Flanders or flemish red ale too

Ask whoever is working at the store for sour beers, they should be able to help you out. Rodenbach is a world-class sour that is approachable, delicious, reasonably priced, and readily available.

As others pointed out, you're right, but it's a huge misconception out there. Most people - of those that even could name Brett - just lump it in with souring organisms. It doesn't make it easier that so many sour beers have Brett in them.

btw, I sort of kicked off this convo, but I wasn't trying to say that these were all the same. they are all largely different, as others have noted, but I was mostly saying "sour" has become a de facto catch-all term for beers with one or more of those general flavors. it at least lets you know that it's going to taste far different than any beer you'll find in the grocery store.

as an aside, that's sort of the amazing thing about beer. the range of styles is such that I sometimes think "beer" is too generic a term. floral IPA's, bourbon bomb stouts, wild ales - they really are 3 different drinks to me, even if a lot of the base ingredients are similar.

IPA fans,

Quick Double IPA fest trip report. Big outside area w/ something like 50 double IPAs and 30 triple IPAs on tap. Got there around noon. Opened at 11, and apparently the Pliny the Younger keg was gone by 1130.

For $50/$60 you get a glass and 5/10 6-oz tastes, but they were very lax w/ the tickets, so you can really drink as much as you want. I had about a dozen tastes. Here's what I remember based on some very cursory notes on my phone.

Fat Heads Hop Juju - tasty, simple, pretty fruity
Marin Brass Knuckle - sweet, malty fruity
Boneyard Notorious - amazing, smooth like Pliny the Younger, might like it even more
Marine White Knuckle - crisp, hoppy and delicious, liked it more than brass knuckle
Boneyard Double - ok, crisp and hoppy, pretty simple
Kern Citra - lot of citrus and pretty bitter
Faction Hop Soup - bitter, a little sweetness, rich malty flavor
Napasmith - 144 IBU! Not nearly as bitter as you'd think, pretty good beer

Awesome event, was there from 12 til almost 5 I think. After that we went to a really great divey BBQ joint, then went to a sketchy cardroom nearby and played no-limit Texas hold'em til midnight.

taking notes is always the hardest part. I'm actually in the midst of a a double IPA fest myself, here is my trip report so far

Subbing this great thread. Not sure how it took me years to find

Bruery fans,

"Bruery Grand Tasting" event last night. Phew. 21 3oz tastes, though I'm pretty sure most were 3.5-4oz. Here's what we had:



They provided us with these, so I actually can remember everything quite well:



They did them in order of the board. First flight of five was not super notable except for the Shegoat that had a super banana-y taste and the Tout Mais that as promised really did taste like an orange creamsicle! Wasn't a big fan of the Batch 1000.

Next was sour flight 1: Mischief Gone Wild, Sour in the Rye w/ Kumquats, Sans Pagaie and Ichigo Highway. Sour in the Rye delicious sour citrus flavor and Ichigo with a tart strawberry flavor were my two faves here. Lot of nice funkiness in all this batch. Not super into the Mischief.

Then my favorite flight of the night:


Windowsill, Oude Tart w/ Sour Cherries, and Wanderer. Windowsill was my top beer of the night with a ton of delicious raspberry and rhubarb flavor. The Oude Tart also one of my faves.

Moved on to the heavier stuff next. Next flight of four was my least favorite of the evening. Chocosaurus was delicious and richly chocolatey, one of my favorites of the dark beers. But the rest were mediocre. Burly Gourd the strong pumpkin flavor didn't really mesh well, Acer Quercus had way too much maple syrup for me, and Stein's Throw was OK but nothing special.

Then finished off w/ some real heavy hitters. The Smoking Wood was awesome. Ton of smoky oaky flavor, almost a peaty scotch-like flavor to it but also a lot of porter richness. 4 Calling Birds too much holiday spice for me. 3 French Hens was delicious. Melange #1 is Black Tuesday + Oude Tart, incredible combo. And then to finish it off, the 19% abv Grey Monday. This one kinda reminds me of Dogfish 120, and a bit of Bourbon County Stout. It's Black Tuesday aged in bourbon barrels for a year. Very intensely sweet, but in a good way, not a cloying way. Lots of flavors and nicely balanced. You can def taste the alcohol, but it's not unpleasantly hot. The friend I went with tapped out after 16 beers, so I drank his Melange and Black Tuesday as well.

