Sour Beer is Here to Stay!

About a year and a half ago, I wrote an article about the rise in popularity of heavily fruited sours. In the time between I have only seen the style grow exponentially, and have watched local brewers hone their offerings to reach even more drinkers. Fine liquor stores that I have visited recently stock more sour beer on their shelves than I have ever seen, and there is more talk about them then ever as well. I recently introduced a friend to sour beer who would not have liked beer otherwise. Not everybody may like sour beer, but plenty of people do, and there’s a plethora of breweries making them!

As a beer writer, I am drawn to many styles of beer, but there is a lasting appeal to the fruited sour as a session beer that is meant to be drunk among friends. When my friend John and I visited Hidden Springs in the Tampa area last April, we wanted to try so many that we each got a flight trying everything from Kiwi Strawberry to a sports drink clone. And when I go to pick up new releases at Hoosier Brewing in Greenwood, there always seems to be a group of young ladies ordering flights of their sour beer. It’s evident that so many new people are drinking fruit sours that wouldn’t drink beer otherwise like my friend Kodi, and this is why the style is helping craft beer on many levels!

Here in Indiana, there are so many breweries making good sour beer. Windmill, Hoplore, Hoosier, Viking, and 450N. are just a few of the big hitters in the style, but dozens of other breweries throughout the state do excellent sours. Ohio has too many great breweries making sours to mention them all, but I have been fortunate enough to have quite a few from Cincinnati’s Streetside. It would take me too long to list all the breweries who are making great sours I’ve had recently, but ones that stand out include Mortialis, Arkane, and of course RAR. I’m hoping to make another trip to Cambridge, Maryland with my mom this fall. If I’m lucky they’ll be lots of new beers from their Out of Order series.

And as I’ve mentioned, I recently have had a chance to expose a friend to beer and he was most interested in sour beer and has now become a very big fan. Kodi would not have liked other styles of beer, and probably may not have discovered he like sour beer without my help. Several months ago he met me at Greenwood’s Ale Emporium and the only thing that appealed to him was a fruit flavored beer. He discovered he really liked it, and I made it a point to have him meet me at several other places where the style was available. From A Taproom to Hoosier, I have watched him discover great beer, and it’s really exciting to see somebody new to craft beer enjoying it.

While many styles of beer can be great introductory beers into the world of craft beer, the fruited sour is different because it’s appeal goes beyond traditional beer drinkers. While I prefer some of the traditional styles of sour beers like the Lambics and Flanders Reds, they can be an acquired taste that isn’t always easy to immerse yourself in when you’re learning about beer. And everywhere that makes these sour beers also features a variety of other styles of beer, so you can meet all your beer aficionado friends at most of these breweries. I spend a lot of time at Hoosier brewering, and their IPAs and stouts excite me just as much as their fruited beer. And when I went to pick up my Out of Order beers in Cambridge Maryland last July, it was an IPA I enjoyed sitting at their taproom while I waited for my mom to shop!

So now that the heavily fruited sour beer phenomenon is several years old, I think we can safely say that these beers are here to stay for a while. Some of them are very good, and I encourage you to experience a few of them if you have not tried them yet. They help bring a lot of people towards craft beer, and maybe some of them will experience other beer as well. And that’s good for craft beer because when the breweries are full, they’ll be making good beer for us for a long time.

So we have a holiday weekend coming up and as styles of beer, go fruit flavored beer is great for the summer. Wherever you live, I’m sure you can find some, and even if you’re not near a brewery as long as you have a good liquor store, or tap room nearby, fruited sour beers are available to you. I have a lot of trips across the next few months and I’m looking forward to see how sour beer is faring in northern Michigan, as well as Pittsburgh. Enjoy beer wherever you are and maybe if we run into each other, we can toast with a few sours!