Favorite Sours

Floodland is Seattle, Washington State. Homage, Cellador and SARA are in Cali.

 

I don't think it's been said yet but should be mentioned is Trilliums Soak series, by far some of the better sour ales out there in my opinion.

 

I'd be curious to know some of your favorites from Trillium. I drink a fair bit of the sours and while I don't put many Trillium sours in the top tier, I appreciate that they are generally affordable compared to others. If you can get your hands on some 2020 Bees by Trillium, I highly suggest it- it is one of there better recent beers. I find many of their sours to be too acidic, but plenty of folks like that pucker. Flora Cherry is definitely better than the sour cherry soak by Trillium, but it is also 4 times the cost and if you look at my cellar, you will find approximately the same ratio. Enjoy!

 

Anyone ever try Referend Bier in NJ? Just got a shipment from them, interesting website: https://www.thereferend.com/materials

 

In the spirit of Jester King a couple fairly new breweries have opened in the Texas Hill Country that do a pretty good job: Vista Brewing and Roughhouse Brewing.

 

An underappreciated beer for sure.

 

My top ones are Lou Pepe Framboise and Saint Lamvinus Grand Cru, but I like the "regulars" from 3 Fonteinen a little better actually. I still have about 30 bottles of Cantillon in my cellar from when I used to live in Europe...but I get heartburn a lot more these days and need to have a special occasion to open one. For US sours, Home Sour Home from Rare Barrel and Consecration from RR have been my favs.

 

So I tried a kettle sour from a local brewery that has become pretty well known and popular for the style. To me the flavor profile was very simple, tart berry and that was about it. No complexity at all. It tasted fine but to me was nothing I would recommend to others. Is this true for other kettle sours or is this one just not really that special?

 

That's been my experience with kettle.sours. not that they can't taste good but they tend to be simple beers that feature some tartness and some fruit flavor

 

3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze is amazing! Too bad I'm drinking my last 375.

 

That's been pretty much my assessment too. The quality of the fruit(s) flavor seems to be the only exciting thing that can happen with kettle sours. However, I just bought a sixer of the latest from Short's, Whiskey Sour, and I'm hoping for better things. We'll see tonight.

 

Then I guess I don’t see what all the fuss is about.

 

That is a great one. I have one left. I’m saving to share with my brother.

 

The comment above is my post about this beer in the Short's thread in the GL forum. I like this beer. I'm guessing that it's a kettle sour that is aged in whiskey barrels rather than a sour ale that was soured in the barrel, and that assessment is just based on the cost. It was $13.99 + tx/dep for a 6-pack, and I think a true barrel-aged sour would be much more expensive.

 

In my experience the best kettle sours are a intense fruit filled experience that could be achieved through a fruit smoothie with a small shot of grain alcohol . Nothing wrong with any of that and many of them are delicious if simple. I prefer a Raspberry Margarita with real fruit and 100 % blue agave tequila, but won't look down on folks crushing kettle sours. Trillium makes several popular kettle sours, but at their prices, I would rather get my own fruit and tequila and make a fruity mixed drink. If I lived closer to The Answer brewpub, I may be persuaded otherwise, because the sours I have had from them are everything I would hope a smoothie with alcohol would be.

 

I used to despise sours, but have really gotten into them in the last 9 months or so. I noted last year the large number of sours that come out in the summer, and since I prefer to try new beers and wanted to get into some lower ABV options, sours fit the bill. What really got me going on sours is that about 9 months ago we started getting Drekker distribution here, and they lean towards sours (and IPA/DIPA/NEIPA).

So my answer to the OP question is that I like most any sour from Drekker. One in particular is called Struggle Bus, which is so much like orange juice that it has pulp. It would be real easy to convince someone that it is orange juice, real incredible. Maybe I'll have one for breakfast tomorrow...

 

Ya me either. I've had some good kettle sours that weren't all fruit, aunt sally from.lagunitas was enjoyable and sea quench from dogfish head.