I have been looking for sour beer that can serve as an alternative to my current sour stand-by, Duchesse de Bourgogne (Flanders Reddish-Brown Ale). Anyone out there have favorite sour ale?
Gold Standard:
I love Rodenbach too, but it seems no place in Maryland outside of Montgomery County can get it. I haven’t figured out why. Good call!
If you can find a geuze from a producer like Girardin or Cantillon, that’s my recommendation for a sour beer.
yup … gueuze is the way to go!
I second the recs for Girardin and Cantillon. Even Lindemann’s makes an acceptable gueuze – it’s called “Cuvee Rene” and typically costs about $10 per 750 mL.
If you can find it, get some Drie Fontenein Gueuze – it is otherwordly! Hansen makes a decent gueuze, as does Boon.
Monk’s Flemish Sour Ale (brewed in Philly, I think) is another great sour beer.
New Belgium Brewing Company just came out with a pair of fine examples as well: Eric’s Ale, and La Folie.
Jolly Pumpkin Brewery, out of Dexter, MI, makes a fantastic artisinal belgian amber ale that has a nice sourness to it – “La Roja”
Happy hunting!
Cascade Sang Royal
Victenaar (sp?) - my current favorite. Cheaper than the Duchesse, but very good. That said, a 5 year Duchesse will kick just about any beer’s ass.
Monk’s Cafe is also darned good.
Lots of interesting suggestions here for me to try. Monk’s Cafe has been mentioned several times, and I agree it is a pretty good, widely available (on the East coast, anyway) example of the style. I definitely mean to try Cantillon, which has eluded me until now for some reason.
one of my local favorites, captain lawrence cuvee du castleton.
released yearly, sells out quick. i have a few from last year left still and i believe july will be this years release.
What (if anything) is the correlation between a beer being a geuze and it being fermented with Brett?
And what is the definition of a sour beer, same as a geuze, are all geuzes sour beers? Vice versa?
True sour beers use Lactobacillus and often are fermented and / or aged in wood.
Also see here:
Gueuze - Wikipedia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
HORAL - Wikipedia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Rodenbach - Wikipedia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Flanders red ale - Wikipedia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;