Commercial examples of Sour Beers???

Not that I ever run out of good new beers (gotta love Portland), I am interested in trying my hand at enjoy a Sour Beer. I have tried a couple at beerfests, and have not had a great experience, but my palate has changed considerably since then. I now appreciate just about every style that I have tried, and spend a considerable amount of time getting to know each style. Sour beers are somewhat intimidating though, and I would like a little direction on where to start. I see that there are Brett mixed beers, is that a good place to start? Maybe not the full force sourness to begin? I dunno, I am adventurous, but I don't want to be immediately turned off either.

Portland, OR? Cascade Brewing in Raleigh Hills specializes in Sour Beers. They have a few on tap and they sell some really tasty ones by the bottle. Maybe if you went there and had some tasters it would be a nice intro. Lucky Lab also has a sour beer called 5 Words that is often on tap at the NW location.

For commercial beers in the bottle, Dogfish Head Festina Peche, New Belgium La Folie, and Duchesse De Bourgogne are a great start to trying a variety of sours. The festina peche is not very sour , it is a Berliner-Weisse, while the other two are quite sour.

All of these bottles are available at Belmont Station. You just missed Puckerfest, which is a sour beer festival that they host.

http://www.jollypumpkin.com/

Jolly Pumpkin in Dexter, MI makes some outstanding sour brews. While I'm not particularly a fan of sour beers I can appreciate the creativity that they put into their beers. I can handle a sour occasionally but it's not really something I would drink on a regular basis.

ORVAL, seriously the first sour beer that everyone should try. Its a good intoduction to the style.

Duchesse de Bourgogne is IMO the best intro to sour beers in the fact that it is balanced by being very sweet while sour. Rodenbach and Rodenbach Grand Cru if you can find it are outstanding. Any gueuze will be a treat. Orval is relatively tame on the sourness, don't don't chill that beer down. Welcome to the most complex beers out there.

Flanders Reds are my favorite. Jolly Pumpkin makes a fantastic one, Duchess is good but highly variable, de Proef makes one which seems to be relatively tame. Liefmans Kriek is outstanding for a kriek beer, it has a great balance between tart cherry and sourness.

Boulevard, in Kansas City makes one. I tried it last week when I took a tour. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of it. I may have had a few too many samples.

Really? Nobody has mentioned Russian River? Or Cantillon?

-Russian River makes the best sours in the country. Temptation just came out a couple of weeks ago. It is 25-30 dollars for a 750ml, but it is right on when it comes to a sour. Also, it seems Consecration is out still. Again, same price considerations, but if you're a person who likes red wine, this beer would probably blow you away. I know I miss it when I can't get it.
-Cantillon really should speak for itself. Classic gueuze, Iris, and if you can find the Lou Pepe framboise, you'd be in for a treat.
-If you're going to try Cascade first, I would go with Cuvee du Jongleur. Their kriek is kind of off, and their framboise is nothing to write home about.
-New Belgium's La Folie is an awesome choice, and is in bottles and might be readily available still.
-Rodenbach Grand Cru is good, but it seems this years batch is a bit more acetic than before.
-I'm not a huge Lindemann's fan, but the Cuvee Renee is a great starter sour. I don't drink their fruit beers, but this one is reasonably priced and has a lot of character.
-Petrus Aged Pale is a great accessible beer without a lot of sour, but enough to make it refreshing and nice to drink.
-If you can find a friend with a good stash, they might still have some of the Dissident from Deschutes. Pretty good and won't kill your pocketbook, and it is not overdone.
-Duchesse is ok, but I think too sweet and won't give you the proper impression of what a good sour can be.
-I don't think of Orval as being a sour, nor half of the JP beers. They're tart, but not fully sour. They have more brett characteristic in them, but I don't see them as being true sour beer. That said, Orval and JP are some of my favorite beers in the world, and you should try both if you haven't.

The Bruery is down in the OC and makes a great selection of commercial sour beers. You might be able to find that in Portland.

I'm drinking Victorys Wild Devil right now. It is their hop devil fermented with 100% Brett. YUMMY!!!!

If you want something local try Bridgeport breweries new Stumptown Tart. It's delicious and should be easy to find in the area.

New Glarus Brewery Unplugged Old English Porter.

Man, I blew it. A bar up in Seal Beach had a "sour fest" last night. From what I heard there were 3 on tap and a couple others in bottles.

Unfortunately, I heard about it too late.

My vote is for Jolly Pumpkin (Bam Noire, La Roja, or Maricaibo) though that may be because Russian River doesn't distribute here. I hear so many great things about RR I will have to look for some on my trip to CA later this year...

craigd said:

My vote is for Jolly Pumpkin (Bam Noire, La Roja, or Maricaibo) though that may be because Russian River doesn't distribute here. I hear so many great things about RR I will have to look for some on my trip to CA later this year...

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Don't forget about their Madrugada Obscura. Very tasty stout.

arturo7 said:

Man, I blew it. A bar up in Seal Beach had a "sour fest" last night. From what I heard there were 3 on tap and a couple others in bottles.

Unfortunately, I heard about it too late.

