I do like the New England style, and the West Coast. But I've had a couple of the New England ones and they are very nice.
I do like the New England style, and the West Coast. But I've had a couple of the New England ones and they are very nice.
Sours.
Most breweries seem to be releasing one or two.
I personally think they are a crime against beer.
I have seen more of them creep into my local Tesco, to be honest. I can't stand them, especially anything with saison.
I'd be up for hazy beers being the next big thing though.
Hazy beers are the big thing, have been for 5+ years now. Before that it was west coast style IPAs.
Sours have also been popular for a while, more recently the heavily fruited 'smoothie' style sours that have been showing up more and more but they are hit and miss. Lambic has been popular for decades and is some of the best beer I've ever had, but I too was averse to sours for a while until I realised their potential.
Also, don't disregard a style of beer because of what Tesco offers
Tesco for me has the best selection of craft beer for a supermarket but still most of it is pretty crap, especially the sours.
Soldato
Agree with the sours, i'm a big fan of them when you get them right (I'm looking at you Pomona Manchester Tart, absolute perfection), but so many are just trying to ride on the coat tails.
I got huge respect for a local brewery when i was encouraging them to make a sour and they just said they both hate sour beers and so wouldn't waste their time making something they wouldn't enjoy.
I got huge respect for a local brewery when i was encouraging them to make a sour and they just said they both hate sour beers and so wouldn't waste their time making something they wouldn't enjoy.
Soldato
I've heard decent things about those 2 in Tesco. My local shop posted on facebook of a load of Vault stuff they've just got in.
I'm off to a local wine shop today which is meant to have some decent beer. I might be changing my Belgian beer!
You say that but I haven't seen them drunk or discussed anywhere but in this thread! Not to say they won't catch on though, we'll see.
Have you ever been to any decent bar, anywhere, ever? You'll usually see a sour or two or three on any decent tap list.
If you're not looking for them then maybe you haven't noticed, but they are very much a big thing and have been for a while. My wife for a long time only drank sours or stouts and most of my mate's partners usually drink a sour or fruit beer and are never left disappointed at most places they go to.
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Weird. Of course I have been to many craft beer bars and shops. Never really noticed them, you're right, maybe it's because I'm always looking for IPAs, strong ales and stouts.
Same here, mainly. For years my wife loved sours and I hated them, I even took her to some of the best sour beer producers in the US when we holidayed there, but I would always pray they had an IPA on tap for me. I would drink some of hers and appreciated the craft, but couldn't ever drink more than a sip or two.
It wasn't until we moved to the US and I worked in a friend's bar (one of the best bars in the US midwest) that I started trying them more and started to love them. They probably only make up about 5-10% of the beer that I drink, as I still prefer to drink a few IPAs or dark beers, but one sour I had while over there is still probably the best beer I have ever had. Having said that it was a very special birthday release that was only made available to the breweries 'members' in very small quantities, the guy that shared it with me drove the 600 mile round trip for the beers that weekend. It'll never be made again.
Cantillon in Belgium make some of the most sought after beers in the world and they really are incredible, they are the fine wine of beer.
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Soldato
Will check out that Cantillon.
My issue with sours at the moment, well not an issue as such, but i just want a sour beer. Most places feel the need to add stuff to that, i've just been in a shop with a decent selection and it's all "Passionfruit sour" or "Black Forest Gateau sour". Just give me a decent plain sour god dammit!
My issue with sours at the moment, well not an issue as such, but i just want a sour beer. Most places feel the need to add stuff to that, i've just been in a shop with a decent selection and it's all "Passionfruit sour" or "Black Forest Gateau sour". Just give me a decent plain sour god dammit!
Cantillon use fruit too, but not at the forefront of the flavour, it is more subtle. Fou Foune is probably their most popular beer which uses apricot to perfection, but that and their other limited releases sell out very quick over here and on the brewery website. You'll find some core range Cantillon in good UK bottle shops which are still very good but not like their seasonals.
Check out Gueze Boon available from Waitrose, by far the best sour beer available in a UK supermarket, if you like that you'll like Cantillon and that way you only have to pay £3 rather than the £10+ for the small Cantillon bottles. Grab a Kriek Boon while you're at it too, heavy cherry but so so good.
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Soldato
Yeah, i'm a fan of Geuze Boon. It's a great beer and regularly on my shopping list. I'm a big fan of Wild Beers Ninkasi too, not strictly a sour, but pretty impressive at ~£7 a bottle.
Soldato
Haha I don’t mind them and one of my favourite ever beers was a Manchester Tart sour, but sometimes I just want a regular sour.
Man I love finding new beers. Was at a wine shop earlier and found this. It’s amazing.
Seems to be Croatian
![URL][\img]](http://[URL]https://imgur.com/gallery/I3qHfEa[/URL][\img])
Man I love finding new beers. Was at a wine shop earlier and found this. It’s amazing.
