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One of my favorite beer experiences was attending early SourFest at Stone Brewing’s garden campus in Escondido. It was just the right amount of sours poured for plenty of choice and not too crowded either, though we did get a staggeringly high amount of drink tickets.
Makes me wonder what it would be like to return in 2023 to see what the sour world has to offer.
Combine 3 <strong>Beachwood locations with 6 days and well, you do the math on the amount of sour, tart and wild that your stomach could be fully subjected too.
My suggestion is to check out the Huntington Beach location if you haven’t already. It is the most laid back of the three and you can all the production brewing equipment as you sip your sours.
One of the beers (of many) that caught my eye from the Beachwood SourFest (that I didn’t attend this year) was a lambic lager from Sudwerk Brewing.
Long time readers know that I love a good lager and pilsner and to see a brewery that makes a damn fine one use it as a base for Belgian souring experiments is really quite cool. Maybe I will catch it somewhere else.
Earlier this year, I applied to be a member of the 4 Points Beer Advisory Board and I was lucky enough to be one of the chosen. I will write more about the group and the Brewster’s bar inside the hotel later on FoodGPS (after L.A. Beer Week) but now I want to talk about the Sourfest that happened last Friday.
As you can see this was an impressive list of beer. Not extreme sours and some fruit first beers but a nice mix of breweries and flavors.
My pick for favorite of the night came from the Italian brewer Birra del Borgo.
Duchessic was herb spicy and only slightly tart but really shone as unique amongst the other beers. I also enjoyed the subtle and funky wild strawberry beer from Mikkeller. Very Belgian upfront and the strawberry came in late but was subtle and quite nice.
Either, surprisingly or not, two other Mikkeller beers ranked at the bottom for me. Monks Brew aged in wine barrels and It’s Alive also aged in wine barrels both were dominated by powerful aromas that put me off and made drinking a bit of a chore. The tastes were strong and harsh on the tongue.
But that is what is great about a tasting. You don’t have to buy a full bottle and later find out that you don’t like it. You can find hidden gems to buy later and expand your palate.
You have three more “appreciation” nights this year starting with an Octoberfest. So check their website and see if the list or theme strikes a chord and give it a whirl.
If you want “A week’s worth of puckering, funky goodness.” then Sourfest 2012 starting September 4th and running until the 10th at the Library Alehouse is where you will need to be.
Here is the rundown of (dear God, how do I choose from this list) sours….
● Russian River Supplication
● Russian River Temptation
● Russian River Consecration
● Rodenbach Grand Cru
● Rodenbach Vintage 2008 (Single Foudre)
● The Bruery BeRazzled
● The Bruery Hottenroth Berliner Weisse
● The Bruery Nottenroth Berliner Weisse w/ Kumquats
● The Bruery Tart of Darkness
● The Bruery Oude Tart
● Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme
● Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge
● Golden Road Berliner Weisse
● Allagash Vrienden
● Allagash Confluence
● New Belgium Brett Beer
● New Belgium Tart Lychee
● Bavik Petrus Aged Pale
● St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition
● Heretic Tartuffe Berliner Weisse
● Eagle Rock Equinox
● Ladyface Guillotine
● Grand Teton Howling Badger Berliner Weisse
“We’ll kick things off with Locals Only Night on September 4th at 6PM. Expect some special pairings for the evening along with the following on tap (subject to change):”
● Ladyface Guillotine
● Eagle Rock Equinox
● The Bruery BeRazzled
● The Bruery Hottenroth Berliner Weisse
● The Bruery Nottenroth Berliner Weisse w/ Kumquats
● The Bruery Tart of Darkness
● The Bruery Oude Tart
● Golden Road Berliner Weisse
“We’ll cycle in the rest of the list as the week progresses, offering six ounce pours of all available beers in addition to full pours, so you can sample responsibly.”
My beer buddy Richard and I traveled to Escondido for the pleasure of puckery sour beer at Stone Brewing. And at 10am no less.
We arrived and quickly received are elegant sampler glasses, our 15 taster tickets and the menu…..
I started with Sang Royal from famed (and often mentioned on this blog) Cascade Brewery in Portland which had (6) sours on the menu. Of which I sampled two. The Vine with it’s big white grape taste and milder acidity was my favorite. We found a rock wall to sit on at the lowest level and plotted our sour choices on the sunny day…
My plan was to alternate between fruit sours and barrel aged sours. Mostly to keep the acidity level in check. (Even though I brought some Tums in case). And because there were so many choices, 53 on tap plus 49 bottles, it was easy to do.
There were only a couple of duds in the 11 that I sampled but they were far outweighed by two from Cantillon that were simply amazing. The Lou Pepe Kriek and the Iris.
The kriek was like a spiced cherry pie. It was a cloudy red with excellent aroma. My number one choice of the day.
If you went this year or last, what were your favorites?