Where did all the Wild/Sour beers go?

My local breweries are always tossing out a sour/wild. I never seem to not see them actually they seem on the uptick around town compared to before.

 

I feel like most of the wild/sour beers out there now are being made as approachable as possible for non-sour drinkers to enjoy. Brooklyn brewery, and Sixpoint make some decent ones that are year round, but they aren't interesting enough. Allagash is your best bet, along with Firestones sour program or even Crooked Stave if you see any of their stuff by you. I always check the single bottles rack for these beers, as you will most likely have the best luck finding something on that shelf. Going to local breweries may be a good option, but I've found most brewers are just doing kettle sours, which again, to me are not complex or interesting enough and usually full of unfermented sugars making the beer overly sweet and not balanced.

I feel as if the summers prior to this brewers tried to get people on the sour train, and it worked mostly with gose's, but this year seems to be the year of pilsners, and IPLs (which I'm not too mad about)

Best of luck on your hunt for some good wilds/sours!

 

If you’re craving mixed/wild fermentation and Allagash and lambic are your main choices, I’d say you’re good.

I’m also seeing more kettle sours than ever around here, but they seems to be trending away from the ridiculous acidity arms race in favor of approachability. I dig it.

 

A bottle shop I checked yesterday that lists their current stock (not here... near where I am planning a visit soon, so I was pre-shopping) has 172 different beers in stock of the styles:

• Berliner Wiesse
• Gose
• Lambic
• Flanders Red
• Gueuze
• Sour (just listed as so)

I guess maybe it depends on where you look.

 

Probably has something to do with the demise of larger format bottles. A lot of US breweries packaged their sours in corked and caged or 22oz bombers and stores are reluctant to purchase beers packaged this way.

 

Making a beer sour through fermentation or oak aging is a lot deeper of a process than kettle souring. It’s basically trying to control certain flora and microorganisms that really wanna go crazy.

Usually wild ferm beers tend to be more expensive for this reason. But IMO theyre always worth the money. This is why Kettle-souring is definitely picking up. I see no shortage of kettle sours on the shelves; it’s easier, faster, and ultimately more cost effective.

 

Finding something non-sour, non-milkshake, non-hazy, non-NEIPA is often harder than finding a wild/sour beer in these parts. Minneapolis is fortunate to have a handful of breweries that do a really good job with wild/sour beer and they will probably continue to do so for some time to come.

 

I have noticed a slight reduction in choices at High Spirits and Nikki's in Providence, but there were a few at High Spirits - a bit harder to find since they rearranged the shelving. Bretts - that I can agree - haven't seen many (if any at all) lately. I didn't hit Nikki's this past weekend. High Spirits didn't have anything noteworthy from Allagash in my opinion (well, Curiuex but that doesn't fit the category) and I am an Allagash fanboi. I picked up a new brew from Oxbow there - farmhouse ale with lime and salt, so maybe that's a wild gose??? And they had a couple of offerings from Springdale Barrel Room. Both usually have some from Rodenbach, but that's Flanders red. Bottles (the shop) on the east side - I don't hit there frequently, but they sort by style and had a shelf section full when I did a quick in/out last weekend - didn't notice exactly what they had. Just over the border at the Swansea Yankee Spirits - hit or miss and it's a freakin' safari finding the styles sometimes (I think customers "help" rearrange things on them occasionally). I'd assume they are all the same. Usually they have Capt. Lawrence and the Cascade fruit sours and I have had good luck with Allagash and Springdale there. If you are from RI, how close are you to Julio's in Westboro? It's a couple hours from me and not worth my time, but their stock used to be pretty good and if you are in western RI near the MA border, it's not too far.

 

I think you're probably facing a local case of supply and demand. They are findable here but only at some places. e.g., my local bottle shop has at least three different Russian River -ation beers at the moment, as well as a few others from various breweries. They may sell slowly but they sell steadily.

 

Agreed. Hidden by the crowd perhaps but things like RR -ation beers aren't going away.

 

No Hermit Thrush in Rhode Island?

(Proclamation has 4-packs of Ooh! Strawberries this week).

 

I'm seeing more fruited kettle sours than ever previously. Wild ales (Brett-fermented) and slow sours (in which the bacteria are introduced via open fermentation or barrel/foeder aging) are a very different story. Many of the breweries around here that started slow sour programs largely have pivoted away from them, as the beer doesn't move in taprooms, bars, and liquor stores, especially at the high prices necessary to cover costs of production. I know of a few local breweries that have slow sours aging away in barrels and are nervous about their commercial prospects when they're ready.

Similarly, I recently spoke to a brewery owner at a highly respected taproom-oriented brewery who used to put out some Brett beers, and I encouraged him to bring them back. He told me they'd sit on tap for months if he tried.

I suspect that there never was a large market for such beers in America, that the perceived interest in these beers came during a time in which craft beer geeks were hyping up challenging beers instead of easy ones, and that time has passed. I also suspect that the emergence of fruited kettle sours has shifted consumers' expectations of what "sour" means (from complex, deep, and challenging to simple, refreshing, and accessible).

I'm a big fan of wild ales and slow sours and am disappointed by their diminishing commercial prospects, for the record.

 

FYI, the gradual disppearence of such wonderful beers began around here well before the onset of fruit sours, etc. Currently in my basement, waiting patiently for me, there are 7 bottles of Gueuze all purchased in 2013 or before. (In fact, some years back, on the very evening that I first heard that a German beer focused restaurant in Philly (Brauhaus Schmitz)
had just put a Goze on tap (Wait, what's that you wrote?? ) I was enjoying one of my then store of bottles.) There was one shop I'd visit on the way to visit relatives that was a regular stop coming home because Tilquin Gueze was new enough to still be sitting on the shelves there. Haven't see any bottles of Gueze of any brand on any shelves around here since 2013. Supply hasn't grown as rapidly as demand world wide.

 

Bruery Terreux 750mls and 11.5oz bottles are nearly everywhere in stores I see. They are mostly outstanding to world class IMO and don't get the great ratings due to easy accessability/lack of rarity I'm sure. Allagash of course is awesome. Prairie makes some great funky sour options. I see alot of regional/locals on shelves, but I'm not quite ready to pull the trigger on most as they don't have the pedigree or ratings to justify the risk of the cost.

Of course you have alot of the world class to excellent Belgian sours easy to find in most stores as well.

 

Jolly Pumpkin is still cranking out sour beers done the old-fashioned way in barrels, but even they have released a few non-sours in recent times. Their stuff should be available to you.

 

This is rather simple. If a brewery is operating as a business, let's be honest not all do, they are making strategic decisions. Customer preferences on a macro level is shifting away from sour products. Naturally there is still interest by some. However, building a business case to justify risk/cost isn't there. Therefore, breweries are simply making the decision to brew alternative beers.