Sour Beer

[sockmerchant]

I have been on a huge sour beer kick as of late. Especially flanders red and oud bruin. Lambic's can be a bit more hit and miss for me.

A few questions

Are any (commercial) brewers in NZ venturing into there territories as yet? It would be awesome to see an NZ take on the these beers. They are a giant pain in the bum to brews though, so i wouldnt be surprised if no one has.

Does anyone on here do these? I have started a couple recently, but clearly it will take some time before i know if i did a good job. Would be awesome to do some bottle swaps in the future. 

Assuming someone has brewed some flanders style sours, have you used WLP665 Flemish Ale Blend? Impressions? How does it compare to wyeast Roesalari blend?

Cheers 

[Ralph]

I have done 1 sour mash and it I think the sour part of the mash went well. The beer had something else going on so was not great, but I would have another go at the sour mash thing. Was just fermented with standard ale yeast etc.

Have not really seen commercial varieties of it yet, although the sour watermelon wheat that I tried at Beervana last year was fantastic!

[sockmerchant]

What was that for? Berliner Weiss?

[Ralph]

mine was mostly a low alcohol sour summer ale. Not quite sure where it would fit on the BJCP style... if it fits at all? The Beervana one would have been berliner weiss with fruit. Watermelon warhead

http://beerforayear.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/275-feral-watermelon-w...

https://www.feralbrewing.com.au/our-beer/

[Greig McGill]

Hallertau have "Funkonnay" - in my opinion, the second best sour beer ever made in NZ. Mussel Inn used to have Lambagreeny, which, in 2009 (I think) was THE best - a Feijoa Geuze and just mindblowing, though it didn't age as well as I'd hoped, it was still delicious when I last tried it in 2010. Martin Townshend has Flemish Stout - which reminds me a lot of a Flanders Oud Bruin crossed with a Foreign Extra Stout - tasty as! Black Dog were going to release a Berliner Weisse, as were 8Wired. Not sure what happened to either of those.

[sockmerchant]

Awesome! Is hallertaue's in bottles or just on site?

I will try and track some of those down. Just can't get enough sours right now :)

[Dan]

Yup, as Greig said - Funkonnay. They had it in 750ml bottles last time I was there.

[Greig McGill]

Hrm, I'm sure it was on beercellar, but it seems to have gone. Still plenty on-site.

[sockmerchant]

See below :) grabbed a couple from Liquorland Forrest Hill (One of the biggest craft beer selection i have seen in a nz liquor store)

[sockmerchant]

Picked up two bottles of funkonnay. Pricey! better be be good Greig! :) 

[sockmerchant]

Though...from what i read, I dount it will be quite to my preference as far as sourness levels go. I LOOOOOVE rodenbach grand cru. Wish i had a keg of that...

[Greig McGill]

Oh, I dunno... you can thank me later... ;)

[sockmerchant]

Having some right now. Not a bad brew. Certainly a unique take on a sour beer.

The sourness is quite subdued though. Compared to what I like anyway :)

 

I think its quite a good sour beer for noob sour drinkers. Its sour, but not enough to invert your eyeballs. I like my eyeballs inverted though :) 

 

Over the past week I've had a couple of rodenbachs, a goudenband, a couple of Duchesse De Bourgognes and a couple of lambics. I was spoiled in other words.