Am i the only one that hates sours?

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Shred said:
All I've heard about since I started drinking (and attempting brewing) sours is JP. Damn I wish we could get those here in CT.
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I might be wrong but I seem to remember Ron from JP saying they are available anywhere Whole Foods is allowed to sell beer. You might check there.
 
Shred said:
All I've heard about since I started drinking (and attempting brewing) sours is JP. Damn I wish we could get those here in CT.
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Should be really easy to trade for if you're interested in that. I'm sure you can order them online, too.
 
In thinking about it, I've only had a few lambics. I did not care for them at all. Are there other sour styles I may still like?
 
thood6 said:
The La Roja I have was bottled around Christmas of 2011. Is the age of the bottle going to detract from my experience?
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One thing to know is that Jolly Pumpkin does tend to gush as it ages, so make sure you have glasses ready.
 
I only recently started sampling sours, and with trepidation. Now I am in love with the style. I treat myself to a Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René every once in a while and think it is just about the best thing I ever drank (so far).

I'd like to see if I could reproduce it in some manner (mostly the tartness), but I am unsure where to begin and sours can take years to develop, so I don't want to botch it up.
 
dannypo said:
I might be wrong but I seem to remember Ron from JP saying they are available anywhere Whole Foods is allowed to sell beer. You might check there.
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Really?? I have a Whole Foods a few miles from here.
 
Well I have tons of JP sitting on the shelves here in Louisiana where nobody (apparently including myself) can appreciate them.

So if anyone wants to send heady my way I'd trade. LOL
 
Thunder_Chicken said:
I only recently started sampling sours, and with trepidation. Now I am in love with the style. I treat myself to a Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René every once in a while and think it is just about the best thing I ever drank (so far).

I'd like to see if I could reproduce it in some manner (mostly the tartness), but I am unsure where to begin and sours can take years to develop, so I don't want to botch it up.
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I'm finally gonna get over my botching fear & jump right into the sour & funk brewing. it only took 14 years, but bring on the funk!:rockin:
Shred said:
Really?? I have a Whole Foods a few miles from here.
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lucky. we have to drive 2 1/2 hours to get to a Whole Foods. well, the only one we know of anyhow.:D
 
I've never had a sour before but I'm now on a mission to go track done down...I'll report back in a day or two!
 
Billy-Klubb said:
I'm finally gonna get over my botching fear & jump right into the sour & funk brewing. it only took 14 years, but bring on the funk!:rockin:

lucky. we have to drive 2 1/2 hours to get to a Whole Foods. well, the only one we know of anyhow.:D
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Not that I would know but there are some "easy" sour recipes floating around here. There are a couple recipes from a user Amandak who has a cardinals logo as her avatar.
 
thood6 said:
Well I have tons of JP sitting on the shelves here in Louisiana where nobody (apparently including myself) can appreciate them.

So if anyone wants to send heady my way I'd trade. LOL
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Good luck with that one. ;)
 
HoppyDaze said:
I only tried sour beer once. It was at the Deschutes Brewery and it was fantastic!
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Wow, Portland is sour land USA. You should check out Cascade and Upland if you want to try some more. They make some really good beers. Just heard there are over 600 food carts there, too. Looking forward to a vacation there sometime.
 
I had a Victory Wild Devil once. It was at the beginning of my foray into sours. I had a hard time with it. I've eased my way into sours, and enjoy a good one now! But I've since moved to a town that thinks Yuengling is craft beer, so no sours here. I have to head to Pittsburgh to find a decent sour.:(
 
I was in Santa Cruz for business last M/Tu/W. I was hyped because I found Sante Adairius Rustic Ales online and it looked like they had some pretty good beers, including some sours. So I head over as soon as I can Monday and am confronted by a sign that their tasting room is only open Th/F/Sa/Su! Soooo bummed!

Http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28019
 
I just tried a La Roja I bought for $12.00, I usually like strong flavors (strong dark black coffee/espresso, blue cheese, balsamic vinegar) but this tasted like someone dumped red wine vinegar in a beer and strained it through a sweat sock filled with used barn straw. I recapped it and I will take it to work, we always try various bombers at work.
 
tyzippers said:
I had a Victory Wild Devil once. It was at the beginning of my foray into sours. I had a hard time with it. I've eased my way into sours, and enjoy a good one now! But I've since moved to a town that thinks Yuengling is craft beer, so no sours here. I have to head to Pittsburgh to find a decent sour.:(
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Holy crap! Victory has a sour? I need to move.
 
Shred said:
Holy crap! Victory has a sour? I need to move.
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Eh, I stand corrected. Victory Wild Devil is technically considered a Belgian IPA that is fermented with brett. So, I hear that just because a beer is fermented with brett doesn't necessarily make it a sour, but that beer tasted like I was drinking it out of my well used hockey gloves after I just played in a triple overtime! So, either way, it had tons of funk that I couldn't handle at the time. Also it doesn't help that I find most belgian IPAs utterly disgusting. I love Belgians and I love IPAs! But they should stay that way. Just Belgians and IPAs!
 
I'm disinclined to try sours. It doesn't seem like an appealing quality for me. I'd probably try one for the sake of trying one. However, I'm not going to pay for it. So it'd likely be as part of an event where tastings come with admission.
 
I just sipped my first sour ever, la folie, and I like it. More sour and less beer tasting than I was expecting, but I like it. Is it normal that there is very little carbonation?
 
