Most balanced sour

Definitely not FFF Pear Bear that's for sure. That was like sucking on a green apple jolly rancher. In a good way though. Enjoyable? Yes. Balanced? Ehhh...

 

I found Rodenbach Alexander to be excellently balanced.

 

There is one from Zebulon, a little brewery just outside of Asheville. The beer was a dark strong sour with black cherries aged in red wine barrels and it was one of the most balances sours I've ever had.

 

Glad to see you finally found it . I totally agree on the Alexander . Some folks are saying this beer is too sweet . I haven't opened one lately but the ones I had during the summer were nicely balanced . It's heavy on the cherries but in a good way .

 

Sante Adairius West Ashley.

 

Cantillon Lou Pepe I had was amazingly balanced and finished so clean on the pallete .

A more obtainable beer for us Yanks (for Wisconsin residents especially), and great price is New Glarus Cranbic. IMO, its on par with some of the best sours from Belgium at a fraction of the price tag. 4 packs for <$12 and found in grocery stores (according to my Wisconsin connection). Just insanely priced and obtainable.

 

I am personally a big fan of Cantillon beers but I would not specifically use the word “balance” but instead use the word “complexity” to describe their beers. I enjoy the fact that there is more than just the quality of sour to the beers and I appreciate the added dimensionality of those beers.

Cheers!

 

Cheers to you!!

It has been quite a while since I drank an Iris.

I greatly respect the brewing prowess of Jean Van Roy but damn those beers are extremely hard to obtain.

Cheers!

 

It's not easily attainable anymore, but Drie Fonteinen Armand'4 Zomer is the most balanced (and best) sour beer I've ever had.

Rodenbach Grand Cru Vintage and Caractere Rouge, plus Tilquin Oude Gueuze are also worth mentioning.

American brewers, probably something from Hill Farmstead or Funk Factory, plus De Garde The Broken Truck.

 

It's really difficult to apply but basically I'd call all "traditional" european sour beers ballanced..

 

It was worth going through the hassle of finding it....It actually fell into my lap...was contacted by a member about a trade..

It was really blended well with the cherry ....Not overtly sour, sweet....

 

Serious question, what exactly makes a sour balanced? It seems to me if it was balanced it wouldn't really be sour. I get the idea of beers that have more going on then just acidity but I don't quite understand what balanced would mean in the context of a sour.

 

Hints of sour/tartness/funk with lots of other flavors present in the beer without the sour component dominating. That is balanced.

 

Try a de Garde/Upland/Almanac Wild then try a Cantillon/Drie Fonteinen/Boon lambic/geueze and you'll better understand. The former go for an all-out sour assault as where the latter are sour/tart but not to the point where it's prohibitive or getting in the way of the beer.

 

Exactly! Cantillion rocks it because they are complex. Today's modern sours are just inoculated swill with buzzwording Brett as a marketing term. Cantillion ages the beer and hops. Nobody else does that the way they do.

 

What exactly do you mean by a "balanced" sour? One that is only mildly sour? Holy Mountain's sours seem pretty balanced to me if that's the case. Of course what may be mild for someone may be really sour for others.

 

This. In 2014 my brother picked up a case of Cranbic for me and this year I ended up with a case and a half. Possibly my favorite beer ever.

 

The problem with this question is that it's different for everyone. What is balance? A perfectly balanced beer would have acidity, malt, hops, all in equal amounts. So you're really asking for "Which beer has the best amount of acidity for you?" which is going to differ for every person. I have a very high threshold for sourness and bitterness, so I love a number of beers that will be more intense than many will appreciate. Does that make it better, worse, more or less balanced? No, just different.