Sour beer suggestions?

In general, sours take longer than any other style to make and often use barrels.

 

Someone's never had a New Glarus sour...

 

Paying too much? Yes.

Hyped? Yes.

Dirt? Oh Hell no! If I had to choose only one country for sours, it would be the USA. No contest.

 

Somebody should let russian river, cascade, new glarus, goose island, upland, funkwerks, jester king, allagash, jolly pumpkin, the bruery, lost abbey, and new Belgium know their beers are expensive hyped dirt.

 

So that explains why in your wants you want a Lost Abbey sour....?

My local breweries in NC have better sours than some crap I get from Belgium....like Monks Cafe

 

Let me explain what I mean by Hyped Dirt. Basically all these beers are great, but the process in which they are made is simulated and not natural. The beers have to be artificially infected and personally I feel a lot is lost in translation.

 

Then I had a Lost Abbey sour and realized it was hyped dirt. ROFL!

 

How many Belgian sours have you tried?
It's a pity you don't live closer. I would love to have a blind taste test with you to challenge this theory.

 

Want to send me one ?

 

cuvee des jacobins for the win. it's available in PA for probably $7-8 a bottle and it stands up against all the RR sours i've had

 

My first commercial sour was Jolly Pumpkin La Roja. Its remarkably dry, with a lot of complex brettanomyces funk along with a healthy dose of tart sourness. It completely hooked me on sour beers. There very complex, and unlike "regular" beers, they are a living organism and change, sometimes drastically with age (unless you pick a pasteurized bottle). I have since had 4 other Jolly Pumpkin offerings and they definitely all have a house funk character that I really really enjoy.

Keep in mind festina peach is a Berliner Weisse which are usually just sour from Lactobacillus and other bacteria and don't have a lot of the horsey, barnyardy, dirty leather, funky character that a lot of sours that include Brettanomyces in the fermentation. All the different bugs that ferment sour beers can add a variety of aromas and flavors which is another thing that makes this style so interesting..... and expensive!

If you want your sours and you want good ones then prepare to pay.

Although brewing sours is not nearly as expensive!!

 

Not sure. Somewhere between 20 and 30. Maybe a little more.

I have plenty of frequent flyer miles, free time and a velvet blindfold. Be careful what you wish for.

 

Im seriously thinking of doing this with the local folks. I think it would be fun. Yes I know that my opinion is controversial. Perhaps I am looking to debate .

 

Find yourself a Beatification.

 

First of all, there a bunch of American beers on the market that are spontaneously fermented or very close to spontaneously fermented. Allagash, Upland, Lost Abbey, Russian River, and soon Jester King are all experimenting with lambic-style fermentation.

Second of all, what does "artificially infected" mean? If you mean "intentionally inoculated", why is that a bad thing? Of course it won't produce the same results as a traditional lambic, but that is often not the aim of the brewer.

 

It's still not the same. Have you read the book Lambic? The area around Brussels is the only area in the entire world with the perfect microflora balance to spontaneously ferment beer in a non controlled environment.
At least as far as we know of course.

 

I'm quite fond of many Belgian sours too, but if I had to choose only one country to buy sours from, it would be the USA. It's not a homerism thing. I don't care who makes my beer.

Belgium produces quite a few meh sours. I'm not a fan of back sweetened sours. They make plenty of them. They definitely make a better Gueuze and a larger variety of Gueuze.

However, the USA has a larger variety of great sour beers that don't require a $300 Etre order. My favorite Belgian sours are not easy to get here.

 

That simply isn't true. Recent research has shown that the same organisms that live in the Brabant region live in areas with similar climates and topography around the world. Perhaps the techniques, barrels, and brewery housing is unique in the Brabant, but the microflora are found ambiently in many other parts of the world.

Anyway, lambic is a specific type of sour beer. Most American sour beer is not made with the intent of mimicking lambic. Judging those beers against lambic makes no sense.

 

Has anyone done experiments with this theory? Its possible the information in the book may need updating as it was written quite awhile ago.

 

I totally agree with you regarding the sweet sours. Horrid IMO!