Sours are an acquired taste. Just ask my friend Curtis. At the 2009 Holiday Ale Festival, he sneakily told me to try the taster he’d just purchased… and I made the biggest sour beer face you’ve ever seen. Strangely enough, after trying the likes of Cantillon’s Cuvee des Champions, Deschutes’ The Dissident, several Flemish reds and browns, and pretty much everything available at Cascade Brewery’s new tasting room, … I now like sours. In fact, Bear Republic’s sour was my favorite beer at the 2010 Holiday Ale Festival.

Made by the exposure to wild yeast strains or bacteria such as Pediococcus, Saccharomyces, Lactobacillus and Brettanomyces, sours are usually barrel aged for years to develop their wine-like characteristics. While the Belgians have been making sours forever, these types of beers have become the latest trend among American brewers as of late.

If you’re itching to try something that will begin to give you an idea of what a sour ale is all about, a great one to start with is the latest installment of New Belgium’s Lips of Faith series. A collaboration between New Belgian and Allagash, Vrienden is a very lightly soured beer brewed with hibiscus, endive, Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus. The hibiscus adds fruity and floral qualities, the endive contributes to a bit of bitterness, and those pesky micro-organisms add that sour quality we’re talking about.

Vrienden is a fantastic gateway beer. Pick one up from the SW Portland Market of Choice and you might just find yourself coming back for more sours!

< Prev		Next >