Curious about "sours".....

Check out this thread from earlier in the month:

http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/favorite-sours.94844/

 

Gueuze, the category to which the Lindeman's Cuvee Rene belongs, is another popular sour style. It's basically a style that is created by blending different age lambics.

Kriek, which is a type of lambic with sour cherries added.

Berliner Weisse is another sour style, and it's supposed to be really sour, but the varieties I've had are mildly tart at best.

American Wild Ales can be sour, but not all of them necessarily are, I don't think.

And lastly, Gose is another style that I think is supposed to be sour, but the only offering I've had from a major brewery was Verloren (by Sam Adams) and it tasted more like a salty/barely tart version of a hefeweizen. I had another Gose from a local brewpub and it was definitely more like the sourer styles.

 

Stop while you still can. Sours are a delicious money pit that has no bottom and zero chance of escape once you fall down it.

 

"american wild ales" (all over the place style).

my thoughts: if you like cuvee rene, you'll like many "sours." it's a great beer in its own right, and very indicative of what you're getting yourself into.

my advice: seek out cascade beers like apricot. lost abbey's red poppy is pretty available as well, and amazing (but expensive). grab up some tilquin geuze if you can find it still.

 

Just do a little Google research. "Sours" is vague. There are many varieties on the style. Some you may like and some you may dislike. You seem to like Gueuze, that's a step in the right direction. More on the extreme end of the scale. Try many and get a feel for what you like and dislike, then come back and discuss. When you narrow it down, we can steer you in a much clearer direction. It's a delicious journey! Enjoy it!

 

The major categories to look out for are:

Lambics, which are spontaneously fermented (wild) beers from Belgium. They have subcategories:
-Unblended Lambic - Lambic from one year's barrels.
-Gueuze - Like Cuvee Rene, but many are better - A pretty extreme style to approach right off the bat. A blend of 1, 2, and 3 year old Lambic, traditionally.
-Kriek - Lambic with cherries
-Framboise - Lambic with Raspberries
-More fruited lambics are common but I don't know all the names for em

As you said, Flanders Red/Brown ales are also considered sours but usually have a lot more sweetness to them than the lambics.

On the American side of things, it can be really difficult to tell, since we tend to categorize everything as an "American Wild Ale." Some are sour, some aren't. You just have to hang around and learn more about each one, really.

If you see a beer is fermented with Lactobacillus or Pediococcus, you can expect it to be tart. Many also use Brettanomyces, though it doesn't necessarily make a beer sour. There are American Wild Ales with Brett that are far from sour.

This is all off the top of my head at 3AM so if it's not entirely accurate, forgive me, but it'll give you a start.

 

If you're into sour beer try a Cantillion Gueuze. It's from a local brewery in Brussels, apparently the last remaining in the city. it might be hard to find and a little pricey but I feel that it's best in class. Here's the brewery's website. Cheers

 

This was an important point I was going to make. It used to be that "sour" and "wild" were pretty synonymous. But, with the recent cultivation and domestication of yeasts such as brett, this isn't always the case anymore, since the addition of those "wild" yeasts is often no longer spontaneous, resulting in a distinct funk, but not necessarily sour.

The lists given above are a pretty good guide, but I would add a few more key terms to look for:

1) Berliner Weisse (sour wheat beers), often have fruit or other flavors added, but you can find a few raw unflavored ones that are wonderfully sour.
2) Look for beers that have been aged in wine barrels, since these typically have a certain sour character that results from the wood of the barrels allowing some airborne yeasts into the mix.
3) Not many breweries use this term, but look for "spontaneously fermented", which is a sure sign that the beer will have, at the very least, sour notes.

^^Also, this...

 

Are you sure about this? My understanding of this style is that it's supposed to be mildly tart, thus making it an excellent session beer during the warm months.

 

Anything that says Jolly Pumpkin

 

Well, I'm no expert, so my information comes from a thread that I was participating in earlier this month about that particular style: http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/berliner-weiss-recommendations.96713/

A user, patto1ro, who has a much more extensive knowledge of and experience with the style shared some of his thoughts on the matter. His posts start about the second page of the thread, but the whole thread is fairly interesting if you have the time to slog through it.

The basic idea he shared is that Berliner Weisse is--or at least used to be--very tart, which is why people often add fruit syrup to the beer rather than drink it straight. At least, that's what they did in the regions from which the style originates. Of course, as I alluded, I've not actually had a Berliner Weisse that was super sour, because the only two I've been able to try are the Fritz Briem 1809 (this is the most widespread one, but as patto1ro notes in the thread I cited, he doesn't think it's very representative of the style at all) and Bell's Oarsman ale, which was barely tart and lackluster overall.

 

I've had Berliner Weisse's that fall into both categories, extraordinarily sour and mildly tart. They are both delicious, and both certainly fit into the sour category.

 

Saisons are even creeping into the "sour" category. mmmm.... Prairie Gold.

 

Most of them aren't actually sour. They are still funky and thats the reason why I love them!