top 3 sour beers you've had.

Since Sours have been the hot shit in the past couple of years wondering what everyone’s top 3 sours they’ve had and why.

Two way tie for first for me, so I’m going to cheat a little.

  1. Drie Fonteinen Armand’4 Lente , DF Armand’4 Zomer

The beers are actually in a set of four. Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall. Different three year blends in each one to “signify” the seasons by master blender Armand Debelde. These were the last bottles brewed by Armand prior to the thermostat incident that almost closed the brewery down. (over 80,000 bottles were heat damaged)

I’ve had the beers in multiple blind sour tasting settings and they almost always come out on top. They are balanced with just the right amount of acidity and sourness but also the roundness and mellowness that comes from a little bit of age. It’s tough to put into words, but once you drink either of them you’ll know and get blown away.

  1. 2009 Cantillon Vigneronne

Just had this a couple of months ago. The lambic has aged beautifully. Contrary to it being a lambic with grapes added, the grape has mellowed but the lambic itself picks up all this stone fruit and apple that just coats the mouth.

  1. 2010 Cantillon Framboise

KILLER amounts of raspberry fruit on a beer 5 years old. Aged in used bordeaux barrels.

I haven’t had enough Cantillon, need to rectify that. My faves are:

Cuvée Des Jacobins Rouge

Russian River Brewing: Supplication, Consecration, and Temptation

I have one bottle of the Weyerbacher Riserva 2010, but have never tried it. The extreme sourness has me intrigued. Been waiting to share it with someone, but I don’t know too many people locally that like sour beers.

Cantillon 2008 Lou Pepe Kriek - Amazing Kriek, maybe best beer I’ve ever had.

Cantillon 2011 Fou Foune - Perfect mix of sour and dried Apricot.

Cascade 2011 Sang Noir - Always the best sour in the Cascade lineup for me.

Just bought a mixed case of 12+ 750s of Cantillon from a board member. I suspect some of those will compose my top 3 in short order. I plan to open one every few weeks and report back here.

Tilquin Quetsche
Drie Fonteinen Golden Blend
Almanac Valley of the Hearts Delight (1st release)

Hope you didn’t get screwed on pricing. Pretty easy to order them direct from Belgium for less than they’d retail for on a shelf.

Pricing was not unreasonable. And easy way to get a sampling.

I’d love however to know where you buy from in Belgium for future transactions.

3F Hommage, most intense pairing of fruit and funk I’ve experienced in a sour.

Cantillon Fou’ Foune, couple vintages, just an ideal funk tang experience.

…some other Cantillon, too hard to pick: Iris, Vigneronne, Rosé de Gabrinus, they are all just so complex.

Maybe will luck out and score some Lou Pepe / other rare fruited lambics from Cantillon or the insane blends from 3F someday but those are the tops so far.

Easy to order, not easy to find.

Here are mine I referenced in the other thread:

  1. Cantillon Iris - Happened upon a bottle in Montreal last summer while I was up for grand prix at a bar. Perfect bottle as I have since had another that was oxidized. This was layers and layers of different tastes: fresh hops, dry hops, funk, oak from the wine barrels. Some elements were pushing the boundaries of too much, but none did.
  2. SARA Appreciation - Had an amazing neon pink hue with superfine carbonation. Pure boysenberries, raspberry, cherry, and a touch of cranberry and dark berry. I’ll probably never see this again.
  3. De Cam Framboise - Brought this back from a trip to Europe in November. All I can say is this is the epitome of raspberry. So pure. I brought this to a bottle share in January and minds were blown.

Honorable mention - includes pretty much the entire lineup of Cantillon: Fou Foune, Kriek, and Rose especially though.

This is the most sour beer I’ve ever had. I’m still sitting on my remaining two bottles, fwiw, with the hope that the sourness abates a bit.

in no particular order:

2012 Cantillon - Fou Founne (tasted in 2013; by 2014 it was starting to just very slightly slide off of perfection) (also 2007 Fou Founne tasted in 2010)
2009 De Cam - Oude Lambiek (tasted in 2013)
1997 Drie Fonteinen - Oude Gueuze (tasted in 2012)
2000 Cantillon - Lambik Kriek (tasted in 2012; from 375mL)
1998 Cantillon - Gueze 100% Lambic (tasted in 2012; from 375mL)
1997 Cantillon - Gueze 100% Lambic (tasted in 2012; from 375mL)
2001 De Cam - Oude Geuze (tasted in 2012)

Many of these were tasted at a bar called Akkurat, located in Stockholm. I just happened to stumble upon it when I was impressed that they had some signs for various CA IPA’s hanging outside. I had no idea what I would find when I went inside. Many of you will recall the thread I posted at that time: TN's: 2 days of Heaven: aged Lambics and Gueuzes (& an Orval) -- @ Akkurat Bar in Stockholm (w/pics) - Beer and Spirits - WineBerserkers — a sour lover’s wet dream.

I’m sure there are plenty I’ve left off that really deserve to be on there … no way could I keep this to only three, as all listed above were “perfect” or have the potential to be “perfect,” imo. … I seem to recall a Cantillon Lou Pepe Framboise (or Kriek) from the late '90’s or early '00’s that I stumbled upon in a little shop in Barcelona — that made for one helluva nice evening tipple. Tilquin really deserves to be on the list, too.

If I could impress anything, on anyone, about these beers it’s that age does marvelous marvelous things to them.

Yeh, that is why I am eager to try it, love me some sour!

So jealous. Would love to go to Akkurat. My friend is there right now, he tried to get me to go with him. $300 round trip to stockholm from LAX!! basically the weekend and just gonna drink a ton of lambic

Curry? $300 roundtrip is absurd! I smell a Swedish vacation in my not-so-distant future!

p.s.: I have not forgotten about the Vanilla BCBS; I just got back to work this week.

No. A beer collecting friend

Where? Every store I’ve looked at that ships to the US has little or no availability and has for some time. The one place where I was actually able to get a bottle had a 1/order limit.

I don’t know which of these I had, but I tried one a couple of years back. It’s #1 for me too. It was really amazing.

#2 is Cantillon Lou Pepe Gueuze. I haven’t had it in a while (and good luck finding any for a reasonable price), but I remember it being a distinct step up from their regular Gueuze bottling, which has never lived up to the hype for me (it is excellent, but there are others I’d rather have).

#3 – I think I have to go with Drie Fonteinen Gueuze. Just the regular Gueuze bottling from them. It’s absolutely captivating every time I have it. So unbelievably complex.

There are so many other great sours that I’ve had, but I’ll stand by this list for now. It’s really tough to decide.

Just had the 11 Cantillon lou pepe Gueuz with the Armand’4 Lente last saturday. It was good, but man it was no lente!

Top two, in no particular order:
Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien - Love the intensity and complexity.
Cantillon Fou’ Foune - the funk and fruit work perfectly together, and I’m just a sucker for apricot.

Not sure about #3, but the ones that come to mind include Cantillon Iris and Cuvee des Champions, and De Dolle Oerbier Special Reserva.