Everything to Know About Sour Beer
Including our favorite sour beers.
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By Layla Khoury-Hanold for Food Network Kitchen
Layla Khoury-Hanold is a contributor at Food Network.
Whether you're a newbie or you know your gose from your gueuze, there's a wide world of sour beers out there. Some styles are light and refreshing, making them ideal for summer sipping, while others have enough complexity to take the place of wine at your dinner table. For more information, we consulted Jen Currier, Head of Mixed Culture Programs at Wicked Weed Brewing and Vīdl Cellars.
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What Is Sour Beer?
Sour beers, or sours, are beers that are intentionally acidic, tart or sour. Currier explains: “While all beer is technically acidic, sour beer refers to beer that has been intentionally soured through the use of acid-producing bacteria such as Lactobacillus or the addition of acid itself – most commonly Lactic acid, but sometimes Malic, Tartaric, Citric or a blend.”
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The Main Types of Sour Beer
Currier outlines seven of the main types of sour beers and provides visual cues, aromas and mouthfeel for each.
1. Gose
- Appearance: pale to amber with haziness or cloudyness
- Aroma: lemon, coriander, no hop character, lactic
- Mouthfeel: dry, highly carbonated, tart
- Style: German
2. Berliner Weisse
- Appearance: pale and sometimes displays a slight haze
- Aroma: fruity, with no hop character, lactic
- Mouthfeel: dry, highly carbonated, tart
- Style: German
3. Flanders Red
- Appearance: copper to dark amber
- Aroma: fruity, cherry, lactic, oak, acetic
- Mouthfeel: dry unless pasteurized and back-sweetened with syrups, with medium carbonation and high acidity
- Style: Belgium
4. Oud Bruin
- Appearance: copper to very dark brown
- Aroma: roasted malt, raisin, plum, lactic, acetic
- Mouthfeel: medium-bodied with medium to medium plus acidity
- Style: Belgium
5. Lambic
- Appearance: gold to amber, can be clear or cloud
- Aroma: fruity, sour, funky, phenolic, acetic
- Mouthfeel: light bodied, dry and high acid
- Style: Belgium
6. Fruit Lambic
- Appearance: the color is derived from the fruit used, which varries
- Aroma: depending on the fruit used, the aroma can be fruity, sour or funky
- Mouthfeel: mouthfeel can be dry to full-bodied depending on the process and what fruit was used. Examples of fruit lambic beers include Kriek, Framboise, Cassis and Peche.
- Style: Belgium
7. Gueuze
- Appearance: gold to amber in color and can be clear or cloudy
- Aroma: fruity, sour, funky, phenolic
- Mouthfeel: light-bodied, dry, high-acid mouthfeel
- Style: Belgium
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What Does Sour Beer Taste Like?
Sour beer generally has a tart, acidic or sour taste, but the flavor profile varies depending on the style. Currier provides general sour beer tasting notes by dividing the category into German sour beers and Belgian sour beers. “Understanding the difference between German and Belgian styles can help you read labels and know what to expect,” Currier says. “I think folks are often driven away from Belgian sour beers due to their higher price point, but these beers are so special, so complex, and often house living bacteria that some claim is beneficial to gut health.”
German Sour Beers
German sour beers, such as Berliner Weisse and Gose, tend to be light and refreshing and their moderate acidity is balanced with a perceivable malt character that Currier likens to sourdough. “The acidity in these beers is clean, and due to lactic acid, often comes across as slightly creamy. While these beers boast a juicy acidity, they finish dry and often benefit from higher carbonation." Because they aren’t hoppy beers, Currier says that German sours tend to appeal to a broad range of drinkers who enjoy fruitier styles.
Belgian Sour Beers
“Belgian sour beers are typically more complex than German sour beers, and they should have a pronounced Brettanomyces character that comes across as funky or reminiscent of a barnyard on the nose,” Currier says.
“I recommend heading to your local bottle shop or beer bar and asking your bartender about sour beers,” Currier says. “If they’re anything like me, that question will make their day, and you’ll walk out a happy customer, having tried something new or about to embark on a sensory adventure with a carefully selected bottle.”
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How Is Sour Beer Made?
The way sour beer is made depends on the style. Belgian sour beer takes much longer to make than German sour beer.
How Are German Sour Beers Made?
“German styles of sour beer are soured before fermentation,” Currier explains. “This means that bacteria is allowed to sour the wort, or unfermented beer, before it is boiled. This process ensures that all bacteria is killed before fermentation with Saccharomyces [brewer’s yeast] begins. Other than the kettle-souring process, these are produced in the same way that your standard IPA is made and typically do not take more than a couple weeks to end up in a keg or bottle.”
How Are Belgian Sour Beers Made?
Flanders Red Ales and Oud Bruins are produced through a process called solera. “This means that a small portion of each batch is blended with the next, and the wild yeasts and bacteria from the previous batch will sour the new one as it ages in large oak foeders for up to three years,” Currier explains.
