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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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
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.
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.