Good Available Sours..

Grab a Grand Teton American Sour if you see it. Their second batch came out around 2 months ago, really great sour.

 

They're all a little bit tart. It's kinda one of those weird things where the term "sour" means different things to different people. They aren't going to make your mouth pucker like a Berliner, but they're pretty sour compared to most beers.

To my knowledge everything he produces is oak fermented using a combination of normal sacc, brett, and lacto. At least 2 of those can create a certain level of tartness. Beyond that, there's a certain amount of funkiness, too.

His saison is probably closest to the ones Crooked Stave from Trinity. Dupont and Fantome also head down that road, too. Tart, but not puckering sour. Biere De Garde and East Bank have a similar acidity, too.

The fruited beers (Fruit Stand and Family Preserves) use those same beer bases, but have varying amounts of fruit added. Don't expect anything super sweet, though. Think more along the lines of a Cantillon or 3F rather than New Glarus or Lindeman's.

Oak Theory and the Cut are loosely based on the lambic flavor profile, so that's an easy comparison to make. Some taste spot on like they're from Brussels while other vary a bit. Those are all what I think just about anyone would call "sour" though.

 

Small Batch had their Atom beers marked down considerably from what I remember them being originally. Picked up a few Arlos for $7.99 a piece. Great beer at that price point.

 

I really do not understand folks saying Casey beers are not sour. They are not in the same pucker tier of, say, Upland - but they are certainly squarely within an American take on saison that is quite sour compared to the traditional take of Saison Dupont or Funkwerks Saison or Tank 7. @Domingo 's answer is substantially more diplomatic: acidity presents itself differently to many, and your baseline sour receptors might require more "banging" than others, to which Casey possibly (but unlikely) might not suffice. To wit, Trve was mentioned as being more sour than Casey, which I find interesting because despite their metal iconography, Trve specializes in nuanced and subtle sours for the most part.

I do not know where one finds Black Project beers "fairly easy." Their bottle releases are sporadic and minute. You could go there, but that's about it.

Folks mentioned Cascade, which I find to be sour-er than most sour beers. They are pricey, but recently saw a drop into the $22 range for most. A recent Blackcap Raspberry really hit the spot.

2017 La Folie has landed and is more tart than the last several iterations.

If you like Consecration, please try Powder Keg Quartet. It is honestly a little jammier than Consecration, if not as well integrated. The Epic Oak & Orchard series could be good backups in this vein, but they are vinuous with a touch of vinegar.

Atom Brewing is very nice. The base farmhouse is complex and subtle, but less brett-y than Cellar West Westield, which I consider more wild and brett dry than sour, like a cousin to Hill Farmstead Dorothy (if that helps - plus you said less brett character is something you enjoy).

Avery Apricot Sour should be ubiquitous by now. I hope you come across one. If you like the Raspberry, I think you'll love it. It's more of a golden base, but very juicy.

We are quite spoiled with Crooked Stave sitting on shelves around here. If they kept everything as super limited releases only at the brewery, with small case counts, beer nerds would be losing themselves over it all over the country. The Petite Sour series are light on fruit. The Reserve series are phenomenal and heavy on fruit, but much pricier. The latest batches of the lower ABV stuff are flat-out world class: St. Bretta, Vielle, Surette, Huguenot, Wild Sage. I highly recommend you revisit those and really pick them apart.

I find that the Odell sour beers only play one or two notes, but play them pretty well. For example, Crossover pretty much only had some bright sourness and white wine characteristics, but those two characteristics were quenching. Dark Theory was good, if not in most folks' fruit wheelhouse - not many using those super dark cherries. Flemish Giant just came out, but I cannot speak to it yet.

I would like to make a pitch for The Bruery. They exist in this shelf turd vortex in Colorado because they have so many different highly sought after reserve beers that don't make it out here. That stifles excitement for their beers that *do* make it here, but you'll never be upset that you drank a Sour in the Rye, Tart of Darkness, Frucht series, Oude Tart, Rueuze, etc.

