Sours: Help for Noobs

I know there have been other similar threads but none that have addressed this specifically.

So as of now I've really enjoyed beers such as:

Framboise De Amorosa
Odio Equum
Oude Tart
Sour in the Rye
Dissident
NB La Folie and others.

I tried Duchesse De Bourgogne and the vinegar I get made it a drain pour for me.

I also tried Tilquin Gueuze...like drinking bile/vomit.


I'd like to get my hands on a couple Cantillons since they are known as excellent examples of sours (not wale hunting here) but a little unsure of how to proceed given my two very different feelings about sours.

I'd like to try a Cantillon classic gueuze after reading reviews of it's intense sourness but nerous to invest into it after being so turned off by Tilquin gueuze.

Any tips?

 

I don't think I quite understand/see the question here.. But

I'm not big into sours, but heres two I've had recently and enjoyed - based off what you said, I think you'll enjoy too

Silly Sour - Brasserie de Silly S.A.
Sour In The Rye - The Bruery

 

Sounds like you might not like sours...

 

I would venture a guess and say that of every sour that you listed as having enjoyed, they were all somewhat young. If you didn't appreciate Tilquin or Duchesse, I wouldn't waste my time/effort (there will be a lot of both) going after Cantillon. I would hate to see a drain pour thread down the road that has the word Cantillon in it.

 

Try Rodenbach Classic, it's a pretty young sour in the Flemish Red style (as opposed to Gueze, a lambic style). You also might like Brettanomyces fermented beers in styles that are not typically sours, like saisons. This will get you some good sourness but (I'd expect) without the vinegar effect that turned you off.

Another good experiment to do is to seek out beers that have a single souring agent, ONE at a time of Brettanomyces, Lactobacilius, and Pediococcus. If at all possible in this experiment, find beers that the base beers are as similar as possible. This will help you determine what souring bacteria/yeast strain you like/don't like the effects of.

edit: An experienced homebrewer who does sour beers might be your best bet for my suggested experiment, they may be willing (especially if you're buying the ingredients) to brew beers that are the exact same base and ferment them with the various souring agents, to give as controlled an experiment as possible. I can't think of any professional brewers that do enough with these to pull this off without the base beers being pretty disparate, whereas with homebrewing it's much simpler to do test batches like this with only one thing differing between each. Maybe even use one 5gal batch and ferment side-by-side in 1gal jugs. (the extra two gallons could be used to combine brett/lacto and brett/pedio for further comparison)

 

I'd work my way through the Jolly Pumpkin Portfolio. I also just had Rueuze by the Bruery and thought it was very good.

 

"Sours" is such an immensely broad term. You might just not like Gueuzes (or lambics), but enjoy some oud bruins and lactic acid forward wild ales. You might like certain brett-forward wild ales (any crooked stave).

Have you tried Rodenbach, Rodenbach Grand Cru, or Cuvee Des Jacobins yet? If you don't like those then you can write off Flanders Reds. Duchesse is a flanders red, but its quite a bit different from Rodenbach or Jacobins.

 

And by the way, good luck with finding your way through sours, if you do become accustomed to them the challenge they present is very rewarding. I also second the thought that you should avoid putting the effort into finding Cantillons so early in your sour education, I would cry real tears if you drain poured that, and it just isn't worth the time and effort to do it Besides, "some of the best out there" and "classic example of the style for educational purposes" are not necessarily one in the same, and you certainly don't need to find the former to achieve the latter.

 

Learn that the category "sour" is often a catch all for many different beer styles that sometimes share the same character, but not always.

If you find a beer that you like, look up it's style on here, and then figure out which others in that same style you might want to check out.

Enjoy!

 

Maybe you like sours just not gueze. Ill like Tilquin but certainly not my favorite gueze...I say check out Cuvee de Jacobin.

Or send me your Cantillions and Ill let you know if I think youll like them

 

A lot of good info! I hate the vinegar as well, night shift ever wiesse was such a vinegar bomb it wasn't funny. I've never had that actual vinegar taste or smell. But other than that I love all types of sours. You may like cantillon, the kriek was super yummy and though sour I think the flavor really shines and there was no vinegar thing going on.

 

Rodenbach is good for dipping your toe into the sour pool...

 

Alchemist Petit Mutant. Excellent.....

 

I fully agree- Rodenbach is a "gateway" beer to become acquainted with the unique world of sours.

 

Duchesse De Bourgogne drain pour? That hurts my soul.

I think maybe you need to take a step back and examine what styles/breweries you enjoy, and what ones you don't. There are plenty of American breweries and imports that are relatively affordable for the style. Since you are in Cali, I'd suggest grabbing a few bottles of Russian River sours. They are pretty much all highly touted, and it'll give you a good base of what to expect.

Further, I'd also suggest trying gose, saison and berliner weisse as alternate, entry level styles to expand your palette to appreciate different types of sour sensations and tastes.

This also might sound strange, but tasting a few different types of kombucha I find is a very accessible, inexpensive way to tread into the world of sour fermentation. Raw kombucha tastes remarkably similar to various sour beers, sans alcohol, and is quite tasty and refreshing.

And promise that once you have more experience with sours, you'll buy another bottle of Duchesse and give her a try.

 

Check out the Rodenbach Grand Cru, it's much more complex than the Original and doesn't have as heavy of a vinegar flavor as the Duchesse

 

Ton of great info, thanks guys.

Did you see the list of sours I stated I enjoyed?

Good info.

Well, I love La Folie and Dissident which are both oud bruins from what I can tell...I will definitely check out your suggestions.

Yep, that's why I started the thread, to see if I should even pursue them.

I dig Consecration and Sanctification(only 2 RR sours I've tried). I've liked every berliner wiesse I've had too.

The weird thing with Tilquin gueuze is I didn't get a lot of sourness out of it.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but how tough are these to get? Should I be able to find them at a local bottle shop or TW?

Edit: I see TW has Grand Cru

 

RR Consecration opened up sours for me. I have a bottle of Supplication (batch #10) right now that I'm excited to try.