Seems to be Croatian
Soldato
Not so much a comedy entry but something with a lot of backstory plus a rare US made beer too -
So my best mate's wife found out that his favourite band "Clutch" had released their own beer through the New Belgium Brewery in the US and she couldn't find anywhere in the UK that stocked it. As it was coming up for Christmas and my mate was due back from Afghan I thought I'd try and source a bottle for him.
I contacted the Brewery and they said it was brewed for the US only so there were no exports and they didn't have any more left they could send. So I looked about and found a bottle on US eBay somewhere in Texas which I bought before realising that US has some funny state/international export laws around alcohol so the seller said he couldn't post it to me. However I have a few military friends in the US and so began a slightly epic tale of getting a single bottle of beer from the US to the UK.
The beers first port of call was a retired USAF fellow I knew in Dayton, Ohio who helps out at the USAF museum so I had the bottle sent there first, then using his contacts he sent the bottle down to MacDill AFB in Orlando where it was added to a deploying C-17 flight carrying various Embassy bits (caused a minor issue) landing at RAF Mildenhall, then it was picked up by a RAF mate based at RAF Marham who then arranged for it to be carried on a return flight of a Tornado GR4 heading back to my base at RAF Lossiemouth where I finally collected it from the pilot.
Even better was after I sent Clutches manager Jack Flanagan an e-mail about the trip with it's photo-diary, he circumvented all that faff (
) and had a bottle from the bands own personal stash held at the Brewery signed by the band and then posted directly to me, so for Christmas my mate had both a signed bottle and a spare bottle for us to actual drink.
The final kicker - my mate was delayed at Cyprus and made it home 3 days late and he'd never even heard of the beer - FFS dude!!!!
So my best mate's wife found out that his favourite band "Clutch" had released their own beer through the New Belgium Brewery in the US and she couldn't find anywhere in the UK that stocked it. As it was coming up for Christmas and my mate was due back from Afghan I thought I'd try and source a bottle for him.
I contacted the Brewery and they said it was brewed for the US only so there were no exports and they didn't have any more left they could send. So I looked about and found a bottle on US eBay somewhere in Texas which I bought before realising that US has some funny state/international export laws around alcohol so the seller said he couldn't post it to me. However I have a few military friends in the US and so began a slightly epic tale of getting a single bottle of beer from the US to the UK.
The beers first port of call was a retired USAF fellow I knew in Dayton, Ohio who helps out at the USAF museum so I had the bottle sent there first, then using his contacts he sent the bottle down to MacDill AFB in Orlando where it was added to a deploying C-17 flight carrying various Embassy bits (caused a minor issue) landing at RAF Mildenhall, then it was picked up by a RAF mate based at RAF Marham who then arranged for it to be carried on a return flight of a Tornado GR4 heading back to my base at RAF Lossiemouth where I finally collected it from the pilot.
Even better was after I sent Clutches manager Jack Flanagan an e-mail about the trip with it's photo-diary, he circumvented all that faff (
) and had a bottle from the bands own personal stash held at the Brewery signed by the band and then posted directly to me, so for Christmas my mate had both a signed bottle and a spare bottle for us to actual drink.The final kicker - my mate was delayed at Cyprus and made it home 3 days late and he'd never even heard of the beer - FFS dude!!!!
Not so much a comedy entry but something with a lot of backstory plus a rare US made beer too -
So my best mate's wife found out that his favourite band "Clutch" had released their own beer through the New Belgium Brewery in the US and she couldn't find anywhere in the UK that stocked it. As it was coming up for Christmas and my mate was due back from Afghan I thought I'd try and source a bottle for him.
I contacted the Brewery and they said it was brewed for the US only so there were no exports and they didn't have any more left they could send. So I looked about and found a bottle on US eBay somewhere in Texas which I bought before realising that US has some funny state/international export laws around alcohol so the seller said he couldn't post it to me. However I have a few military friends in the US and so began a slightly epic tale of getting a single bottle of beer from the US to the UK.
The beers first port of call was a retired USAF fellow I knew in Dayton, Ohio who helps out at the USAF museum so I had the bottle sent there first, then using his contacts he sent the bottle down to MacDill AFB in Orlando where it was added to a deploying C-17 flight carrying various Embassy bits (caused a minor issue) landing at RAF Mildenhall, then it was picked up by a RAF mate based at RAF Marham who then arranged for it to be carried on a return flight of a Tornado GR4 heading back to my base at RAF Lossiemouth where I finally collected it from the pilot.
Even better was after I sent Clutches manager Jack Flanagan an e-mail about the trip with it's photo-diary, he circumvented all that faff (
The final kicker - my mate was delayed at Cyprus and made it home 3 days late and he'd never even heard of the beer - FFS dude!!!!
Nice, that's quite a journey!
The Lips of Faith series from NB has some fantastic beers too, La Folie in that series was the beer that first got my wife into sours.