The Sour Appreciation Thread

the beer revolu

I've been into my Lambics and other Belgian sours for quite a few years now but it's pretty recent that we're starting to get Irish sour beers. To get things started I'll confine myself to Irish offerings.

This year we've had from Ireland:

Galway Bay Desperate Mile . I liked this very light and refreshing, if a bit thin but proper sour.

The White Hag Irish Heather Ale. I really, really like this beer. It has a beautiful malty balance to the sourness and wonderful complexity. Sour but very balanced. It's spontaneously fermented and has no hops. Probably my beer of the year so far.

Kinnegar Geuzeberry. A gooseberry sour. Very sour with a lovely fruity background and a lovely yeastiness from bottle conditioning.

Marks for effort but....... :

White Gypsy Scarlett Sour. Eh, not sour or particularly red. I wasn't a fan - too yeasty for me too.

Black's Brown Sour Ale. Again not really sour but quite a pleasant brown ale.

Special Mention:

Brown Paper Bag Project Gose. Not made in Ireland but a fantastic salty, lemony sour. Love this beer.


Have I missed any Irish sours (there's another The White Hag one that I haven't tried).

Please feel free to broaden the scope to other non Irish sours that are available here too. Some great German and, of course, Belgian ones knocking around too. What are people's favourites?

BeerNut

If you're counting BPBP, there's Auld Bruin Bagger which I thought was excellent.

Galway Bay has also released Maybe Next Monday, Godspeed and The Eternalist.

RasTa

I would vote to keep this in the main thread.

Calypso by Siren is another beauty.

Tube

There was a sour beer competition in Belfast recently. Geuzberry took best pro overall, with Beann Gulbann (unblended version) runner up in the Irish section.

http://sourfest.beer

It'll be back next year, along with a sour beer bar, over two days

poitinstill

ive tried a few sours but they really are not to my taste.. even at the ICBCF last month i tired a lot of the sours but the only one i could take in a full serve was kinslae brown sour..think mcgargles had one to that would cut the throat off ya

the beer revolu

poitinstill wrote: »

ive tried a few sours but they really are not to my taste.. even at the ICBCF last month i tired a lot of the sours but the only one i could take in a full serve was kinslae brown sour..think mcgargles had one to that would cut the throat off ya

More than being an acquired taste, I think sour beers are just not for everyone. I love sour tastes, generally. I love citrus, sour sweets are never sour enough for me, I ever will sip vinegar straight to taste it but not everyone is like that.

Oh, another Irish sour: Smethwick's (but only on very rare occasions). I've twice had sour Smethwick's from keg - it was delicious!

irish_goat

Have had Maybe Next Monday and Godspeed from Galway Bay. Wasn't keen on the former, bit too much yoghurty taste but having the latter now and it is lovely. Brewed with peach and mango, very juicy. Nice afternoon beer.

the beer revolu

BeerNut wrote: »

If you're counting BPBP, there's Auld Bruin Bagger which I thought was excellent.

Galway Bay has also released Maybe Next Monday, Godspeed and The Eternalist.

Ah yeah, Auld Bruin Bagger was nice - not an easy drinking beer, though.

Have GBB bottled any of the above? I need to try them.

irish_goat

the beer revolu wrote: »

Have GBB bottled any of the above? I need to try them.

The Eternalist is bottled and it's literally just been delivered to their Dublin pubs. The other 2 are keg only.

ben.schlomo

Not a big fan of sours but this year ive had GBB's Black Berliner Weisse, didnt enjoy and Siren Calypso, loved this one.

BeerNut

ben.schlomo wrote: »

GBB's Black Berliner Weisse

Heathen. Loved that beer but I don't think anybody else did.

ben.schlomo

BeerNut wrote: »

Heathen. Loved that beer but I don't think anybody else did.

Ya i couldnt recall the name of it, it was just a bit weird for me, dont think the balance or carbonation was great.

dub_skav

Had Geuzeberry at the BBQ thing in Herbert park. The others with me thought it was horrible, but I thought it was very refreshing.

I have 2 bottles of it in the fridge now waiting for me

Son0vagun

Gose by Westbrook, probably the best Sour available.

snowblind

Geuzberry and Auld Bruin Bagger have been the only good Irish sours I've had.

Favourites from around the world would be Cantillon Lou Pepe Framboise & Fou Foune, 3 Fonteinen Doesjel & Intense Red, BFM Abbaye De Saint Bon-Chien, Bruery Tart of Darkness, Black Barrels Vedova Nera

The BFM at 11% is a crazy beer. I've only tried it in the states although it's Swiss. Someone should import some bottles...

the beer revolu

Snowblind, you should add Rodenbach Character Rouge to that list.
Amazingly complex beer.

BeerNut

For anyone interested, the on-trade price of a 375ml bottle of The Eternalist is €11.25.

