If you go to "beer styles" and find, say, Gueuze, you'll get a description of the style and a listing of gueuzes that have been reviewed in order by their numbr of reviews. That order will correspond somewhat to their general availability. If you print that list you can take it to the beer store with you and find out which are in stock.

There is also a link that allows you to reorder the list by how highly rated each item is. You can use that list to decide which ones you want to choose to spend your money on, especially if you look through the reviews for a particular beer and find it is really something that you might like based on what the reviewers have to say about the beer.

 

It won't, and it's amazing. It definitely has the capability of opening a new door into how one looks at the world of beer.

To each his own about the video, but I really miss the guy and was enjoying every second of it.

 

In fact Lindemans does count, their products are certainly lambics. Their fruit lambics are enjoyable but in general are too sweet for my tastes (except Cuvee Renee Kriek). But they still use excellent lambic as their base.

Interesting side note: Lindemans lambic can be found in many 3F gueuzes over the last few years, something to consider if you enjoy 3F. Lindemans makes authentic and tasty lambic.

 

Just for the sake of argument: Were I to brew an otherwise "traditional" hefeweizen with a fruit addition, did I not still brew a hefeweizen? What if I used artificial fruit flavoring, not unlike the fillings of freeze pops? Moreover, were I to add food coloring to an otherwise "traditional" lambic, is it no longer a lambic? Were I to brew a beer using the same ingredients and techniques as a lambic, but in another part of the world (thus, different microbes and such), is it still a lambic (this is more of an ingredient question than a geographical naming one)? What if I were to use ingredients unknown or unavailable to "traditional" lambic brewers of yore?

To me, it all seems pretty arbitrary to knock something out just because it adds a flavoring addition, as though a coffee stout would no longer be considered a stout. I mean, what do you consider the Lindemans "lambics", then?

 

As TongoRad says, the beer won't put you to sleep and is definitely worth trying. As for the video, you are seeing him there near the end of his life and suffering from a long term illness. Much earlier he did a series of Videos for TV that are truly engaging, enlightening and not likely to put anyone interested in beer to sleep.

 

Every now and then I will enjoy a Lindeman's Peche, despite the sweetness- you can definitely tell there is a quality beer supporting it all.

 

Welll...so my initial statement was a bit pithy, perhaps. I honestly still do hold by my initial sentiment, if perhaps not its means of expression. I'd call attention to something you said... "they still use excellent lambic as their base." No argument from me there! It's what they add--the adjuncts, the artificial sweeteners--that causes their main line of products to deviate from what a true lambic is, in my opinion. So perhaps calling them "not lambics" is a little harsh, yes, but neither would I feel comfortable calling them "certainly lambics" when an integral part of their brewing process reflects a deviation from traditional lambic-making. Still, my initial statement was definitely a bit brash, and mea culpa for that!

 

I don't recall that any one every claimed there was complete consistency in the characterization of beer styles, either at the BJCP level or the indivdiual level.

But as I said, for me, as soon as you add an artifical sweetner to the base beer what you have in hand is no longer the base beer regardless of what it was to begin with. I am a taster of artificial sweetners and exclude such beverages from categorization, regardless of whether that is consistent or not. Not because I have a principled objection to "better living through chemistry," but because they add a foul taste which I find extremely unpleasant.

As for brewing a spontaneously fermented beer in some other part of the world I would still consider it to be a sour or whatever, but pretty much side with Patrick Rue of the Bruery, Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River, and Robb Todd of Allagash and would not call them lambics our gueuzes because they were not brewed in the Senne Valley and fermented with the unique combination of "bugs and critters" to be found there. So when Allagash uses their coolschip to collect "bugs and critters" to spontaneously ferment a beer using a traditional recipe I would not call it a lambic.

 

For the longest, I was an imperial stout and porter guy. Then I got into good IPA's. This year I've gotten heavily into sours. They are a world unto themself and in many ways have become my most appreciated style, especially in the warm weather.

The Belgians are a bit different from the Americans. But I enjoy both. The best of course are very sought after and hard to find. But as mentioned there are many good places to start that are commonly available. Rodenbach Grand Cru, Cuvee des Jacobins, Tilquin Geuze. Step up would be Drie Fonteinen, Cantillon (don't spend $100. $20-$30, yes). The Lindemans Cuvee Renee or Boon Marriage Parfait or Hanssens Geuze would also be readily available and good.

Bruery Sour in the Rye is not hard to get. Tart of Darkness is a little harder to get. Russian River Supplication and Consecration are spectacular. Lost Abbey makes some very good ones. As do plenty of others. Cascade as mentioned does mail order, but not to PA. However, there are ways around that. Upland also is fantastic, but very difficult to acquire.

Try your hand at some Saisons this summer, one of my favorite styles to enjoy on a hot day. Hill Farmstead makes some of the best I've ever had. For readily available options, I think Lost Abbey Red Barn Ale is decent. Goose Island Sofie is OK. Ommegang Hennepin is OK.

Petrus Aged Pale is a bit dryer and sourer than many of the others, and I wouldn't recommend starting with it. Also Douchess de Bourgone is a bit too vinegary for me to advise it as a good starting place. The Jolly Pumpkin beers are hit or miss. Not all of them are very good. However, Oro de Calabaza is fantastic.

 

OH isn't that far from WI. You won't pay high prices for New Glarus Sour Wild Ale, $10 a 4 pack.

 

Totally spot on regarding these kinds of beers in the US. Relatively few US brewers actually have a coolship. I think that right now it might just be Russian River, Hill Farmstead, Allagash and I know that Anchorage just got one on line. Otherwise all US sours are made with packaged yeast strains that are derived or mimic what might happen spontaneously.

As for the original question, I would start with some of the basic stuff that has been suggested here. Rodenbach is a good one, Duchesse De Bourgogne is good if you want something more lactic, Petrus Aged Pale is something else and each of those three offers something totally different in the realm of Belgian sours. Certainly around where I shop those are regularly around. My first was Monk's Cafe Sour on cask at the cafe, my memory (super lactic) makes it really different than how it tastes to me now (really sweet actually), but it also gets reasonable distro.

As for the Cantillon, wait til you develop a sour palate. That stuff is worth the 20-30 bucks for a 750, but you will like it more if you have had more experience with the style. In the meantime just get stuff like Rueze, Tilquin, St.Louis Fond Tradition, Hansenns which are all a bit easier to get in the gueuze variety.

 

Stop doing that... If you're drinking beer seriously, you're doing it wrong lol. Beer is fun, and sours are awesome. I totally understand the need for advice since they're so damn expensive, but you just gotta get out there and try a few and then ask for advice about finding ones with similar flavor profiles as the ones you've liked.

Some cheap starter options are Petrus, Jolly Pumpkin, Monk's Cafe, and Cuvee Rene.