Something Sour; Part of the Journey
For the past year I’ve been on a massive hop bender. I have literally just wanted to drink as many hops as possible, stuffed as aggressively as possible into any beer I could find. It virtually got to the point where I had to refuse anything under 100 IBUs because it wasn’t bitter enough. But things are changing now and I’m starting to crave sours.
I notice it most when I’m out drinking and I’ll get to a point where I just need something sharp and different to kick my tastebuds back into shape. Sour beers can be remarkably good at drawing a line under what’s gone before and getting you ready for the next beer. They are also damn tasty. My love for them is in their woody-oaky, near-savoury quality, in the sprightly lift, the puckering finish, and in a certain mystery which they hold. I also find them Romantic, harking back to an old age of brewing when most beer would’ve been fermented with these wild yeasts.
Side-stepping on from this, in a round-a-bout way, I think there’s a natural progression to beer drinking, which I’ve noticed recently. I think it goes like this: lager, ale, dark ale, strong ale, imperial stout, big IPAs, sours, session beer and lager. It’s a scale from early drinking upwards, moving through levels of appreciation and thirst and almost finishing full circle. This is certainly how my taste has developed and I know that others, particularly in the UK where beer is based around the pub, have followed a similar track. There’s always that first beer which moves you on, the first pint of cask ale, then the dark beer that’s fruity and full bodied, then you risk a stronger beer, maybe a bottle of something Belgian, then you see the imperial stouts, then you discover hops and then sours… and so on. Each level is a progression from the next until a fuller appreciation of the simple things is reached.
Has anyone else noticed this? What has your progression been? Where are you now?
Can’t say I have noticed the progression you suggest but I sure appreciate all of the styles especially the sours (Rodenbach Grand Cru), big IPA’s and stouts. A fine Pils is my go to beer so maybe I’m just out of sync.
Mark,
I think you nailed the progression head on, at least with me. When I started on rating on ratebeer.com I was drinking lighter lagers and wheat beers. I was living in Germany so these good lagers were readily available. One trip to Belgium changed all of that and I immediately jumped ship for the stronger Belgian ales, especially liking the Belgian interpretation of an Imperial Stout. Flash forward to now living again in the United States, all of the wonderful IPA’s and IIPA’s are my favorite at the time. Sours are a hard style to get into for me. It’s like I want to like them, but I have only had a handfull that I would drink again. I tend to favor the Oude Brun style to the lambics, but I have had some that I enjoyed. Last year at the Pre Zythos beer fest, Alex from Brasserie 420 in Rome sat down with me and explained the entire process of making a gueuze and we sampled a bottle of Vintage Drie Fonteinen from 2003. I could not believe that I had been neglecting these beers that were readily available to me right over the border. I love having someone knowlegable in the process and style explaining things to me as I sample, I think it really helped me pick up the nuances of the beer. Sorry for the rant, your article was spot on with how I have tackled different styles. Please keep the great articles coming.
Mark, having met on Friday, I know the feeling of emotions which you’ve gone through only too well. Last year for me I truely started drinking authentic lambics from Cantillon. Lambics are indeed a step up. I have been drinking stouts and ales for years but it’s when you appreciate the lambic that you really recognise your change of trend. I am currently in the process of anticipating PRE-ZBF after the Welsh beer festival @ the Rake.
This weekend in Beligum I plan to catch up on all those beers I’ve read about but struggled to acquire. I have already tried nearly all trappists. I have only a couple of retired trappists to try.
I am pretty sure Kolsch beer is on your next step to reverse swing. Then the transition could be complete. Oh black largers are a must too.
I would be considered a new drinker to most people, but have found sours to be super alluring.
I’ve definitely seen the general pattern there, from light beers to extreme beers to sour beers and then returning to session stuff… in myself and others.
You’ll be back to bitters before you know it.