Can anyone recommend me some good sour beers? I've never tried one and cant seem to find any. Does any one know if any local breweries in Northern Va sell sours? or where i can get some good sours around this area?
Can anyone recommend me some good sour beers? I've never tried one and cant seem to find any. Does any one know if any local breweries in Northern Va sell sours? or where i can get some good sours around this area?
What part of NOVA are you in? If there is a Total Wine near you they have a huge selection of craft brews and you can find a few of every type.
Sours can be varying in flavor as well as tartness. Do you remember warheads candies from the 90s? Some can be that sour, only in liquid form.
An somewhat easy step in during the summer is dogfish heads festina peche. Not overly sour, but is an introduction to the kind of flavors some can have. Petrus has some more potent offerings.
I would go to your local liquor store or beer shop and ask them what sour beers they have, and if they have any special sour beer releases that are not on display. Maybe you get lucky and find an employee or owner that knows a lot about sours! A few widely distributed American sours that come to mind are New Belgium La Folie and Le Terroir, Boulevard Love Child No 4, and various Jolly Pumpkin releases. The local liquor store here just got some Le Terroir in recently.
A little Q&A with the local beer/liquor store and some field recon or phone calls to local breweries should help you locate sour beer in your area. The import sours mentioned in the posts above should be good places to start as well. Just remember, keep an open mind. My first sour was Duchesse de Bourgogne, a Flanders Red Ale, and the slight acetic vinegary aroma and taste put me off pretty quickly. After trying several sours I began to develop a fondness for them. Non-pasteurized bottles can also change significantly over time, so a 'younger' sour may taste different than an aged sour.
Been to total wine. Last time i was there i found like 1 sour beer and it was infused with raspberries so i passed on it.
Im in Lorton, not far from you.
ah the lambic. yeah. You could try something like this
http://www.totalwine.com/eng/product/belgian-sour-power-sampler-pack/123326811
Wow, I didnt realize the selection was this extensive.
http://www.totalwine.com/eng/search/sour!categories/beer!viewPerPage/96
Oh nevermind, that is not all sour beers, but still.
I have enjoyed the following
Duchesse De Bourgogne
the offerings from Petrus (love the aged pale)
New Belgium Lips of Faith La Folie, La Terrior
How did I forget the Duchesse?? That's one of my all time favorites! Jolly Pumpkin, Crooked Stave, and Russian River really need to start selling in Georgia. We have a serious vacuum of sour beers here.
Make sure to chill the sour power box for a bit, they have sediment and get chunky. The monks cafe is sweeter than the other two in there and i have found chunks of grape muat (still sweet) when pouring one.
enjoy.
Thanks for the suggestions guys.
Just got back form Total Wine. Here's what i got:
Duchesse de Bourgogne, a Flanders Red Ale, is probably the best beer I've ever had. Love it. New Belgium La Folie and Le Terroir are also very, very good. I prefer La Folie over Le Terroir.
Another vote for New Belgium la Folie. It's an Oud Bruinish sour. If you can, get 2013 over 2014, although both are excellent, the 2013 is more complex, maybe because of sheer age.
Unfortunately they pasteurize the beer now, so aging does not necessarily provide much benefit.
Oh, they do now? Are ALL their Lips of Faith pasteurized? I wanted so use some of the dregs.
La Folie is blended, containing 2 and 3 year ale, so that will account for most of the difference year to year/batch to batch anyway.
Some of the Lips of Faith are a bit gimmicky (e.g., coconut curry) or not real sours, but IMO still worth the experience. The Pluot is a bit sweet actually.
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