A few of us have been saving some special sours for a very special occasion this weekend and we're looking for an order or rhyme or reason. Some people told us to try to go American sour vs Belgian along each category. Last night, someone suggested doing Cascade v Russian River. Have a few ideas being circulated, but would love to hear what others have to say. And by all means - tell us to save something for another occasion if we're wasting it in a tasting This is the list of bottles we have to work with: Cantillon St. Lamvinus Cantillon Iris Cantillon Classic Gueze Lost Abbey Duck Duck Gooze Cascade: Sang Noir, The Vine, Kriek, Apricot and Blueberry RR: Beatification (Batch 2 and 5), Supplication, Consecration, Temptation, Sanctification, T-25 Oud Beersel Oude Kriek Vielle Lindemen's Cuvee Rene Gueze Jolly Pumpkin La Roja De Proef Flanders Fred (& Reinhardt Flemish Wild) Looking for an order, to narrow the list, or opinions on what to drink head to head etc.... Thank you, Thank you
In all seriousness, I do kind of like the idea of America vs. Belgium. I think I know who would win, but it would still be nice to compare. Maybe you could stagger - one Am, one Belgian, one Am... etc.
I would definitely try DDG and Beatification with the Gueuzes. They'd be an interesting comparison. I might even throw all the non-fruited blonde beers together. Then I'd drink the fruited blonde beers together, then the others. If I were doing this, I'd throw in 3F Geuze. I'd love to try DDG and Beatification next to Cantillon Gueuze and 3F Geuze. The arguably best American non-fruited sours up against Belgium's best flagship Gueuzes. So I'd drink these: Cantillon Classic Gueuze Lost Abbey Duck Duck Gooze Lindemen's Cuvee Rene Gueze RR: Beatification (Batch 2 and 5) I might throw in Temptation and Sanctification here since they don't really fit in the next two categories. I could be convinced otherwise, though. Then: Cantillon St. Lamvinus Cantillon Iris Cascade Apricot, The Vine, Kriek, Blueberry Oud Beersel Oude Kriek Vielle Last: De Proef Flanders Fred (& Reinhardt Flemish Wild) Sang Noir Consecration Supplication Jolly Pumpkin La Roja
Personally I'd break this up into at least 3 or 4 tasting sessions. Doing that many in one sitting would just wear me out. I like to group by style/variety. Coryfmcdonald suggests a good sort, but I'd do each group in a separate sitting. What ever you do, you will will enjoy, that's a great line up. Cheers
That was definitely an initial concern, but we're doing it over a looong small plate tasting dinner - prob 3 hours - and there are 3 of us drinking. It's def only going to be half of what I posted though.... I would never attempt the whole list.
dude if you doing that many sours you really need to throw in some Jester King they make amazing sours and then there is the Bruery which i like there sours a lot but JK funkmetal woohoo
We did something like this for a buddy's wedding... full armand set, lots of cantillon, beat, etc... It was amazing, but i think the consensus was that when you open 5 beers in the top 10% of all sours, 2-3 are in the bottom of the group! I think we said we would spread them out next time, and that several were too good to be overshawoding each other... So now when we do tastings, we completely ignore all of that (same story with stouts too), and still do big tastings with the best beers we can come up with and satisfyingly quaff world-class beer after world-class beer i guess it's all part of the fun haha. drink the gueuzes first, especially beers you might not be able to get again (beat 2 and DDG). you can't go wrong from there
We we're def going to start DDG, but I guess we should get those Beat's in early too. I am a big fan of The Bruery - just didn't make the list for this evening. I stocked up on this year Oude Tarte and Rueze - love them both. How far north does Jester King make it ?
Honestly to echo what others have said its probably best to brake it up into 2-3 sessions and have some other no sours beers on hand to brake up the sours a bit. like a stout after every 3 sours or so. it doesnt need to be anything fancy so something to reset the pallet.
We're getting like 25-30 little courses of food, so as much as I would love to grab any of my Stouts from the cellar - it concerns me simply from a matter of feeling "stuffed" Thinking an IPA won't really reset our palettes - more send them in outer space. What else should we consider in between ? Maybe a TBA to break it up.... Made myself pretty thirsty today.
Its hard to imagine anyone fully appreciating those high quality beers after drinking more than say 1.5 liters of sours. Your pallet will quickly get tired plus your stomach might begin to hate you. Belgium vs USA sounds fun.
