What is Sour Beer?

Sour beer, as the name implies, encompasses a variety of beer styles distinguished by their notably sour
taste.

Common Sour Beer Styles

- Lambic
- Flanders Red
- Flanders Brown/Oud Bruin
- Berliner Weisse
- New World Sour Beer

Sour beers are the product of spontaneous fermentation. Spontaneous fermentation is the process of
exposing unfermented wort to airborne wild yeast & microorganisms in order to aid in the fermentation,
rather than adding a more controlled strain of brewer’s yeast. In the early days of brewing all beer was
produced by spontaneous fermentation.

TASTE OF SOUR BEER

The developing number of approaches to harsh brew classifications suggests the growing popularity of a
new kind of beer taste among brewers. The strategies brewers are using and the “bugs” they are
introducing (also referred to as other forms of yeast and bacteria rather than the typical brewer’s yeast)
into their lagers have a long history. Sour taste in beer has become a seemingly new trend as of late.

We are in the realm of strong brews, where people can perceive acidity and severe qualities in beer as
favorable traits. As of late, specialty brewers have tried push the limits of intensity, testing their parched
fans with brews stacked with hops, beginning with Indian pale beers, and their more youthful kin- Royal
IPAs, the pattern then spread into different classes, with pilsners, porter, and grain wines bumping for
intense bitterness.

Lately, a developing number of brewers have looked into an alternate component to adjust a brews
fundamental sweetness. These beers have been made to be more inclined towards sweet, acidic flavors.
Furthermore, despite the fact that the expression "sour beer” seems to be off putting at first, there are
some energizing flavors that the brave consumer can anticipate. Acidic beers have steadily maintained
hundreds of years of brewing legacy. Furthermore, to the joy of current consumers, today's brewers are
molding old styles and systems to create new and innovative results.

As we adapted through a period of brewing with strong flavors, we discovered that the bitter taste of
beer is not one-dimensional. It can originate from various sources, and it can be transformed into a
variety of intensities. With the assortment of various hops and the timing of its expansion, the resulting
beer can go from being fruity to being complex and heavy. Roasted grains can also add a smoldered,
astringent toast to a lager even without added hops.

That is the feature of sour beer. Adding various hops at different times of the boil can help add acid
tones to beer, which results in various light intensities, roasty flavors, or bitter tastes. Maverick yeast
strains also help acidic notes, and these all produce distinctive influences, depending on the maturation
progress. Moreover, soil-grown foods, flavors and other unique additions can help create a harmonious
profile.
Our tongues perceive sour taste as one of the five fundamental tastes (harsh, astringent. sweet, salty
and pleasant). Taste buds can distinguish different levels of sharpness. Fundamentally, they measure the
pH value of foods and drinks.

The essential influences to causticity are the nearly related microorganisms: Lacto bacillus (the harsh
milk microscopic organisms), Pediococcus, and Acetobacter; all produce various levels in acidic qualities.
These acids can cooperate with liquor to structure synthetic mixes known as esters. When all these
components are mixed, they can create extraordinary varieties in beer.

TYPES OF SOUR BEERS

Lambics

Lambic brews are one from the Pajottenland region of Belgium. It is developed by a spontaneous
fermentation process as described before. Lambics are often created by starting out with a well-
seasoned lager style wort.

This method of brewing is centuries old, the initial precursor to lager is a sweet wash - as it is often
called- which is stored in a manner that allows for it to be exposed to wild yeasts and airborne
microorganisms. While this may sound as if it is unlikely to give a consistent brew each time, it is
anything but inconsistent. Surely it is impossible to ensure that the same organism will settle in the beer
as it ferments, the Iambic brewer will often allow the brew to be exposed in a manner that allows for
the process to begin and then moving the product to a barrel that has a strong base of microorganisms
that are desired to reach the particular fermentation result they are expecting. Once the brew has been
sealed away in its barrels the fermentation process will continue and may last anywhere from one to
three years in order to get the desired final product.

The process does not end here, however, multiple layers of Iambic brews are melded together in order
to ensure that the desired flavor is imparted to multiple brew cycles and the tart and wonderful beer
lives on.

Types of Lambic

•  Lambic (Unblended)- Lambic that is packaged from a single barrel without fruit or sweetening.

•  Faro-Blended lambic with candied sugar or molasses added to it.

•  Gueuze Lambic- a blend of at least two aged lambics, typically one and three year old.

•  Fruit Lambic- Lambic with whole fruit and/or fruit juice added, the most common are Kriek (cherry)
and Framboise (raspberry)

West Flanders Sour Red Ale:

The West Flanders Sour Red Ale is one of the most splendid lagers available. It is a tart beer that is
created by the introduction of bacteria into wooden barrels that already include bacterial aspects such
as lactic acid and perhaps a bit of vinegar as well. Once introduced to the barrel the West Flanders Sour
Red Ale is allowed to mature. This beer is often started with a standard brewer's yeast, and once mature
it is blended with a younger beer with less fermentation in order to stabilize the mix and provide a more
consistent and repeatable finished product.
Oud Bruin:

In East Flanders, the local sour beer is created from a tan malt beverage that contains hints of caramel,
toffee, and earthy notes that are not found in the West Flanders’s Sour Red Ale. The Oud Bruin are
created in stainless steel rather than wood which creates a malty brew that is almost sherry like in its
final state of creation.

Berliner Weisse:

Once dubbed "the Champagne of the North" by Napoleon who had a great fondness for this acidic brew,
created from a wheat based wort, Berliner Weisse gathers its flavor from lactic acid and Pediococcus
microorganisms. Again the Berliner Weisse like the Witbier is knows to be a cloudy wheat beer. It was
developed in the area of Germany now known as Berlin. This sour beer achieves its tartness via a
secondary fermentation process and often times completed in the bottle. While in its youth this
secondary fermentation was done in the bottle most often while buried under warm ground for months,
now this process is reproduced with the use of lacto to speed up the fermentation process.

New World Sour Beer

Reviving traditional beer styles with adventurous spirit is one of the things American craft breweries do
best and the sour beer revival is well on its way. Breweries like Port Brewing, Russian River, Jolly
Pumpkin and New Belgium, to name a few, have been shattering the framework of traditional sour beer
and challenging the pallets beer enthusiasts far and wide.

Because of the lack of desirable airborne yeast, most of these breweries use a process called
inoculation, in which wild yeast and beer-souring microorganisms are introduced by the brewer.

New World Sour Beer Commercial Examples

- Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme

YEASTS

Brettanomyces

The most common wild yeast strain found in sour beers, “brett” contributes many complex flavors and
aromas: horsy or barnyard, spicy, fruity, smoky, etc… The most common strains of Brettanomyces found
in sour beer are: anomalous, bruxellensis, lambicus & claussenii.

Common bacteria found in sour beer:

•  Lactobacillus- contributes a light, tart and tangy characteristic to lambics and Flemish ales.

•  Pediococcus- mainly responsible for lactic acid production in beer, sometimes contributes a
buttery/butterscotch quality to beer.

•  Acetobacter- converts ethanol into acetic acids responsible for producing vinegar, a prominent flavor
in some Flemish red ales.