"Beware the kettle sour beer"

Local brewer here makes a ridiculously great "wild IPA" with Sacc-Trios yeast, it's amazing and about $6 for 22 oz bottle. I wouldn't say they rush it, but it touches no barrels and is available year round. They also make a killer Brett Saison that does touch barrels, it's almost impossible to get now if you miss release day. They to make a kettle soured dry hopped ale that's out of this world amazing. A talented brewer can barrel infect/encourage, can use a wild yeast and can kettle sour with lacto. At the end of the day it's the flavour that matters most.

 

Sadly yes, the word barrel adds an incremental $15 to any 22oz bottle of beer in most parts of the USA now. They are getting harder to get a hold of though as the demand is pretty high for oak barrels now, but the cost is increasing so that is part of it. However, the rest is totally supply/demand related and the markup is huge on some of those. You are also paying for the special bottle, one off label in many cases, cork and cage and so on. An extra $2 cost on the bottle, explodes in terms of bottle price once it hits the stores.

 

I appreciate the craftsmanship of various brewing techniques but I am most concerned about what the beer tastes like in my glass. The aged sours have special qualities that the kettles sours cannot capture but until I win the lottery on a hot day when I need something tart and refreshing I will probably grab kettle soured beer while when I want something to savor and contemplate I will go with an aged sour.

As a side note, a lot of controversy now days has more to do with the need to sell ink than to the reality or importance of the controversy. It recalls the old Irish saying: "If you are lonely, start a fight."

 

In theory the price of Spontaneous fermented beers should decrease as barrels get reused. One of the biggest initial cost is all of the barrels. But unlike bourbon barrel aged beers, the barrels can be reused for ever. Many lambic blenders have been using the same barrels for decades. *Should, but probably not with the demand. It does amaze me though how the Cascade wilds are priced. They sit on the shelf at $30-$50 a bottle, right next to a real lambic half the price. I would buy Cascade if it was competitively priced. I'm a bit surprised the prices haven't come down at all in the last couple years. I don't know anyone who actually buys it (once to try maybe).

 

Huh. This is the internet, mind you. Find me a person gesticulating their qwerty authority who isn't full of themselves and whatever opinion the wish to wield?

 

Most likely since beer was created by accident from spontaneous fermantation, our modern sours probably taste alot better though..i bet the invention of vinegar came soon after..

 

Because most of the time, you can't drink it before you buy it. I love beer, but I admit I am not discerning enough to taste a beer through the bottle.

 

Came in here to post this.

Also Trinity 7-day sour does not suck for a kettle-soured beer. Albeit their 365-day sour is better.

 

7-Day sour is good, however the pricing blows. The sour session IPA (Red Swingline) is a total rip-off at $10.99/375 ml.

 

This is honestly the only thing that needs to be said on this topic.

 

Wow. The depth of that statement will likely sail over the heads of most but damn. Well played Sir.

 

First I've heard of this.

Boulevard Hibiscus was a sour for the sake of sour. Awful beer and I want my $10 back. I see this is a quick kettle. At least priced in line.

If I am paying $10-30+ a bottle I will make sure it's due to time sitting. I have always figured the price was due to sitting and space being used.

I hope Allagash is a traditional sour method and not a quick shot. Love their small corked bottle offers.

Enjoy

 

There's a brewery near me that currently has a kettle sour on tap alongside a legit, barrel aged flanders red ale. They're both quite good and very different from one another. They're upfront about the kettle sour being kettled, and the price is fine, so I have no problem with it. If a brewery wants to experiment with kettle sours, it's fine by me. If they aren't upfront about the process and try to pass it off as a more expensive sour, that's not cool, but how many examples of that practice are really out there?

 

Allagash is absolutely a traditional spontaneous fermentation brewery. They have a cool ship out back, a badass barrel room and I believe a master blender. Top notch, those guys.

 

I think the main question that the article leaves me with is - who is James Howat calling out? There are lots of kettle sours in the Denver area, but I can't think of many that are being priced like an aged one. Most are random Berliner'esque wiessbiers that are priced just like everything else. Very few are packaged, just like everything else around here. It's a draft beer area.

Can't say I've had too many that have crazy off notes either. I *have* had aged sours with those notes, though. They were expensive, too. Time has the ability to change those notes (like he mentions), but that doesn't change the fact that they were there at one time.

I have to imagine that either this article took some liberties with quotes or he's calling someone specific out without naming names. If it was Yester, I guess that's been dealt with. If not, I'd love to know who. There are a few places with shaky reputations, but they don't typically bottle or have hefty prices.

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with kettle souring, but they aren't in the same category as spontaneous and aged sour and wild beer. Both have acidity sure, but the former tend to be very one dimensional and simple versus vintage beers that have layers of complexities created by wild yeast and bacterial metabolic processes over many months.

Kettle souring can be used by brewers as another tool in their process to bring more complexity to an already complex recipe though. Perhaps a brewer is making a fruited farmhouse ale and wants to add just a touch of lactic acid to brighten the fruit and phenol flavors.. kettle souring can be very useful, just not to be the main event of the beer, that's where I think a lot of brewers are going wrong.

 

Hibiscus Gose is a gose so it's sour because that's the style. Are you not a fan of gose in general or did you just not enjoy our take on it?

 

There is a brewery that just opened in Austin called Blue Owl whose whole concept is based around "sour mashing" process. All 6 packs should be coming in at $10 or less, and their whole lineup will be behind this idea.

I am happy for it.

 

This debate is for those nitpickers with far too much time on their hands.

 

The headline really annoyed me. They manage to portray both sides in the article, but the headline is super misleading.