How to get Sours?

Sours are everywhere in Oregon. Upright, Cascade, Great Notion, de Garde, Ale Apothecary, Breakside.

 

This is literally every city in the US. It is the most popular style in the US by a metric ton. This feeling is most likely because you're in a new place and don't know anything about here compared to knowing almost everything from where you were previously.

They're not, in my travels I'd honestly feel we're one of the most diverse beer cities, but I'm willing to admit I might be biased. But a lot of the country has more IPAs/more boring styles (ambers etc).

Sadly you're not in one of the better suburbs for beer. The Portland metro area is pretty centrally focused. I mean beer shops to hit up are the obvious Beermongers, Belmont, and Tin Bucket. And places like Market of Choice always have a sneaky selection. Someone might be better equipped to give you suggestions actually in Gresham though.

Breweries to be on the look for are Breakside, Upright, Great Notion, de Garde, Ale Apothacary, Cascade, Logdson, Solera, Block 15, pFriem, The Commons, Bend Brewing, Alesong, Culmination, Double Mountain, Lompoc... I'm sure I'm missing quite a few; A lot of breweries do sours/bret/lacto.

Welcome to the PNW/BA!

 

If you're in Gresham, head over to the Hoppy Brewer, I'm sure they have some sours in stock in their bottle shop.

 

Your best bets in Gresham are Hoppy Brewer and Cheap Charlie's.

A fairly comprehensive list of breweries in Oregon that produce sour/wild ales:

• Upright - lots of saisons and other brett beers, with occasional sour gems like Fantasia. bottles available
• Cascade - pretty much all lacto-fermented sours, with a heavy emphasis on fruit. Bottles available
• Great Notion - rotating collection of "food themed" sours like Zest Berliner Weisse & Blueberry Muffin Sour. Mostly draft, but you can get crowlers of some things
• de Garde - all spontaneously fermented sours & wild ales. Bottles available, but you'll probably have to drive to Tillamook
• Ale Apothecary - all spontaneously fermented sours. Bottles available all over town
• Breakside - nothing regularly available, but there's a steady stream of one offs like oud bruins, gin barrel wild ales, etc. Bottles widely available when beers are released
• Logdson - awesome farmhouse ales, most of which use brett & some with fruit. Bottles available all over town
• Solera - occasional spontaneously fermented one offs, many of which feature fruit grown nearby. draft only.
• Block 15 - sporadic brett saisons & fruited sours. You can occasionally find bottles in town, but plan on driving to Corvallis if you want more than a sinlge bottle.
• pFriem - quarterly fruit sour releases & sporadic wild ales and other sours sprinkled in throughout the year. Bottles available, but they tend to go quick.
• The Commons - Flemish Kiss is their year round brett fermented Belgian Pale, and they release other things throughout the year. Bottles available
• Bend Brewing - Ching Ching is the most widely available beer outside of Bend. Bottles show up semi-regularly.
• Alesong - saisons & other brett fermented goodies. Bottles available at every good bottle shop in town.
• Culmination - Usually one or two sour/wild ales on tap, and semi-regular bottle releases like the Kriek that should be around town right how.
• Double Mountain - occasional draft only stuff, and a couple bottled releases per year of their two kriek variants.
• Lompoc - sporadic one offs, mostly draft only, and often only available at their 5Q location
• Ruse - brett fermented saisons. Multibeast is the only one regularly available in bottles, but other draft only beers can often be found on tap at Culmination.
• 10 Barrel - Cucumber Crush & Raspberry Crush (fruited berliners) are available all over the place.
• Agrarian - farmhouse ales & "field beers" abound. Bottles are now showing up in more and more palces around town.
• Deschutes - not readily available, but they put out occasional bottles like Dissident & often have at elast one fun wild offering on tap at the pub.
• Ecliptic - They have a kettle soured peach beer available in bottles year round. Other bottles and draft offering pop up occasionaly.
• Flat Tail - They have the Dam Wild series, which is a sour blonde base beer aged on different fruits/herbs/hops/etc. The current bottled version is marionberry & pink peppercorn.
• Crux - Freakcake Oud Bruin gets bottled once a year & should be easy enough to find. Other draft offerings pop up on occasion.

Other American breweries that are available here & produce sours/wild ales/etc:

• Almanac
• Against the Grain
• Boulevard
• Bruery
• Crooked Stave
• Epic
• Goose Island
• Green Flash
• Jolly Pumpkin
• New Belgium
• Off Color
• Smog City
• Stillwater
• Tahoe Mountain
• Trinity
• Urban Family
• 3 Magnets
• Anchorage
• Firestone Walker
• Russian River
• Perennial
• Prairie

Imported sour/wild/lambics that are often available:

• Girardin
• Hanssens
• Lambik X
• Lindemans (Cuvee Rene Kriek is all over town right now)
• Oud Beersel
• Petrus
• BFM
• DeProef
• Mikkeller
• Boon
• Bzart
• Verhaeghe (Duchesse, Vichtenaar)
• de Dochter
• Bockor (Cuvee de Jacobin)
• Fantome
• Van Steenberge (Monk's Cafe sour red)
• Omnipollo

 

I think Grand Teton is in Washington, can't remember if Oregon but they just released American Sour for a 2nd time and really great and around $8 for an 11.2oz.

 

Fantasia is being released this Thursday at Upright. It'll most likely be around all weekend and longer but it's definitely worth hitting up the tasting room for cheap pours of Fantasia.

 

I was at the tasting room today and Fantasia was plentiful.Even last year, i know bottles lasted 3 weeks, though I don't recall how long it lasted on tap. Unlike last year, only the current vintage is available on tap.

On the bright side, they also have the excellent Baltic porter on tap.

 

Supposedly Thursday was pretty busy, as was Friday up til about 7. I went Friday just after the Blazer game started and it was nice and quiet until whatever beer tour it was rolled in 15-30 minutes before closing. I grabbed a bottle then and rolled my curmudgeonly butt out.

Quick shout-out to the Saison Vert which I thought was really well done.

 

And while you're at it, try the Winter IPA and let me know if i need to head back for some of that :-)

 

yeah I rolled in there on Sunday. Plenty of bottles left. Had a few glasses of Fantasia for a grand total of $8.

 

I love that Fantasia is no longer a pain to get.

 

It was really only a pain last year, when they sent some to distro and released it on a Saturday.

I'll reserve final judgment for next year when there are no adverse weather conditions to impact, but I also enjoyed the return to bygone days.

 

i dunno, last year was pretty easy too. I showed up 2-3 days after the release and was still able to buy 3 bottles at the brewery

 

I asked in the Portland thread, but seems like Fantasia talk is going on here. Any chance bottles will last into the weekend?