$90 total cost for this event, I thought it was an incredible value. Pretty sluggish day for me today, though...

Oh, they went through a lot of Bruery:

What's the description of Windowsill? Haven't heard of that one before. I remember you were a big fan of The Wanderer (still have two bottles of that I haven't quite found the occasion to dig into yet) so this one must be pretty good to be your favorite sour of the group.

What's Melange #1 like? Imperial stout + flemish red sounds like a crazy bizarre combo.

Awesome TR El D, though feel like I'd lose the ability to discern taste after a dozen or so samples (would still be fun trying)

I couldn't pass this stuff by today based on the name alone. It's really good too!

goofy: "What's the description of Windowsill?" http://www.thebruery.com/beers/windowsill It's just a really good fruity sour. I didn't really get much of the "crust" flavor, maybe a hint of maltiness, but the balance of tart/sweet and the rhubarb raspberry flavor was just awesome in it.

"I remember you were a big fan of The Wanderer"
The Wanderer is definitely delicious, but it's quite different. The Windowsill is closer to the Oude Tart, whereas the Wanderer is a little fuller beer (a little more "ale-like" and less crisp if that makes sense).

"What's Melange #1 like?" I mean, pretty much what it sounds like, a rich barrel aged stout combined with a sour. I'm tempted to try this out, pouring some Rodenbach and Guinness together or something like that. I felt it was more sour than stout, and it definitely stood out as being completely different tasting it among the stouts. Though maybe if I drank it in the middle of the sours I'd say it tastes more stout than sour. But it's basically how it sounds - you get the rich chocolatey notes of the stout combined with a fruity sour note throughout. Think of a chocolate and fruit dessert.

nyc: The progression made it pretty easy to discern a lot of differences. The first five were all pretty mild. I definitely was able to fully taste and discern a ton about the next seven sours. And then the flavors in the next 9 darker beers were all very bold, so you could definitely make out a lot of differences, though at that point certainly wasn't noticing subtle flavors or fully appreciating complexity, I'm sure.

I have that on my untappd wish list. Name definitely hooked me to add it once it came up as a style rec after I checked in with Breckenridge Vanilla Porter.

I've never had it, always wonder, is the Kern Citra able to live up to its hype?

Doc,

Ugh, I'm super bummed after checking out reviews on BeerAdvocate. I had never heard of Citra before and that was just a random one we picked because we've had good beers w/ Citra hops. As I wrote, I remember it being very citrusy and pretty hoppy/bitter, but that was prob like beer number 8 and I def couldn't say much more besides the fact that I remember thinking it was pretty good. Wish I would have known, would have tried it early!

Surly Furious is still one of my favorite "simpler" IPA's. Surly is a great brewery out of Minneapolis area.

Super jealous after seeing the list of stuff you tried, regardless of the order.

I was just down in Portland to see an old friend, and decided I'd head over to Hood River the night before to get some bottles of the just-released Devil's Kriek and Tahoma Kriek. I think it's the first time they've bottled these sours, but I had them both at a sour festival a couple of years ago (trip report somewhere in this thread) and loved them.



I was a couple of miles from Hood River (about an hour from Portland) when I hit a sea of brake lights -- a landslide a mile ahead had completely blocked the eastbound lanes of the freeway, along with a westbound lane. Sat there for about 2 hours, hoping I'd still make it to the brewery if they started letting cars through. Then they finally got us moving -- by having all the passenger cars turn around and drive the wrong way for about 5 miles. Never made it to the brewery, which would have closed before I could take the alternate route to Hood River, so instead had to drive around Portland for a good chunk of the next day grabbing some bottles.

Oh well. I'm glad I kept after it -- they're good sours. The Tahoma Kriek (which is made with Rainier cherries) is better than the Devil's Kriek; it's a lot more tart, even if the carbonation level seems right on the line of too much. But I like them both. Interested to see how they change over time.

Also had the Stone Stochasticity Project Grapefruit Slam, a double IPA brewed with grapefruit peel. As a big grapefruit fan (in general and in beers), I loved it. More bitter than fruity, I thought. If you like Stone's hoppy stuff in general, you'll probably like this.