Yarghhh

BeerNut wrote: »

For anyone interested, the on-trade price of a 375ml bottle of The Eternalist is €11.25.

A 330ml glass is 6.75 in Beer Market. Definitely the preferable price option

BeerNut

For sure! Anyone seen it in an off licence yet?

snowblind

the beer revolu wrote: »

Snowblind, you should add Rodenbach Character Rouge to that list.
Amazingly complex beer.

I'll do that soon. Loved the Grand Cru vintages.

Did not love the Eternalist, unfortunately.

symbolic

BeerNut wrote: »

For anyone interested, the on-trade price of a 375ml bottle of The Eternalist is €11.25.

I never thought to ask... Rookie mistake maybe.. .. Didn't think a whole lot of it. Nice, as I'm enjoying the sours a lot these days.

Herb Powell

I haven't tried many Irish sours yet, not too sure if I'm onboard with the whole sour trend, but I lived in Leipzig for a while and it's hard to beat a good Gose.

BMJD

BeerNut wrote: »

For anyone interested, the on-trade price of a 375ml bottle of The Eternalist is €11.25.

sarkozy

I've only seen this tread now. I've been going on about sours a few years now. Love them. I just wish more were available at lower prices over here. Kinnegar's is quite pleasant. Brown Paper Bag Project's smokey sour was interesting and nice, too.

pawrick

I don't think I've ever had a sour but will keep my eyes open next time I'm looking in the off licence for the names mentioned. Selection of beers in my local dunnes and tesco seems to have decreased in the last year.

the beer revolu

Time to update the sour thread, I think.

In the 18 months or so since I started this thread, the whole sour thing had gone from strength to strength and all sorts of fruit have come into play. I never cared for fruit beers before as they were almost always sweet - very sweet . But now, there is a raft of sour fruity beers out there and I love the syle:D

Current obsession is Yellowbelly Castaway Passionfruit Sour. I love everything about this beer both on draught and in cans.

Trouble Raspberry Berliner Weiss was pretty amazing too. This beer has way too much raspberry to be balanced but I absolutely love the result.

I think 8 Degrees Wayfarer is a very solid non fruity sour.

I still love the Heather Sour.

On the foreign side of things, the most recent stand out for me was Lervig/Oud Beersel collaboration, Black Acid . A beast of a complex dark sour.

To Øl have been knocking it out of the park with too many to recall expensive, beautiful sours.

Beavertown Brosé was also outstanding .

The Lindeman's/Mikkeller basil beer was one of the most interesting beers I've ever tasted. KInda shouldn't work but it does.


So anyone else enjoying the sours?
Any new converts?

dub_skav

White Hag Púca is a summer classic. The yellow tin is really sour and refreshing while the pink can (also pouring pink) with hibiscus and ginger is a little sweeter, but a real winner too.

Agreed on the wayfarer too, will have to check out the yellow belly

the beer revolu

dub_skav wrote: »

White Hag Púca is a summer classic. The yellow tin is really sour and refreshing while the pink can (also pouring pink) with hibiscus and ginger is a little sweeter, but a real winner too.

Agreed on the wayfarer too, will have to check out the yellow belly

Yup, the Puca is lovely but I find that the hibiscus and ginger one has stepped over the mark into sour alcopop territory.

Adyx

Agree on the Yellowbelly, we got the cans in work and I literally drank them all myself. Metalman have their Razzbeer Sour too which is okay.

Losty Dublin

Was in the US last week and had a few pints of Watermelon Gose from Virginia's Three Notched. Unusual to say the least but very drinkable and more sour than one would expect from Water Melon.

Krusty_Clown

While not actually a sour, had O'Brother's watermelon wheat recently on tap, and it really didn't appeal. Same goes for any of the raspberry sours I've tried recently - I keep buying them, rather foolishly forgetting that they just don't appeal to me, remembering only after the first sip. Yellowbelly Castaway and 8 Degrees Wayfarer are the two 'go to's. I miss the Kinnegar sour beers, as they don't seem to make it as far as Dublin any more.

From foreign shores, Siren Calypso is fantastic, when you can get your hands on it (Molloys is sometimes a safe bet). Really enjoyed Brooklyn Bel Air Sour Ale, and it's unusual in that it's a rather high ABV compared to other fruity/sour ales, coming in at 5.8%. Sieera Nevada's Otra Vez is also worth a mention, but in my book, not as good as Brooklyn's offering.

Further afield, spent a couple of days in Brussels and Brugges recently. What a feast for the sour fan. Visited A la Becasse, and had the sour beer tasting tray, then stopped off briefly in the Delerium Cafe for a tasty kriek, before moving on to Brugges, where there's a plentiful selection of sour ales in the more decent bars. Sour-heaven!