My wife bought me a Farmhouse Sour once. I literally thought the bottle had turned. I can't say I hated it. Rather it was so foul to me that I couldn't get it down. I guess they are not my thing. Sour is not a flavor I like in beer or candy, maybe in a pickle. I can't see how that would be enjoyable, but to each his own. I'd take a blonde ale, wit or a petite siason over that anyday.
 
tyzippers said:
I had a Victory Wild Devil once. It was at the beginning of my foray into sours. I had a hard time with it. I've eased my way into sours, and enjoy a good one now! But I've since moved to a town that thinks Yuengling is craft beer, so no sours here. I have to head to Pittsburgh to find a decent sour.:(
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I live in collegeville, if you are close, come over for some homebrew sours, got 3 on tap and plenty aging.
 
milldoggy said:
I live in collegeville, if you are close, come over for some homebrew sours, got 3 on tap and plenty aging.
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Man, if you weren't a 6 hour drive or if my brother were still living in Philly, I'd have to take you up on your offer!!
 
They are rough at first, ease your way in, start with lambics, belgian pales, saissons, work your way up. No one would start with pallet wrecker or ruination as the first hoppy beer they had and like it.
 
PanzerBanana said:
I'm disinclined to try sours. It doesn't seem like an appealing quality for me. I'd probably try one for the sake of trying one. However, I'm not going to pay for it. So it'd likely be as part of an event where tastings come with admission.
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That is certainly a closed off defeatist way of looking at it. Might as well go back to Miller High Life.
 
meltroha said:
It varies depending on style, but most I've had are on the high end.
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Yep. Most I've had we're definitely highly carbonated. Like champagne carbonation.
 
tyzippers said:
Man, if you weren't a 6 hour drive or if my brother were still living in Philly, I'd have to take you up on your offer!!
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42 hour drive for me and I'm still thinking about it. You wouldn't happen to have a spare room would you?
 
tyzippers said:
Eh, I stand corrected. Victory Wild Devil is technically considered a Belgian IPA that is fermented with brett. So, I hear that just because a beer is fermented with brett doesn't necessarily make it a sour, but that beer tasted like I was drinking it out of my well used hockey gloves after I just played in a triple overtime! So, either way, it had tons of funk that I couldn't handle at the time. Also it doesn't help that I find most belgian IPAs utterly disgusting. I love Belgians and I love IPAs! But they should stay that way. Just Belgians and IPAs!
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Hmm... still a Victory brew I haven't had. Must find this one!
 
GenIke said:
Is it normal for sours to have very little carbonation?
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Some Belgian Lambics have zero carbonation on purpose. They might taste good, but the lack of bubbles kills it for me. They also make fizzy lambics.

Most American sours have carbonation, but it is variable. Some have a little, some have a lot. Belgian Gueuzes have a lot of carbonation.

The only think I hate about commercial sours is the price tag. Many of them are rare and difficult to acquire.
 
Bah... Just called and the Whole Foods here doesn't carry JP. It seems it is carried about 70 miles from here. Perhaps a road trip one weekend.

Oh - and more on the topic of brewing, I currently have a sour in secondary. I can't speak to the quality of it yet, but the process really wasn't all that difficult.
 
I've never been able to develop a taste for sours. I guess it's just me. I've tried 'em. And every single one I tried I couldn't wait to get to the end and move on to something I like better (I will NEVER pour out a beer...even a sour). Having said that, I still refuse to give up. I will continue to try them every now and then but I don't hold out much hope. It's like tea. My whole life everyone told me I just needed to develop a taste for tea. I still don't really like that stuff either.
 
People are often confused about what makes a beer sour. Beers that use only a Brett and a Sacc strain are typically not sour, but can be a little tart. Brett provides, barnyard, leather, horse blanket, pineapple, and cherry pie qualities depending on the strain(s) used.

Lactobacillus and Pediococcus are what makes a beer really sour. Brett is often used in beers with lacto and pedio. A beer like Orval that uses Sacc and Brett B is not a sour beer.

The sourest beers are from Cascade, Russian River, The Bruery, Cantillon and Drie Fonteinen. Jolly Pumpkin's beers are sour, but not nearly as sour as the aforementioned brands.
 
Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René is very highly carbonated. In fact the bottles are Belgians with both a cork and a 29 mm crown cap. You have to pop the cap, then pull the cork.

The sourness of Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René hits me as a lemony sourness vs. a pickled sauerkraut kind of sour. The difference may simply be due to the taste of salt in the latter. Served cold it is like a fizzy Belgian with a big twist of lemon. There are some secondary flavors but nothing that I would consider strange, but most label these flavors as "funky". Funky seems to be a catch-all description for something that I don't think can be properly classed as another flavor, but it isn't bad.

Has anyone ever attempted to brew a Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René clone? I know that bottle dregs can be used to inocculate the strains, but how about the underlying beer? Is the beer brewed normally (yeast only), then innoculated with the cultures, or do the yeast and bacteria go in together?
 
Randy_Bugger said:
People are often confused about what makes a beer sour. Beers that use only a Brett and a Sacc strain are typically not sour, but can be a little tart. Brett provides, barnyard, leather, horse blanket, pineapple, and cherry pie qualities depending on the strain(s) used.

Lactobacillus and Pediococcus are what makes a beer really sour. Brett is often used in beers with lacto and pedio. A beer like Orval that uses Sacc and Brett B is not a sour beer.

The sourest beers are from Cascade, Russian River, The Bruery, Cantillon and Drie Fonteinen. Jolly Pumpkin's beers are sour, but not nearly as sour as the aforementioned brands.
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Some of Jolly Pumpkin's beers are very sour. Especially the grand reserves.
 

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