I’m a craft beer enthusiast. Any Untappd users here? I’m in the Cleveland area, Ohio in general is great for craft beers! IPAs are my favorite (total white guy) and I’m drinking this beauty now!
I haven’t used untappd in a few years, most of my friends seemed to have stopped too. It was a fun app initially, but just kind of turned into a chore to check in beers. I was well over 1000 uniques though, it was good for keeping track at least lol.
I picked up some Lawson’s “The Space In Between” yesterday which I had never tried before. Nice hazy ale, not too hop forward, little sweet, good warmer weather beer.
2 Likes
Someone gave me a CraftShack giftcard in exchange for a prototype once and it was maybe my favorite transaction ever.
This topic is cool.
Y’all have any recommendations for sours generally available on the west coast? Never really dove into them.
5 Likes
Where on the west coast? My wife is from California and she’ll tell us.
These guys make a few called Sournova. Cherry, peach, or raspberry. SUPER good. Brewed in the San Francisco Bay. If it makes it all the way to me in Tucson, I’m sure there is a taproom near you that sells it.
Edit. Link would help. https://almanacbeer.com/
Double Edit: Strawberry-Basil, and Apricot too! Gotta try those now.
The Russian River sours aren’t too too hard to find anymore (in Northern CA at least) and are very good. Based on the return address I’ve seen on packages from you though that won’t be overly helpful.
I don’t know too much about west coast beers, but my general advice on sours is to steer away from fruit heavy sours and kettle sours. Start out with some farmhouse style beers or saisons.
Brasserie Dupont is a Belgian brewery distributed all over the USA, their saisons are as good as it gets. Allagash makes a coolship red and a few other coolship sours that I believe would be distributed nationally too.
Hit up a specialty beer store or local craft beer bar and see what you have available in your area.
I think the only sours to steer clear of for the uninitiated are Flemish sours. I personally LOVE drinking something that close to vinegar, but most people do not.
Love Belgian/Flemish sours. But I don’t have much love for kettle sours or lactic acid sours. I want some funk in my sour beers, I’m not trying to drink warheads.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again: I am a fan of the pungent. Barleywines, sours (of all types), mustard, pickles, warheads, gin, kombucha, sardines, etc. If it makes your nose curl, I want to consume it.
1 Like
I love almost anything pickled & fermented too, but that’s not the point i’m making here with sour beers. The point i’m trying to make is that all the quick sours that are popular now don’t have the depth of flavor of an open air or coolship fermented sour. There’s no funk, it’s all one note, just sour for the sake of sour with nothing behind it. You can add a drop or two of lactic acid to any terrible fruity beer and call it a sour, that doesn’t mean you should. Just my 2 cents though, we all have different tastes.
1 Like
You’re not wrong. I never thought about it since usually if I go for a fruity sour its summer and I don’t want depth, just light and fruity. Still need to drink more in general. What a world.
Yeah, I’ll agree with you there. They can be refreshing on a hot day, Dogfish Head SeaQuench comes to mind, but there’s a lot of flavors going on in that one! Now I’m thirsty…
3 Likes
Urban Artifact has some amazing fruity sours, like The Gadget. Dunno if you can get a hold of one (they’re an Ohio brewery), but it’s worth a taste. I don’t typically like sours but it’s magnificent!
1 Like
Thanks for the introductory tip, I do mostly see fruit based stuff. I’ll look into these.
TURBO DOG is one of my all time favorites
Beer brewed with Belgian yeast is not good. It imparts a flavor profile that is common to all Belgian beers that I absolutely cannot stand. It’s the only beer I’ve ever thrown up. Not because I over consumed either. It’s just… not good.
It’s just my opinion, of course.
I have a friend who makes his own beers that he drinks with his dad, and his whole goal is to make something so overpowering that his dad is unable to consume it.
3 Likes
I can second this! Some lactic sours can be ok if they have the malt body to back them. However around here they all seem to be berliners with that super crackery ( not sure crackery is a word but went with it) malt profile. That said give me a Cuvée Des Jacobins Rouge any time and I am a very happy man
Well said Smileypants.
To me, Belgian yeast strains taste like someone put “Limburger Cheese” in my beer.
Furthermore, when crap beer sours my tongue…I don’t hesitate to forcibly spit it out, usually making a scene ending in a loud statement like…THAT BEER SUCKS!
I love spitting beer forcibly out of my mouth as far as I can.
Try it!
I LOVE Chili Beers!!!