Any wild ales worth trying?

This is a bit of a broad question here.

Do you mean in the Midwest in general? If so, try getting your hands on some wild ales from New Glarus, Une Année, Arclight, or Transient. All four of those breweries (the last two are also in MI) have a pretty solid sour program in my opinion, and produce some great wild ales.

 

Looking for Michigan specifically, distro’d, or willing to travel/trade?

Transient makes some good wilds - out of Bridgman. Anachronism, electric boogaloo, pentameter...

Half Acre in Chicago has a great and under-the-radar wild program.

Lots of options!

 

For Michigan I suggest Speciation out of GR. Some of their bottles see distro. Or via their monthly releases you can reserve bottles for pickup in GR.

 

I mean...Jolly Pumpkin?

 

No, there aren't any. They're all terrible, I don't know why people keep making them.

 

Seconded...and they are pretty easy to find.

Is Crooked Stave in MI? If so, check them out...

 

Anchorage Brewing. They're in MI, right?

 

My first wild ales were from Jolly Pumpkin. I believe it was Bam Biere, and is pretty mild for the style. Nowadays my favorites are from Speciation and Arclight (SourSmith series).

 

Only your palate can decide if a beer is worth trying. Since you had to ask for info, I'm guessing that wild/sour beers are new to you. Many good recommendations were made above, but I think Jolly Pumpkin offerings have the widest variety on the taste spectrum, with their most frequently-rated ones being on the entry level of that spectrum. Take a look at that brewery's BA page and select the beers with the most ratings and choose the highest scores for just those beers and I think you'll end up with the ones that are most approachable to someone who is just getting started. Don't make any judgements about whether you like wild ales until you have tried a few of them because there is a bit of a learning curve involved.

Beers brewed with fruit are also very approachable because they exhibit mainly a tartness taste more than other taste characteristics such as barnyard, wet hay, horse blanket, etc. which can be off-putting to someone newly experiencing wild ales. Good luck.