A lot of nice kettle sours on the shelf if you need a porch pounder, but you said you lean barrel-aged.

Some Belgians were mentioned and worth exploring. There are pretty much two categories: 1) stuff you can find on the shelf nearly anytime that is decently underrated, 2) more sought after stuff that dropped somewhat recently but gone in nanoseconds (Tilquin, Drie Fonteinen). Grab a fruit lambic you've never had before and enjoy!

Umm... I like sour beer.

 

Black Project can be had on draft easily if you go there, but outside of that no fucking way. There has literally never been a Black Project bottle on a shelf lol

Casey beers are American Wild Ales. To me, it's a pretty clear distinction and you'll definitely never here Troy (or Jack or John or Eric) call them sours. Like Domingo said, there will be some tartness, but outside of a few sleepers (OG Apricut, Duarte Plum Cut, Nectarine Cut), I wouldn't use "sour" as a descriptor.

 

Modern Berliner Weisse is not usually technically a "wild ale," but the American takes are a little higher in alcohol and more sour than the surviving traditional German counterparts. There is no barrel treatment in the vast majority of cases. We have a very nice one here in Colorado - Grist Tartanium comes in a six pack. Many of the other sours in a pack that aren't explicitly another style are probably loosely Berliner Weisse's, with a good portion of wheat in the grist.

Berliner Weisse's cousin Gose looks to be more popular right now. There are probably a dozen of them on your best local shelf right now with all manner of fruit and spice additions. If you like some salinity and spice with your sourness, these are awesome warm weather quenchers.

I think it an unnecessary quibble that Troy Casey or whomever might not call their beer "sours." "Sour" is not a category approached by most brewers. They are making some specific style of beer that happens to have sour or acidic characteristics. Any mixed culture fermentation or completely wild beer is going to have some sour characteristics, whether lightly pleasant or in your face. The exception, really, is truly Brettanomyces-dominant beers that are incredibly dry and farmy, covering the more acidic characteristics. Some breweries embrace the supra-category "sour," while others are steering a more specific narrative.

The larger point is that beer is acidic across a wide range and while many brewers might not call their beers "sour beers," a huge and growing segment of consumers is approaching it that way. I'm not sure, historically speaking, that Belgians ever considered Flanders Reds & Oud Bruins as "sour beers," but they present that way to American palates and even Rodenbach has rebranded here as "The Original Session Sour."

I think things are evolving like hoppy beers. If someone asks for a hoppy beer recommendation, they are really looking for IPAs even though a lot of beers are quite hoppy: pilsners, American ambers, American browns, many stouts. Maybe now when people look for "sour" recommendations, they really mean quite sour, rather than beers merely with a sour component.

 

Tart n' Juicy Sour IPA from Epic is good.

 

festina peche from dogfish head is a tasty Berliner with peaches. Not a local beer but distributed locally.

 

We have plenty of Avery Apricot Sour and a bunch more goodies. See you soon!

 

Funkwerks raspberry provincial is better than the apricot.

 

If you go to Avery they still have quite a few of their Brewery only Barrel Aged Sours in bottles available. I was just there Tuesday.

 

SO much this. Tart is a descriptor of sour. Sourness level is a complex measurement of acidity level (pH), type of acidity, concentration & residual sweetness.

It's just that most people define 'tart' as slightly sour and commonly associated with wild-yeast only beers, and 'sour' with a full on mixed-culture incorporating bacteria as well as yeast.

Pardon my mass generalization, but in general *most beer is around 3.8-4.3 pH... Berliner's/Goses are around 3.6-3.7, whereas sours like Gueuze are closer to a ~3.4pH. But depending on the type of acid, like a beer that has a pH of 3.4 from lactic acid will have a much mellower character than a beer that has the same pH resulting from acetic acid.

Regardless, I'd consider any wild yeast, wild bacteria beer to be sour. Thanks for your writeup before as I think you covered the nuances of the different type of sours and sour producers.

 

This statement is 100% inaccurate homie.
I have bought Black Project off the shelf twice here in Fort Collins.