How was the Double Sunshine? I've got a bottle on the way in a trade, and can't wait. The only Lawson's I've had was Chinooker'd IPA, which was great.

Holy chocolate!

Had lunch in Murphys, CA at a place called Alchemy. Wife had been here before and wanted to bring me there because of their extensive beer list. I'm glad she did! I highly recommend those in Northern California check this place out if you happen to be wine tasting here. Their bottled beer archive... http://www.alchemymarket.com/bottled-beer-archive/

Anyway... on draft I had a Stone Stochasticity Project Grapefruit Slam IPA. Very powerful bitterness, with the hops and grapefruit battling for bitter supremacy on my tongue. A very tasty Stone IPA as usual... very drinkable and enjoyable. After lunch, my wife (who loves chocolate and coffee porters) and I shared a bottle of the Mogli Imperial Porter with Chocolate from Caldera Brewery in Ashland, Oregon. So damn good and the absolute perfect after meal beer. It was our dessert and it was excellent. I've never tasted such a chocolatey beer with the right amount of sweetness. It was almost shocking that this beer is 8.5% because there is barely any taste of alcohol whatsoever. A perfect beer to share with a lady. Honestly... this is the beer I'd serve a girl if I was trying to set a romantic mood. Plus, Mogli was the name of the brewer's chocolate lab and the story on the bottle makes that connection. I'd consider it a must try for any Porter fan and any beer fan in general even with the pretty high cost.

Other night my friend's Hoarder Society beers came in so had the Mocha Wednesday, Grey Monday, and Rye Barrel aged Bois. I felt like the Mocha Wednesday was very elite, among the best beers I've had in the past year. Considering the enormity of the beer it hid its alcohol on the taste very well. Grey Monday was great, though it tasted a bit hotter. Tip for the future though: do not attempt to drink 3+ 15% beers in a night and expect everything to feel great the next morning. As delicious as those beers were, you could actively tell differences in sobriety by the end of each beer.

Buff,

Great review, thanks. I thought the grey Monday tasted pretty hot even after 20 prior beers at the tasting, so I imagine it's actually extremely hot!

I play soccer with a brewer at Cascade. When I told him I find the sours I've had from there too much, he suggested starting with the fruit ones and going up from there. I tried the apricot last night and liked it a lot. I've also got a bottle of the blueberry and Sang Noir to try.

I also had their Pay Czech IPA and the imperial version (Bonus Czech or something like that). I liked both and found them interesting, especially the imperial. They're hoppy, but with mostly floral hops instead of the usual citrus ones found in most IPAs. The finish was clean like a pilsner. Definitely worth trying if you want something hoppy but different or just a break from the sours.

He echoed what the other guy told El Diablo. As he put it, "we do the aging for you". It won't necessarily be bad but keeping it in the bottle for a long time will change it compared to what they had in mind. The lacto will die off, brett will take over etc.

Couple good ones last night:

Left: Pliny the Elder - I want to say I was blown away since it's
rated #4 on the Beer Advocate list, but I wasn't. Very good, but in my opinion I've had better IPA / double IPAs in the past. Do have to say the aroma was incredible - nice hints of fruit & citrus.

Right: Ballast Point Sextant - Outstanding oatmeal stout, very smooth and creamy, had some hints of chocolate beyond the strong oatmeal taste.



Word came out that the bar next door to where I was had a keg of Pliny the Younger on tap. By the time we got there the line was a good 25 minutes long (I didn't wait). Almost everyone came back to the bar to say they ended up empty handed.

Love this thread, happy that I just found it. I leave near Philadelphia, so it is great to see reviews of beers from other parts of the U.S.. I'll be trying some. Here some craft beers from my area you guys might want to try.

Yards: Brawler

Troegs: Nugget Nectar

Dogfishhead: 90 Minute IPA

Victory: A mix of Storm King and Hop Devil. It sounds weird to make a black and tan from a stout and IPA. It is quite tasty and popular in Downingtown, PA.

I don't know when you wrote this post. I just bought some Nugget Nectar this month, February 2014 and it is great.

You had both of those in the same session--one after the other? If so, that's quite a transition.