Tart and tasty sour beers!

June 19, 9:07 PMCleveland Craft Beer ExaminerKaren Bujak

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© 2009 K Bujak

 Today (Saturday, June 20th) is the “Summer Solstice Sour Beer Tasting" at the Buckeye Beer Engine. The event takes place in the Engine room on the lower level, from 2 – 8 pm.

It’s beer heaven for me. I love the tart, tangy, funky taste of Belgian sours. It’s not for everyone, but the style is becoming more popular. A few years ago, they were very hard to find. Most of you may have heard of or tried Lindeman’s Lambics (Kriek, Peche, Cassis, and/or Frambroise). While this was my introduction to Lambics, they tend to be very sweet and fruity, not typical of a real Belgian sour ale. The classic sour styles include Flanders Red, Flemish Sour, Flemish Brown, Saison and other "Farmhouse” ales. The distinctive sour profile of these beers make them great for a hot summer day.

Lambics and other sours get their distinctive flavors from wild yeast and bacteria (brettanomyces and lactobacillus). The true lambic can only be made in an area around Brussels that has these wild yeasts. The beer is fermented in open tanks with no added yeasts. The flavor can be simulated by adding brettanomyces and/or lactobacillus, but the true lambics are made with wild yeasts only. Lambics are then often blended for optimum flavors; the young with the aged. Often a blend will be made of 1, 2, and 3 year old lambics. Fruit is often added for a bit of sweetness to balance the sour.

Sour beers typically have very little or no hop flavor or bitterness. There is not much unfermentable sugar left, so unless fruit is added, they can make you pucker! They often have a very complex flavor with sour, acidic, fruity, oak, and the earthy barnyard things going on all at once. Similar to a fine wine!

While harder to find and more expensive than some beer styles, it’s still in the price range of a medium to low-priced wine, and I think much better! So come on out to the Beer Engine tomorrow and test a few on your palate. It’s a pay per sample, and no tickets required. First on my tasting list will be a few I haven’t had before. Ithaca Brute is a first for Ohio. Ommegang Rouge is a limited production and the two Jolly Pumpkin draft beers are new. If you do happen to miss it tomorrow, the Beer Engine always has a good selection of sour beers in the bottle and usually one or two on draft. For a list of beers available on June 20, check their website.

 For more info: Buckeye Beer Engine,15315 Madison Ave - Lakewood, OH 44107, 216.226.BEER (2337)