I got lucky and managed to snag tickets to this year's Avery Sour Fest. Apparently it sold out in less than a minute, and tons of people who tried to get tickets at exactly 9am were unsuccessful.
I was in their boat last year... seemed as though tickets sold out before they even went on sale.
Speaking of which, if any of you know any great sour beers that I should try to find at the festival, let me know. I'm going to try anything that I haven't already had from Russian River, Lost Abbey, and Avery, but I'm sure there are a lot of other great breweries who don't distribute to Colorado, so I haven't tried their sours.
edit: I'm pretty sure it's only American breweries, but that would be amazing if breweries like Cantillon and 3 Fonteinen showed up.
The sours by Cascade are awesome as are the ones from Lost Abbey. The best sour beer I've probably ever tasted was Isabelle Proximus and it makes me sad I'll never be able to have it again.
My Friday Afternoon Lineup:
Might be trying this year's Stone RIS later if I'm not too messed up. Anyone try it yet?
drinking the bruery's otiose now. it is good, but my least favorite of the bruery sours i have had. great fruit flavor with the guava upfront although i would have liked for a more sour punch at the finish. i had two bottles so i think i am going to hold on to the other one for a while and see what happens.
if you can you guys need to get your hands on the above. it's been on tap for the past week or so at the beer bar and it's just incredible - a wild ale (read: not particularly a traditional belgian sour) collab beer between sly fox and de proef.
edit: i guess it's actually fashioned a saison, but it really tastes much more like a wild, description:
Brian O’Reilly of Sly Fox Brewing Company joins Dirk Naudts to create the fifth brew in the De Proef Brewmaster’s Collaboration series. This year’s collaboration celebrates the great brewing cultures of both Philadelphia and Gent.
Broederlijke Liefde (Brotherly Love) is a slightly higher gravity interpretation of the saison style. It is fermented with two yeasts – a classic saison yeast as well as brettanomyces from an original gravity of 1066 (16.5 plato). These yeasts yield a dry and slightly spicy ale with a strong hint of farmhouse character that will continue to develop with age. The use of Target and Styrian Golding hops at 37 IBUs add floral aromatics and a balancing bitterness.
Broederlijke Liefde if the official Belgian collaboration ale of Philly Beer Week 2011. If you can’t join us in Philadelphia for our annual celebration in June please enjoy this creation in your own celebration of the international brewing
Fantastic. Splendid BSDA aged in oak barrels. Could definitely see a wine fan being into this. Which is funny because I can't really fuck with win too much.
Didn't really think much of this Stone/Cambridge/BrewDog Juxtaposition Black Pilsner back in 2009 (it tasted like dirt), but after chucking it in the cellar for 2.5 years and forgetting about it, pretty fuckin pleased with the result. No longer a booze bomb but still a lil hoppy, the malt is surprisingly complex, lots of licorice, raisins, coffee, chocolate, tobacco.
If you see it lying around, totally worth a shot. Most of these Stone collabs have been tight though (El Camino Black IPA, Highway 78 Scotch Ale, San Diego Session West Coast ESB, More Brown Than Black IPA, TBA Hoppy Brown all shining examples)
Even though I'm pretty much 100% against aging fruit beers (krieks, lambics, etc), sour browns are awesome with some time on em. However, I don't think that the Bruery treats their stuff with any pedio or other shit to boost acidity, so I dunno if that Otiose is gonna get much more sour, but that guava's gonna drop out quick, so age at your own risk.
Yea, I'd also be interested in a Dark Lord if anyone has any for trade, but have very little to trade except cash because I'm in Chicago. I was supposed to go, but it's the weekend before my finals. I'll be in California from mid-May to mid-June and could probably trade Russian River stuff (even growlers from the pub), Alesmith, Ballast Point, Deschutes and other things we can't get in the Midwest.