Lambic sour beers are produced using spontaneous fermentation. “Wort is boiled and cast out into a large, shallow, open vessel called a coolship where it rests overnight and cools while wild yeasts and bacteria land on its surface, inoculating the wort before it ferments in oak for one to three years.”
Gueuze are created by blending Lambic sours at various stages of maturity — one-, two- and three-year-old Lambic. “Gueuze often gets blended with fruit, traditionally cherries to create Kriek, raspberries to create Framboise, etc.,” Currier says. “Like Champagne, these styles can only be produced in specific regions in Belgium, so the best we American brewers can do is create Belgian-inspired sour beers.
What Is Fruited Sour Beer?
“A traditional fruited sour, like a Kriek, is a blend of barrel-aged Lambic that is then re-fermented with cherries, but there are many other styles and methods,” Currier explains. “Most of our barrel-aged sours and wild farmhouse ales see a fruit addition after primary fermentation before they’re aged in oak.” Although Fruit Lambic is the only traditional fruited Belgian sour ale, Currier shares that many American breweries produce Flanders-inspired sour ales that feature fruit. Wicked Weed’s Oblivion, for example, is a Flanders Red-inspired sour that features a red-wine-barrel-aged sour red ale with blackberries and dates.
Currier adds that although German sour beers can’t contain fruit by law, it is traditional to blend a Berliner Weisse with fruit syrups, such as raspberry or green woodruff syrup. “Because American brewers do not have to abide by the German Beer Purity Law, many American examples of Berliner Weisse or Gose often use fruits, which complements the acidity in the base beers and makes them even more refreshing.”
How to Pair Sour Beer with Food
“Because of their complexity and acidity, Belgian or Belgian-inspired sour beers do very well in the place of wine on your dinner table,” Currier says. “The barnyard aromatics create especially dynamic pairings with funky cheeses. The high acid levels do well next to indulgent, fatty meats and the fruitiness can liven up just about any meal, especially sweeter, briny seafood. Use caution when pairing with high salinity foods, as the acid level and salt level can exacerbate your palate.”
German sour ales’ lighter acid levels make for versatile pairings too, though perhaps not as complex as those of Belgian sours. “Because of its salinity, gose is an especially fun beer to use when cooking—substituting Gose for wine when making Weinkraut is an easy way to put your love of craft beer at the forefront of your next Oktoberfest,” Currier says.
Best Sour Beers
We sampled 22 beers from 9 different breweries. These are the seven we loved most.
Here, a great entry-point for those looking to try sour beer as well as a crushable session sour for those who are already sour fans. We loved the combination of strawberry and rhubarb which yielded a beautiful balance of bright fruit and sour flavors, and a tart, refreshing finish. Because of its low ABV (alcohol by volume), at 4.5%, it’s considered a session sour, making it an easy summer sipper to pack for the beach or tote to your next backyard barbecue.
This non-alcoholic beer company proves they’ve got a crowd-pleasing beer for every category, including this take on a Radler (a combination of beer and lemonade). Although it's not technically a sour, the tartness of the lemon gives it a very similar flavor to sour beers and is a good introduction for sour newbies. It drinks like a fizzy lemonade with a subtle hazy hoppiness and has a super-tart quality like that of fresh lemon juice.
Each gallon of this classic golden ale is rested upon nearly 3 pounds of fresh Carolina peaches, and the flavor really shines through without overwhelming the beer’s complexity. It’s made with North Carolina barley and wheat from Riverbend Malt before it undergoes aging.
This sour is inspired by Belgian farmhouse ales. With its high acidity, it's particularly food-friendly. Try pairing it with soft cheeses, dark chocolate, cheesecake, mixed green salads or grilled duck or pork. The beer undergoes a primary fermentation with the brewery’s mixed culture of wild yeast, then a second fermentation in large oak foeders with a generous amount of whole raspberries.
This golden-hued sour drinks like a funky unfiltered cider or natural wine. It has distinct notes of apricot and lemon pith and a clean, tart, dry finish. It features a blend of one-, two- and three-year spontaneously fermented ales aged in French oak barrels, making it a great example of a sour made in the style of a Belgian Gueuze.
This session sour tastes like sipping a margarita on the beach, complete with salty ocean spray on your lips. The beer style incorporates characteristics of salty Gose, tart Berliner Weiss and crisp Kolsch and gets its complex citrusy-tart profile from lime juice, lime peel and black limes and a dose of salinity from sea salt.
This sour ale, redolent of white peaches, is a great example of the complexity that sours can possess. It’s aged for two months on North Carolina white Scuppernong grapes, then aged for an additional eight months in wine puncheons before getting blended atop lychee, white peach and pear. Its high acidity makes it well suited for food pairing, particularly spicy curry-style dishes.
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