Why are sours uncommon?

Five gallons of homebrewed sour ale = $40 and a wait time of 9-18 months.

Five gallons of Red Poppy or Consecration = $800

Cost of homebrew gear for a 5 gallon batch= $400-$800.

Hmmmm? How many more years do you plan on drinking beer?

 

Because many BA's don't care much for them.

 

A little fact that I got at a conference 10 years back. In the homeland of sours, Belgium, the lambics, Flemish Reds and Sour Browns account for <3% of the sales of beer.

I lived in Germany. My co-workers thought that the sour beers were obviously infected and not fit for human consumption.

It was said above that the barrels have to be scrapped after 3 uses. That is the standard for Bourbon barrel aged beers where you don't (normaly) want infected beers. The porosity of the wood is place the wild yeast and bacteria can establish a home and is hard to disinfect (every see a thead about infected BA beers). A barrel is not ideal for normal beer, but is ideal for sour beers. Some of the barrels at Cantillion are said to be 100 years old, so with a storage time of 3 years per batch, they have been used 30 times or so.

 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Lindeman's Gueuze Cuvee Renee.

 

Of course. I wasn't scolding you and I apologize if it came out that way. I was merely pointing that out so that any ``sour newbies'' who read your post will not assume that all Lindemans sours are poor. I actually think the Cuvee Renee is a very good place to start (since it's easy to find).

 

I heard that's why milk stouts are so thick.

 

Seriously? Maybe if you buy your gear exclusively from Blichman. I have about $200 invested in all my gear, and can brew sours all day long.