Sours for beginners; help me out.

Rodenbach grand cru X a bajillion million zillion

 

Rodenbach Grand Cru or any Berliner Weiss.

 

Lindemans Gueuze Cuvee Rene

 

When introducing my friends to sours I found it is best to do a vertical of lower sours moving up to a higher one. This way they can tast the difference. I start with Lindeman's Frambrois or Kriek and explain how this is low level stuff. I then move up to Boone Oud Kriek or Marriage Parafiat Kriek. This has a slight funk to it. Then I move them up to Cantillon, Drie Fountenein and Tilquin depending on what we are drinking that night. The next day we take the hour trip to Brussels and go to Cantillon to drink the whalez. Fortunately I live in Belgium currently so they are easier to get and much cheaper.

 

If you don’t like sours, I don’t see what the issue is. Everyone has their own thing, I enjoy hoppy beers but I will never become a hophead.

Anyway if you are interested in getting into sours, I have introduced a lot of friends of mine. I recommend trying the following as a start:

Duchesse de Bourgogne
Petrus Aged Pale
Rodenbach

There beers have a slight sourness to them, introduce you to some of the profiles but have a nice malty, sweeter balance to them.
Some people don’t get into these beers from the first time, try them several times over the period of a couple months.
I wouldn’t not recommend to start with American sours, they are less balanced focus hard on the acidity which is brutal even for people who like sours.

 

i dont know much about sours but they do intrigue me. just last night i bought a bottle of Rodenbach Grand Cru. It was a good price, had great reviews, and seems to be pretty common. and let me just say i LOVED it. so much tho, that i was planning on getting something new to try for tonight but might end up just getting another bottle of that to drink on!

 

Lots of great suggestions. If sours aren't your style, then your bank account will be grateful! Personally I find sours to taste better with a meal or snack. Try your next bottle with a meal or cheese/fruit.

Jester King has a sour stout called Funk Metal, and it's delicious.

 

the rodenbach is a flanders red but very sour like lemon juice im not a big fan of it. I'd go with guava grove by ccb not as viscus.

 

also riserva by weyerbacher is good

 

Liefman's Goundenband. One of my favorites. Easy to find also.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/283/773

 

Locate a bottle of Cantillon Fou Foune. Pay out the ass to acquire it. Drink it.

If you don't like what you're drinking, you can safely chalk up spurs as not your bag.

 

Duchesse de Bourgone. On tap is best.

 

I find Monk's Café Flemish Sour and pretty much any Berliner Weiss to be solid introductions to sours, IMHO.

 

Anything Lindeman's produces would be a good start, Frambois is extremely easy to find around here. If you get a chance, maybe a go with BFM Bon Chien?

 

I might have liked Monk's Cafe better if I had tried it before trying Rodenbach Grand Cru.

But, Douchesse, Strubbe's Red, and Rodenbach Grand Cru are all good starting points. A decent brett sour, perhaps. Mo Betta Bretta or Brux.

 

It's all about personal preference. Some people don't like IPAs. Some people dont' like stouts. Some people don't like sours.

Sours can be hard to find, but for beginner sours, try Petrus Aged Pale or that Monk's Cafe flanders red thing.....both are decent intros to sour beers.

 

Coming from a person who used to abhor sours, and as has been reiterated ad nauseum, no need to force yourself to like sours; instead drink what you like. With that being said, I personally believe that Berliner Weisses (especially flavored ones) make great intro sours. After that, go with anything from Petrus (especially Aged Pale and Aged Red). Then move up to Rodenbach Grand Cru. After that, jump off the deep end and just start trying shit; personal experience tells me that if you have made it through the aforementioned beers, you will like (or at least tolerate) most of what crosses your lips. For example, I am now a HUGE fan of Tart of Darkness by The Bruery.

 

If you're going this route you may as well try Iris instead.

 

I'm sure this has been said, but it seems like sours have the reputation of being the styles you're supposed to "mature" into after you grow out of your boorish IPA/stout phase.
My advice would be see what you can find, check on BA to see if they're good representations of the various sour styles, and if you still don't like them, then you just don't like sours. No shame in that.

 

I think I started backwards with Sours. If I remember correctly, my first sours were tasters of Supplication and Consecration at Russian River a few years ago. I enjoyed them, but the complexity was definitely lost on me. After that, I bought some bottles of both, and later La Folie, over the next year. Once again I enjoyed them, but still didn't fully appreciate them, as I had not had other sours . Since that time, I have worked my way through many of the classic belgian sours of all styles, as well as many American examples. It took trying all those beers to fully understand what makes a good sour. For my personal preferences, I like them quite sour.