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So, we finally got our act together and here's what's going on:
The beer list is posted on our website, along with a calendar, but here are the details. We've accumulated approximately 50 kegs for the week.
In addition to the sour beers, we will still offer a number of "normal" beers. This is so your significant other has no excuse not to come along.

August 25th:
Beachwood sour fest will kick off at 11:30 with 18 sour beers on tap. At 6pm we'll be adding 4 more sour beers from the Bruery. The entire Bruery crew will be there to hang out, talk shop and drink beer. We'll also be serving 4 special appetizers to pair with each beer.

August 26th:
Starting at 6pm we'll be featuring New Belgium sour beers. Eric Salazar will be on hand to hang out and enjoy the festivities.

August 27th:
Starting at 6pm we'll be featuring Lost Abbey sour beers. A lot of the guys from the brewery will be here. Enough said.

August 28th-August 30th:
The rest of the week we'll be tapping new sour beers as others run out.
Can't make any of the nights above? Fear not, everyday something new and exciting will be tapped!!! Check the HopCam for up to the minute keg changes. We will also be twittering when new beers come on.

Don't forget August 20th is Avery night, Adam's brining out a keg of '07 Mephistopheles as well as others.

For all of those who have been here before, and those who have not, we are an incredibly small restaurant. Because of this, we've implemented a few things that we think will help us accommodate everybody and keep our service levels high.

Beachwood Sour Week Guiding Principles:
1. Please be considerate, you waited a long time, somebody else is also waiting. We will be enforcing a 2 hour time limit in the dining room from 5pm-9pm.

2. Unfortunately, due to the rarity of all these beers we will not be offering tasters. We are however, selling these beers in 5.5oz and 10oz pours.

3. We know our limitations, and despite the genetic modifications we've attempted on our bartenders, they still only in fact have two hands. That being said, in order to provide prompt and courteous service we are limiting each persons order to three 5.5ozers or two 10ozers at any one time. So when you're done with your round, flag us down, we'll get you your next one.

4. Sorry no Happy Hour beers this week.

5. We know we're a small place, you know we're a small place, so please bare with us and keep this in mind as we all celebrate the joys of sour beer.

Cheers,
Gabe, Kyle, Justin and Lena

Damn CV, you got the news!!

Looks like I need to be there on Sunday.

I'm buying if you show up!




one or two anyway...

Made it to the Beachwood BBQ today in Seal Beach for the sours.

Got to drink about 10 different varieties. The first one we tried was the New Belguim Love Barrel #13. Although their Lechee Tart was't bad, we were glad to the #13 out of the way early. Unfortunately, the place was out everything from Lost Abbey and Russian River.

The good news is we did get in on the Duchesse de Bourgogne before it ran dry. This was the first time I've tried this and it absolutely blew me away. Possibly the best finish on a beer ever.

T'was a good day.

Sucks that you missed the RR stuff. I wasn't anywhere near this place, but I am glad you got to try some things. I don't typically drive North for beer because living in San Diego spoils you like no tomorrow. Not go buy a bottle of Temptation and Consecration and have your own RR night.

carnevoodoo said:

Sucks that you missed the RR stuff. I wasn't anywhere near this place, but I am glad you got to try some things. I don't typically drive North for beer because living in San Diego spoils you like no tomorrow. Not go buy a bottle of Temptation and Consecration and have your own RR night.

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+1 on that:rockin:

O'Brien's pub had temptation on tap Thursday...ummmm

In your opinion do sours ship well? I've tried buying sours at stores like bevmo, and they are never as good as getting a bottle at any of the good beer bars here in SD(Hamilton's , O'Brien's and the like). If they are domestically produced they are okay, but the European sours just don't seem to hold up well at all.

Bsquared said:

+1 on that:rockin:

O'Brien's pub had temptation on tap Thursday...ummmm

In your opinion do sours ship well? I've tried buying sours at stores like bevmo, and they are never as good as getting a bottle at any of the good beer bars here in SD(Hamilton's , O'Brien's and the like). If they are domestically produced they are okay, but the European sours just don't seem to hold up well at all.

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It could be that the beers you are buying are just not handled well and could be old. I'm guessing the turnaround at BevMo on the sours is not that great. If you're not happy with the beer from BevMo, try getting it at Whole Foods or something. They have a variably good selection. Right now they have Temptation and Consecration at the store in Hillcrest.

I stopped by Bristol Farm's in La Jolla on my way home from work, They had quite a selection, Picked up a Orval Trappist, Lindemans grand cru, and a Orchard White from The Bruery in OC.

I'm going to try and find some of the beer's from this thread there I have not tried.
Thanks for the info.

Orchard White is a decent wit style beer. Not sour in the least. Orval is more funky than sour. Cuvee Rene (Lindemans) is just nice and refreshing. Hope you like them.

Just in case anyone is interested, here is the menu for the sour event at Beachwood BBQ.


(hmmm, I'm having trouble posting a .tif)


EDIT: Sorry, I couldn't pull it off. I was able to convert it to another format but it posted to small to read. Bummer because it lists and describes almost 40+ sours.

If anyone wants it send me a PM.