Sour beer suggestions?

Spontaneous fermentation doesn't necessarily mean better beer. Most of the important organisms from Belgium such as wild yeast and bacteria have been captured and propagated. All of them could be captured and propagated, but they aren't needed to produce a great lambic without spontaneous fermentation.

 

Here's one related paper:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0035507

"Additionally, this core profile displayed some notable similarities to the microbial profile of lambic, suggesting that the shared production methods exert a common selective niche environment for spontaneous beer fermentation."

Although to be fair, this paper focuses on brewhouse residents, which might have originally come from inoculation. Let me look for other research.

 

Unless they are from New Glarus. Sour Wild Ale will be $10/4pk

 

Thanks! There is not nearly enough information out there on Sours!

 

They do spontaneous fermentation in Belgium for a few reasons.

Tradition. Free yeast and bacteria, just open the windows! And tasty results.

 

Ok for starters I don't care really if you don't drink American sours or not do what you wish its no sweat off my back but your reasoning seems faulty to me.

The majority of the wild bacteria comes from the wood the brewers use not the open air (see here http://www.lindemans.be/start/lambik/en) So since the majority of sours American or otherwise are made using wooden barrels or in the case of New Glarus big wooden vats (http://beerstreetjournal.com/new-glarus-is-adding-a-dedicated-lambic-cellar/) and the majority of the bacteria that ACTUALLY ferments the beer lies within the wooden vessels used to mature them I don't see what could be lost in translation. Except that it would be one regions localized microflora instead of anothers.

 

Duck Duck Gooze

 

Actually the article you are referencing says otherwise. I will not deny that the wood has a part to play in the process.
From the article you posted:
5. At this point, the brewing process is complete, and fermentation -the seething riot of chemical and bacterial reactions that actually creates the lambic- begins. It starts with lambic's signature event, unique in all of beer making: the pumping of the hot wort into open, shallow cooling vessels (also called a tun) in the attic of the brewery. The brewer throws open vented windows, turns on fans and leaves the liquid overnight to cool and be inoculated by the yeast and other microbial flora, of the surrounding air. This exposure to the air is called pitching. The local conditions are of fundamental importance in pitching. Not only does spontaneous fermentation of wort takes place consistently only in a small area around Brussels, but it does so only from October until April, when outside temperatures remain under 15°C. Some seemingly minute conditions that could affect the balance of microbial flora and the growth rate of the microorganisms would also affect the fermentation sequence and, therefore, the final product.

 

I will still support American sours. Dirt was not meant in a pejorative sense. I have several bottles at the current moment. But having been a kriek drinker for over 10 years. I have yet to find an American kriek that can match the perfect balance of the good Belgian ones ive had ( no not lindeman's!). Some of the American varieties have much more of a acerbic cherry pit flavor in them, which I personally cannot stand.

 

Spontaneous fermentation produces a variable product. You have no control over the pitching rate of the yeast and bacteria. You get whatever enters the windows and whatever is lurking in the barrels.

This could be good or bad depending on how you look at it.

 

Some people need to understand the (clear) distinction between "lambics" and "American wild ales".

 

That was my bad I used Wikipedia to quickly find the info. per wikipedia

"Today the beer is generally brewed from a grist containing approximately 70% barley malt and 30% unmalted wheat. When the wort has cooled, it is left exposed to the open air so that fermentation may occur spontaneously. While this exposure is a critical feature of the style, many of the key yeasts and bacteria are now understood to reside within the brewery and its (usually timber) fermenting vessels in numbers far greater than any delivered by the breeze. Over eighty microorganisms have been identified in lambic beer, the most significant being Brettanomyces bruxellensis. The process is generally only possible between October and May as in the summer months there are too many unfavourable organisms in the air that could spoil the beer.

I'll find a source for that info though, it's not wrong. Somebody must have added it into the middle of a previously cited passage and not distinguished it in anyway lol

 

Wikipedia is full of bad information. The article I read on hops was terrible and misleading.

 

Too bad New Glarus stopped making belgian red when the door county cherry crop had such a low yield last year I could of sent you one. it'll come back though if your interested raspberry tart is still widely available (in WI).

 

I actually will be trying to trade for that when I come back from Portland later this month ( much better beer distribution than here).

 

Captain Lawrence Rosso E Marrone might work for you.

 

just so you know if someone trys to get you to trade anything besides shelf beer for it your being had its about nine bucks a bottle and any given store, even some gas stations, will have at least 4 or 5 on the shelf at any given time. That goes for any NG 750 that's ever existed.

 

fair enough. Im sure someone would want some cascade or logsdon in return for it .

 

NG Belgian Red is similar to Kasteel Rouge and Petrus Red, but destroys them both. Another win for the USA!

 

After drinking Cascade sours you still hold that opinion? Just because American sours are different than Belgian ones doesn't make them "dirt". That's a pretty arrogant comment