Sour beer hits the NYTimes

[randy_byers]

Sour Beer Is Risky Business, Starting With the Name

A pretty good article that includes some things I didn't know. For example, Allagash (a brewer in Portland, Maine) is also experimenting with exposing its wort to wild yeasts and bacteria. Three of the brewers they talked to for the article made beers that I wrote about recently: Vinnie Cilurzo

Comments

[reverendjim]

Ta, that was interesting. I'd not come across the problem of Brett contaminating "ordinary" beers before. I suppose that's because the Belgian lambic brewers tend to only make lambics, so they don't have that problem. The few that do make other beers generally get them made at another brewery

[randy_byers]

Hm, Denmark again. Have to keep an eye on those guys.

Haven't had any of those medal-winning American-style sours, and I'm not sure that I've heard of any of the breweries either, unless it's Iron Hill.

One of the sour beers we had in our recent sampling had been aged in a port cask, but I don't remember now if that was an American beer or Belgian.

And yeah, I was fascinated by the stuff in the article about Brett, as you so familiarly call it. (Well, it's easier than remembering the full name.) I started to imagine a war between the wineries and the breweries, with raiding parties burning infected barrels, burning breweries to the ground, burning piles of brewer's underwear.