A local beeratorium, as part of Pittsburgh’s Craft Beer Week had a sour/funky beer tasting event yesterday. Man, it was awesome! Any love here for the sours? For $50 you could drink all you wanted from 1 to 4 pm. Catered food was included, as well. Of course, a souvenir glass was yours to keep.
The beer offerings included 36 bottled beers. A few notables were The Bruery’s Rueuze (an Americanized Gueuze/barrel aged sour blonde ale), Rodenbach Vintage 2010 Barrel 144 (a single-foeder Flanders red ale), Russian River’s Consecration (yumm! A dark ale aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels with currants), Lindemans Faro (blended lambic sweetened with candy sugar. Sounds strange, but I like it), and many more.
There were also six beers on draft. I had Draai Laag Goedenacht (farmhouse ale with apples, honey, and brettanomyces), Bavik Petrus Aged Red (a blend of Petrus Oud Bruin & Aged Pale with cherries), Bullfrog Pomme Par Jour (farmhouse ale with brettanomyces, steeped on apple pomace), and Van Honsebrouck St Louis Framboise (sweetened lambic with raspberries).
Yep, been a big fan of sours and am happy to see them get more widely available as beer drinkers palates get a handle on the flavors. On the other hand, they seem to have gotten more expensive, too. I used to get a big bottle of Hanssens Oude Gueuze for $11.99, but now it’s like $17.99. Now, all beer prices seem to have risen substantially over the last 5 years, but that one seems especially high, and I wonder whether its due to the increased interest in the style.
As much as I love hops, I’m happy to see tastes expanding and more examples of lesser known styles enter the market.
I love lambics. I still treasure the comment on a judging form I once got, for my “Only the Strong Survive” framboise. He said it tasted like a raspberry razor blade on his tongue.
Any kriek lambics? Tried one of those once in the Netherlands and am still thinking about it. Don’t know that I liked it, mind you, but I still think about it.
I love lambics, but am unfortunately too knocked up to drink at the moment. There’s a pub in town that has a good assortment, but I enjoy Lindeman’s La Pecheress both for the taste and for the pun.
I think I’ve had the Faro, too, and liked it a lot. My husband can’t stand any of them, though.
Edit to add- yes, the pub in question has Lindeman’s Faro and Kriek on tap. Lovely place.
Me and my father had a trip to belgium a couple of years ago. I’ve never come home with such a sour stomach in my life… It was wonderful. I had over eighty different kinds of beer in three days!
