Another Sour Tasting...

Start with the Flanders Reds and from there the order shouldn't matter too much. Just make sure you do the La Folie from oldest to youngest.

 

Get more sour beers?

That list is a little heavy on New Belgium brews.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

Pour out the Big Sky Kriek.

 

Yeah and pour out that 2009 La Folie also, right into my 32 oz. snifter.

 

What's with all of the Blue Sunday recently? I've had numerous people tell me it was absolutely god awful

 

Agreed, you should mix it up a bit. Can't you find some Gueuze up in MN?

 

It's not necessarily awful, but it's not necessarily sour either. I'd liken it more to New Glarus Enigma. Fruity with just a hint of funk.

 

You have a 32oz snifter? I know they say size doesn't matter....but I'm jealous

 

Big Sky Kriek is absolutely terrible. I will never understand how Big Sky could taste that beer and say "Yep, it's ready to bottle and sell for $14 a pop". What a joke.

 

I have enjoyed every Blue Sunday beer since it was first called Moxie around 07. This year's batch is different, as the sour barrel blender at New Holland has left for other projects. The new brewer/blender, Tim, has taken his own approach to brewing and blending the blue sunday sour beer, but he definitely knows what he is doing and brought back some tricks from his trip to Cantillon and other belgian breweries.

Some friends and I went on a tour of the New Holland operations facility in January and got to drink blue sunday blends straight from some of the barrels, these beers were not blue sunday per se, but beers that will be used to blend in future batches of blue sunday. As a frequent drinker of various american and belgian sours ales, I do believe the 2013 Blue sunday is sour along with the past versions. I did get a slight metallic/iron taste in 1 of my bottles of 2013 Sunday, however, i did not notice this iron taste on draught or in any of my other bottles (not sure if those who poo-poo'd this year's batch noticed this iron taste).

I would say Blue Sunday is definitely more sour than the New Beligum beers and the Monk's cafe, but less sour than the fontenien. Never had the surly or the two brothers. Hope this helps.

 

I would agree with this - definitely not a particularly sour beer. "God awful" is a little extreme, it's not Earthmonk.

 

With sours you can probably go either direction since they typically become more assertive as they age. Not sure where La Folie would fit in the equation, but for some American sours you absolutely want to go oldest to youngest.

 

Why do you have old bottles of La Folie....

 

My saying "not necessarily awful...or sour" was in response to a previous post. I actually liked Blue Sunday. I had the '10 back in '10 and really enjoyed it, though I did think it tasted similar to Enigma. I'll have to pick up some '13 when I see it and revisit. Cheers!

 

Haven't had the (dis)pleasure of Big Sky Kriek yet, but from what I hear it rivals Chez Monieux for most atrocious cherry sour ever. Haven't heard great things about Blue Sunday either. Whatever you want to taste the most you should drink first. If it was me, I'd go Pentagram, 3F, Le Terroir, La Folie mini-vert, Flanders Fred, and mix in the rest however you'd like. Enjoy your tasting-09 La Folie is drinking sublimely right now.

Also, not sure if you are looking to add beers to the tasting, but Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge and Cuvee Rene are widely and high-quality sour options, though I don't know if you get distro and am admittedly too lazy to look.

 

Sorry, Drie Fonteinen. Nice additions-Hanssens Oudbeitje Lambic is polarizing, but it's a personal favorite of mine. If it's accessible to you, you may want to give it a try.