Beer Forum

I have been listening to the BN talk about Sour beers for months now. It has piqued my curiosity. I am always looking for a new taste to obsess over. Can anyone suggest a few readily available styles to try out? I live in the Midwest, Indiana, and we have something of a Miller/BudLight locality but good liquor stores are starting to expand their Bomber selections so there's hope yet.

Anyway - Good sour beer suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

DRD

Cantillon is the gold standard, but nobody can find it anymore. Jolly Pumpkin makes a couple good ones. I like la roja the best. La Folie from New Belgium is alright. Boone (I think the spelling is right) makes some good sours.

la folie sparked my interest in sours and of course cantillon

farm

Jolly pumpkin la roja
Vichtenaar
Monk's Cafe
Cantillon
Drefontain
Hanssen Gueze
Oval
Brettanomyces Lambicus
tons of them

Upland Brewing from Bloomington, IN has some highly rated lambics. I didn't get a chance to try any when I was out there this summer.

my two cents for what its worth but my first ever sour beers were a cantillon and a rodenbach grand cru. nearly turned mo ff them for life being so intense on the sour and funk. next time out i tried a timmermans gueze and absolutly fell in love with the style. sometimes training wheels can be a good thing without the entry level timmermans i wouldnt be enjoying and appreciating cantillon the way i do now.

TrickyDRD wrote:I have been listening to the BN talk about Sour beers for months now. It has piqued my curiosity. I am always looking for a new taste to obsess over. Can anyone suggest a few readily available styles to try out? I live in the Midwest, Indiana, and we have something of a Miller/BudLight locality but good liquor stores are starting to expand their Bomber selections so there's hope yet.

Anyway - Good sour beer suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

DRD

If you're near Greenwood, head over to a liquor store near Stop 11 and Madison. There you will find all of the examples cited above. One sour that I could never find was Berliner Weiss. The only example I found was a Berliner style weiss, which was a bigger beer, outside the style guidelines in terms of alcohol content. My solution was brewing the beer, glad I did

It's always good to meet a fellow Hoosier. Boys at your high school play zone or man-to-man?

beerhog wrote:my two cents for what its worth but my first ever sour beers were a cantillon and a rodenbach grand cru. nearly turned mo ff them for life being so intense on the sour and funk. next time out i tried a timmermans gueze and absolutly fell in love with the style. sometimes training wheels can be a good thing without the entry level timmermans i wouldnt be enjoying and appreciating cantillon the way i do now.

This is such a good point. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to who don't like sour beers because their first experience was like drinking vinegar. Start with something mildly tart. I'd recommend Petrus Oud Bruin, if you can find it. Or Jolly Pumpkin's Bam Biere.