Affordable Sour/Wild Ales?

I think of wild ales as a pretty catch-all category including Brett beers, mixed-fermentation beers (with pitched bacteria and Brett and/or Sacch), as well as truly spontaneous American lambic/Methode Traditionnelle beers. Some might even argue that wine-barrel saisons tend to take on more of a wild character and would file them as such (I'd just call them saisons, personally, though). I don't think it's as simple as just Brett, but that's your opinion, and that's cool.

I totally agree that there are very few non-kettle-soured beers that are affordable, and I am still of the opinion that kettle-soured beers are generally (but not always) inferior; I'd rather buy more expensive better sours less frequently than buy mediocre sours more often.

I will second your Girardin recommendation. I've said it before, and I'll say it again here: in a blind tasting of gueuzes that I conducted, Girardin Black Label came in second (only behind Tilquin), and the field included Hannssens, Cantillon, Drie Fonteinen, Timmerman's, Lindeman's Cuvée René, St. Louis, and De Troch. Girardin is much easier to find and cheaper than Tilquin as well, and that goes double for the slightly less amazing but much rarer and more expensive Cantillon and Drie Fonteinen.

 

Sorry for the misspelling, man. I'll try harder going forward.

 

Careful, @Bitterbill will get upset.

 

I'm upset for him. Typos are my mortal enemy. *hangs head in shame*

 

I just had the Crooked Stave Sour Rose last night: wow!

That is all.

 

There are some awesome producers in Colorado.

 

Oh, yeah, I love Trinity, too, but they don't seem to have a 'low cost' line like these Crooked Stave cans. Their 12 oz bottles are in the $7 to 8 range still.

 

Don't they make those natural sodas?

 

Shush you. Colorado has nothing to offer current craft beer culture. There's nothing to see here....

 

Oh . . . sorry . . . I meant California. Yeah . . . California has some awesome sour beer producers. I sure am misspelling a lot of stuff lately.

 

The Frucht series that The Bruery has is exceptionally well priced as well as delicious. It's also not as enamel peeling sour as their other standard sour releases (SitR, The Wanderer, etc.).

Pfriem, if you can find it, makes one of the best Peche Lambics out there.

But honestly, just go to the "belgian" area of your local Bevmo/Total Wine and you'll find a plethora of sours (both traditional and non) that you've never heard of. When I used to live in a state that Bevmo and Total Wine existed, I loved playing beer roulette and just randomly grabbing one that sounded (or even just looked) interesting. Most of the time I was pleasantly impressed with what I had randomly chosen.

 

Kettle sours better be cheap. They're like the cheapest beer in the world to brew!

Of the ‘proper’ sours, I am firmly of the belief that Cuvée René, Rodenbach, and Marriage Parfait are the best price-to-value options out there. But lots of other beers tied for close second.

 

Westbrook Gose. Period.

 

Dude, when you are right, you are right!

 

Holy crap that's a bargain. Usually $18 - $20 here in MA unless you can get the previous release bottles that end up in the bargain section and are still worthy of purchasing. Oops...I shouldn't have said that...

 

A sour beer, sure, but there's nothing "wild" about it. It's also a pretty average beer, if you ask me.

 

By far the best sour beer you can buy for $15/6-pack. Period.

 

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

Nothing like some discount gueuze