Sour beer
No, sour beers are not expired or bad. In fact, before brew kettles and brewing vessels could be thoroughly cleaned thanks to sterilisation, all beers were sour. For a while, sours were out of fashion. Today, we see both old classics, such as lambic and gueuze, and new sour craft beers becoming popular again.
For those open to more than the traditional lager flavour, there is a lot to discover among sour beers. Browse our wide selection below, choose the sour you love or are curious about, and add it to your shopping basket. We provide 100% insured and fast shipping. Any questions? Contact Belgian Beer Heaven.
The unique taste of sour beer, made in Belgium
From notes of apple cider vinegar to the aromas of milkshakes, sours are fresh, fruity beers with a broad palette of flavours. As is often the case, Belgian beers play an important role in the development of this beer style. The sour flavours of lambic and geuze were created thanks to spontaneous, wild fermentation. Adding lactic acid bacteria is another brewing method for sours, which allows for more experimentation.
Famous sour beers
- Lambic, a Belgian fruit beer with the addition of cherries or raspberries
- Geuze, a mixture of young and old lambic
- Flemish old brown, from the region around Oudenaarde, which owes its sour taste to the addition of bacteria
- Gose, a German sour wheat beer flavoured with coriander and sea salt
- Berliner Weiße, also a German sour wheat beer, with at least 50% wheat
Sour beers, a separate brewing process
They used to be unavoidable, after the introduction of sterilisation they were deliberately kept out, and today brewers are looking back for ways to get the bacteria that provide the sour taste into their beer. To do so, they use two different methods: wild or spontaneous fermentation and lactic acid bacteria.
Sour beers through spontaneous fermentation
Spontaneous fermentation takes place in the cooling vessel, the large, rectangular, shallow tank in which the wort, an intermediate product of the brewing process, cools. Here, the wort is exposed to the microbacteria present in the brewery. The wild yeasts and bacteria almost literally fall from the sky into the beer. This makes the final flavour difficult to predict: every brew is unique. Lambic and gueuze, among others, get their flavour thanks to wild fermentation.
Lactic acid bacteria for brewing sours
Another way to create a sour beer is to add Lactobacillus and Pediococcus, lactic acid bacteria that are usually carefully kept out of the wort. During fermentation, they convert sugars into lactic acid, which produces a slightly sour, more easily controlled flavour produces. Pediococcus provides a rich, complex flavour, Lactobacillus a softer, flatter experience. The longer the lactic acid bacteria remain in the beer, the higher the sourness of the sour.
A sour beer in between
Even breweries that don't make their own sour beer have some sours behind them somewhere. Indeed, sour beers with a dry finish are ideal for resetting your taste buds and cleansing your palate. And that can come in quite handy during a beer tasting, where one beer after another with a distinct flavour is fighting for your attention.
Buying sour beer at Belgian Beer Heaven
Boon, Dekoninck, Lindemans, Mort Subite, Oud Beersel, Timmermans... In Belgian Beer Heaven's webshop you will find Belgian sour beers from the most famous breweries. Choose your dream sour, order it easily online and enjoy fast shipping. Do you have questions about your choice or your order? Contact Belgian Beer Heaven, we are happy to help you.
