Top 5 Favorite Breweries For Sours

OEC
Cantillon
Two Roads
De Garde
Hanssens
Hidden Cove
Jester King

 

A lot of the big names I haven't been able to try, but of the ones I have (in no particular order):
New Glarus
Crooked Stave
Jolly Pumpkin
Destihl
Prairie

 

A little location bias here:

Casey
Jester King
American Solera (hopped in here real quick after last weekend)
de Garde
Powder Keg

 

If we just keep it to American breweries:

Side Project
Hill Farmstead
Russian River
Bullfrog
Sante Adairius

Honorable mentions to Casey, New Glarus, Jester King, De Garde, Allagash, Anchorage, and Funk Factory.

If it wasn't just American breweries, however, Cantillon and 3F would be at the top of the list. No one in America can touch them (yet). There is no better fruited sour out there for me than Fou Foune, and there's no better non-fruited sour out there for me than 3F Oude Gueuze.

 

Does Draai Laag see any distro outside of the NE? Been wanting to try some of their stuff for a bit

 

I forgot Ale Apothecary, Anchorage, Casey, and Holy Mountain. Shame on me. Add them to the honorable mentions.

 

Saw a bottle of R2 Koelship in Chicago, so unless it was a fluke or something it appears they distribute a bit.

 

In no particular order
1.) Funk Factory
2.) Bruery Terreux
3.) Capt. Lawerence
4.)Almanac
5.) Russian River

 

I haven't tried too many of the breweries mentioned, but here are three that I've been impressed with:

DESTIHL
Funkwerks
Exile

 

Cantillon
Rodenbach
Cascade
Crooked Stave
The Bruery

 

I haven't had a ton, but what I have had...

Side Project
de Garde
2nd Shift
Trillium (the Soak series is insane)
House of Fermentology

 

In no particular order...

Sante Adairius
Fonta Flora
Wicked Weed
Side Project
Almanac

 

1) Wicked Weed, some of my favorite fruited sours and some delicious odd ones as well like Silencio amd Pompoen
2) Bruery
3) Cascade
4) Fonta Flora
5) Almanac

 

I'm still exploring the world of sours, but at my local tavern last night I tried Almanac, and enjoyed it. Also tried J. Wakefield Brewing's Stush. Loved it! Smuttynose's Blueberry Short Weisse and Daily Brett. Let's see. . .that's four. One more . . . can't pronounce the brewery's name, but absolutely love this top-fermented red . . . Duchesse De Bourgogne.

 

I cannot believe how little Belgium is represented in this thread. Someone else said it, but there is no brewery in the US that comes within shouting distance of Cantillon/Drie Fonteinen/Tilquin at their best. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills seeing mentions of Destihl, Upland, J. Wakefield, Almanac, Une Annee, etc. and none of the real lambic producers (or Rodenbach). Different tastes must be the culprit I guess, but I can't see preferring the inarguably imbalanced and overly sour flavors of some of those breweries to the nuanced, sophisticated, and perfection over decades of the Belgian originals.

Then again, "in your face" flavor is inexplicably still the hot thing in American craft beer (gotta distance ourselves from boring, tasteless macro lagers, right guys?!), so I guess it isn't surprising to see clumsily executed extremes preferred to deft, balanced craftsmanship.

 

As Thanantopsis said, the answer is "Belgium", then a huge gap to the US.

Drie Fonteinen, Cantillon, and Bokkereyder are my top 3, but Girardin, De Cam, Tilquin, Hanssen's, Rodenbach, Boon, and the traditional offerings from Timmermans, De Troche, and Lindeman's are all light years ahead of anything in the US.

Yes, even Lindeman's Cuvee Rene. We LOVE spending 3-4x as much on Cascade, Allagash, JK, CASY, SARA, etc but there are almost never as good as even that bottle of Cuvee Rene sitting there. I have never had an American sour, not from Allagash, Casy, SARA, HF, Oso, OEC, etc etc, not one that was as good as anything from 3F, Cantillon, etc.

 

Alexander is one of the best beers I have ever had.

 

I'm sure I'm biased as well, but yeah, the American Solera sours were amazing at the release last week.

 

Tilquin
Girardin
Drie
Cantillon
Boon

 

I will give my top 3 with reasons why.....

1. Sloop Brewing Company- their beer "Confliction" is by far the best sour I've ever had. In fact my opinion was validated with its gold medal this past year at the World Beer Cup

2. Cascade- Although their beers my be a little pricy, Cascade puts out a top notch sour. The risks they take to make the high quality sours they produce more than justify the price. I may not be able to drink them all the time but I'll always enjoy one when I can.

3. Almanac- I really enjoy their hopped sours. It is not an easy task to balance the bitter from hops and the sour flavor. Alamamac does an amazing job at this. Their mosaic sour is an unique experience to say the least.