Not only can sour fermentation be applied to any number of beer styles, but it’s also achieved using a variety of techniques. Here, some of the country’s most talked-about sour-beer brewers weigh in on how they do it.
Sour beers are hot and fashionable right now,” says Phil Markowski, the brewmaster at Two Roads Brewing in Stratford, Connecticut. “American brewers are now leading the charge, applying sour fermentation to all sorts of styles of beer.”
All About the Base
At The Rare Barrel, an exclusive sour brewery in Berkeley, California, the beers begin as three base ales named after their colors: gold, red, and dark. “We brew the beer, wait three to six months and then taste the base beers without any additions,” says Jay Goodwin, the cofounder and director of brewing and blending. “Then we sit down with several fruits, spice tinctures, and other ingredients and evaluate the beer for strengths and weaknesses and decide what works best. Along the way, we’re trying to take copious notes to explain how we made these flavors.”