Sour addiction!

How i miss you BRUTE...

 

At least I did something right today then. But you understand my point, it doesn't HAVE to be crooked stave. For you it might be the bruery. I'm just saying that usually there is a better offering at the same store where these two are sold at. I am lucky as hell to have crooked stave in my hometown and a trading partner that frequents hills farmstead. Because I can easily get my hands on better beers, I don't waste my time or money on petrus.

 

I've been all over the place on sours over the years. Sometimes I've loved the mouth puckering ones, sometimes more "balanced" ones. Right now I'm all about the Rodenbach Classic Red. Just had the Boon Oude Geuze last night, and I think I could drink that all day everyday.

 

Don't worry. He'd be poor before he had the chance.

 

I've never understood sours. They are intentionally contaminated beers. If someone was brewing a stout (under normal conditions) and it tasted "funky", they would pour it down the drain, yet when someone brews a sour, it's acceptable. Let's not forget, lactobacillus is a bacteria. If you had salmonella in your beer, you probably wouldn't drink it... I'm going to assume that this is hype and the hysteria will eventually die off.

 

You'd better also avoid yogurt, cheese, sour cream, pickles, sauerkraut, etc....

If you had salmonella in your chicken, you'd cook it to the USDA recommended temperature and never know. No known pathogens can survive in beer.

Good good, more for me!

 

I love sour beers but have my limit at times, I loved Sour in the Rye but Tart of Darkness was a bit OTT for me. Rodenbach Grand Cru. I cut my teeth on the Duchess and that is where I start all my friends on sours and ramp up from there.

Sours as a stye have been around a good long time and will continue to be.

 

This. Belgian brewhouses have been quietly making these historic styles for generations. People who perceive them as some sort of new "fad" don't realize it is simply the rennaissance of an unusual style that is now reaching new devotees, and being copied by some domestic brewers.

 

Just because something has been around for a long time doesn't mean it's not a fad. Examples: yoyos, lava lamps, hula-hoops, break dancing... All of these things existed before their respective crazes, and still exist today. Same thing for sours. Eventually the "rennaissance" (I think you mean renaissance) will die down and we'll find another style to freak out over.

 

sooo much facepalm in one post. There are numerous types of bacteria. How do you think cheese and yogurt are made? There is a difference between accidentally infecting a beer and inoculating a beer. As a homebrewer I have done both (even on stouts), and there is a world of difference. The infected stout was terrible sour milk tasting, the sour stout is very pleasant with a citrus note and bretty character.

Hype and hysteria? You do realize that lambic are with the (or are) the oldest beer style in the world? Sour beers are nothing new to the world, it is newish to the US because we have a young history, and the majority of our beer history is with flavorless lagers. If any styles could be said to be built off of hype and hysteria it is the over the top hopped IPAs and the spirit barrel aged beers.

 

In that case, craft beer is a fad too.

 

Maybe, but "craft beer" and "sour beer," as entities, are not analogous.
Craft beer (in America) is a broad category, describing higher quality beers brewed by smaller breweries, that has been gradually gaining market share since the 1970s or so (I know smaller breweries were the norm pre-prohibition). Eventually craft's market share will level off, but I doubt we're going to see the same "boom and bust" that you get with what we would call a fad.
Sour beer, on the other hand, is a specific, previously obscure, Belgian style(s). It's sudden popularity is easily distinguishable from craft's growth. Just a few years ago I could go to Binny's and see Cantillon sitting on the shelves and then, all of a sudden, they were gone (I swear, it's like somebody went around and bought all of it). Craft did not happen (figuratively) overnight like that, and it can't be said to refer the the popularity of something as specific as the current sour craze. Hell, maybe our obsession with sours will last forever, in which case I would be totally wrong.

 

Craft beer did have one bust cycle already in the 90's, and many are predicting another one.
As for sours, I think it's analogous in that once all beer was craft beer, and also, once all beer was sour beer. I've been a fan of Cantillon for a long time and I remember hearing about its increasing scarcity for years before we reached the point where I could not get it anymore. I think it's just a sign of the maturing tastes of craft beer drinkers. During the last boom cycle everyone had a Porter and a Brown Ale and a Blonde or Pale Ale. This time interests are varied and we're trying anything and everything that seems different. This explains the increased interest in barrel aged beers and DIPA's and Cascadian this and Imperial that and on and on and on. Sour beers are just a part of the surge in interest in all craft beer, and I think you want to say that they're different simply because you don't like them.

 

Same here, I am currently working on converting my cellar over to almost all sours, and the stuff that i started on is not even close to what i am looking for now. lindemand, petrus and rodenbach just don't do it for me. I need hanssens, cantillon, russian river

 

dollar for dollar i think jacobin's rouge is the best sour out there you can get. relatively accessible, insanely sour!

 

Was at Russian River 2 weeks ago. I had 2 pours each of their 4 sours on tap. Sanctification, Temptation, Supplication and Consecratiom. I should have pissed in my own mouth the next day, I bet it would have tasted great.

 

To each his/her own, eh Devlish ?
I have to say, that in my youth, I too might have mocked what I didn't like or understand, but as a true beer lover, I respect them all ! And thank you for turning me onto sours..!!

 

Cheers to that! I am tempted to pop open a Five to celebrate such a great statement of knowledge that can lend itself to all styles of beer and disallowing personal taste when a category doesn't match it. Well said.

Prost!

 

I love Kefir and Kombucha too for the health benefits!! I'm so surprised that fellow beer drinkers are aware of those!