Sour Beer Styles – Beer of the Summer?
Dragonfruit Sour by Vault City
The summer heat is finally here in the UK, which means we are starting to look for refreshing, light and thirst-quenching beers. Some will go for a lager, others an IPA, but I like sour beer styles in the heat. But what makes a beer sour and what sour beer styles should you be looking for? Let’s take a look!
How do sour beer styles become sour?
Traditional Lambic being poured at Cantillon in Brussels, Belgium
The most historical of sour beer styles, and arguably most well-known, is lambic. This is a wild-fermented beer from Belgium that is inoculated with the local yeasts. To read more about how this style of beer is made, check out my blog post on the three types of beer here. Lambics become sour because of the wild yeasts – most commonly Brettanomyces Bruxellensis and Brettanomyces Lambicus. The beer is also aged and blended to make the final flavours the brewer requires. This may be the most challenging of the sour beer styles – you will be looking for flavours and aromas like earthy, leather, barnyard and horse blanket… it’s taster than it sounds!
Berliner Kindl Weisse - traditionally this beer is sweetened with flavoured syrups but you can try it without as well.
Berliner Weisse is a traditional German sour beer made with wheat. It is fermented with the bacteria lactobacillus which produces lactic acid. Expect yoghurt and buttermilk flavours and aromas. Modern craft breweries are making this style with various fruit flavours which can be very refreshing and summery!
Flanders Red Ale - Duchesse De Bourgogne
My all-time favourite, however, are sour beer styles fermented with acetobacter. This produces pleasant vinegar flavours – think balsamic vinegar, not the off flavour! Flanders Red ales have these flavours. If you like rich red wine, these beers may be for you. They also go great with cheese – imagine a beer and cheese picnic!
What Sour Beer Styles Should You Try?
There are a wide range of sour beers out there – from fruity to tart to mouth-puckeringly sour. But which ones should you look for?
Fruity sour beer styles:
Timmermans Framboise
Though lambic can be challenging as your first sour beer, fruit lambic is more accessible. Kriek is lambic aged on cherries and Framboise is lambic aged on raspberries. Bacchus Kriekenbier can usually be found in supermarkets or Delirium Red is another great example of a cherry beer. Framboise from Lindemans or Timmermanns is very fruity!
Vault City Raspberry Sour available in Tesco
Vault City make great, accessible modern sour beers. They currently have a raspberry and a tropical sour in the supermarket. They produce interesting combinations of flavours regularly so check them out at their webshop here.
Tart beers:
Berliner Kindl Weisse turns green with the addition of traditional woodruff syrup!
A fruited Berliner weisse is a refreshing sour beer for a hot day. The tartness of the lactobacillus, and often the fruit chosen by the brewery, combine with a good level of carbonation for a thirst-quenching quality. Pastore create delicious fruit beers, particularly the Waterbeach Weisse range. For a traditional version look for Berliner Kindl Weisse – they have an unfruited version and then two sweetened with syrup. Raspberry and Woodruff make the beer red and green respectively.
Pastore Waterbeach Weisse Blackcurrant
To try the flavours imparted by acetobacter look for a Flanders Red ale. My absolute fave is Duchesse de Bourgogne, but Rodenbach is another classic example.
Rodenbach served at the Beer Museum in Bruges
Puckeringly Sour
Kriek by 3 Fonteinen
Are you ready to get deep into the sour beers styles? Let's get you a traditional lambic then! Start looking for beers from Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, Boon and Girardin. If you’re not wanting to quite go to the full sour side, a gueuze is a good place to start. These are a blend of 1, 2 and 3-year-old lambics and can be slightly sweeter – think apple, citrus and honey flavours along with the funky flavours and aromas.
Oude Gueuze by Boon
Have I converted you to sour beer styles yet? There are different levels of sourness created by different fermentation methods. Through wild yeasts, lactobacillus, brettanomyces and acetobacter, brewers can create beers that are fruity, refreshing tart and puckering. Various fruit flavours enhance the beers in the best, most refreshing ways as well! Why not head on over to the Love Beer Learning Instagram and let me know which sour beer styles you are excited to try this summer?
