Hey guys, I am new to beer advocate and new to craft beer. (I've been 21 for about 7 months) My favorite styles so far are porters and stouts. The only beers I dont like as much are IPAs or especially hoppy beers. However, on a recent trip to Athens, GA I tried New Belgium's La Folie and really enjoyed it. Then, the other day I tried Anderson Valley's Holy Gose and liked that as well. I live in western Kentucky and was wondering if there were other sour beers that are available in my area that I should try. Any advice or recommendations for a new beer lover would be much appreciated!
Best bet for sours in the south is Wicked Weed, but they are not really close to you. New Belgium makes several sours in the lips of faith series each year. Boulevard does Love Child & Saison Brett which are both great. Evil Twin and WB also make some sours. I would also tell you to go to your local bottle shop and look in the import sections. Lots of lambics and gueze you will probably like.
Against the Grain have done a few sours I believe. Yazoo's Embrace the Funk are more wild and funky, but could fall in the sour category and are stellar. Brewery only, though.
I'd caution against saying that Saison-Brett is sour. We inoculate with brettanomyces at bottling so we're seeing the development of funky/earthy flavors in an anaerobic environment as opposed to using brett for primary and getting tartness. If someone were to open a bottle of Saison-Brett expecting it to be sour, they would be very disappointed.
I would make the short(ish) drive to Munster, IN and hit up the Three Floyds Brew Pub and their store. They always seem to have a fresh sour either on tap or recently bottled. It's about 4hrs from Louisville but it's well worth the drive.
Western ky gets drie fonteinen distributed by dauntless, and they also get cantillon occasionally and some other sours. I picked up some nice stuff at two shops in paducah today. Personally, I don't think any of the wicked weed sours are very sour, or very good, and I feel the same way about against the grains sours.
Paducah is really close, what shops should I hit up there and can you recommend anything I should pick up?
i hit up wagner and roof brothers. both were good, but the better items were at roof brothers. that store is a crazy mess though. apparently the better bottles are hidden behind other bottles. i found two old 2011 drie golden blends there. i'd personally recommend drie oude geuze and drie oude kriek. they're about $10 and $15 respectively. both of these stores are close to each other, so you might as well check them both.