Hello all, Last week, my girlfriend and I cracked open a bottle of Avery Oud Floris and Odio Equum. She is now demanding more sours! #beerconvertftw Since I rarely go to Colorado aside from family vacations, my capacity to mule Avery/Crooked Stave sours will drop off a cliff after Christmas so I am wondering about delicious-tasting sours I can find in the DC metro area. Not sure if this help much regarding suggestions for sours to try but I tend to frequent Rodman's, Magruders, Whole Food at P St, and sometime that liquor store on Conn Ave, so hopefully people who have experience with those stores can help me out? Please don't see me as lazy- I'm still very much new to the world of sours and lambics. I am very much a stout/porter drinker, and I often beeline toward those beers so I get overwhelmed by the selection and/or spend 30 minutes browsing BA ratings to determine my next purchase. #firstworldproblems
There aren't a ton of American sours that are officially distributed in DC. Sometimes stuff from Russian River, Lost Abbey and Cascade shows up, but you'll have to pay a stiff mark-up because it's out-of-market. The best American stuff that is distributed here is The Bruery (Oude Tart, Rueuze, Tart of Darkness), New Belgium (La Folie, etc.), Goose Island (Juliet, Lolita, Madame Rose), and Jolly Pumpkin (their stuff ranges pretty significantly in sourness from beer to beer). Unfortunately a lot of those beers are seasonal/limited, so other than Jolly Pumpkin, I'm not sure what exactly would be on shelves right now. Your best bet might be lambics and the European sours. The Tilquin Gueuze is super easy to find (at least at Connecticut Ave.) and is one of the best year-round gueuzes out there right now. You also might be able to find gueuzes from Girardin, Hanssens, Lindemans, Oud Beersel, St. Louis, and Boon, all of which are pretty solid. Watch out for some of the fruited lambics though, as most of the ones out on shelves are not sour. I'd also highly recommend Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge, a Flanders red ale that's pretty damn tasty. It was the first sour beer I ever had and I loved it!
Pretty much what Starrdogg mentioned, also feel free to explore the standard common oude bruin, flanders ales, that show up commonly in the DC area at the places you mentioned too. You might dig them also.
Pretty much starr listed em all. Oude tart , tiliquin gueze are readily available and great sours. Also drink the Petrus they have on tap at smoke and barrel.
