3 Springtime Sours You Should Be Sipping

Sour beer has been around for hundreds of years. Before advances in fermentation and the invention of refrigeration, all beers were sour to some degree. Today, sours are common on beer-store shelves: goses, lambics, Berliner Weisse, and certain red/brown ales all qualify. Maybe you’re a bit standoffish as sours are complex, fruity, tart, and occasionally mouth-puckering. Let’s just say Sour Patch Kids are one thing; sour beers are another. 

My initial reaction to one such product involved a flurry of rapid eye blinks and head twitching. I hated it. Still, I was determined to further my quest on the craft-beer scene. Not every sour could be this extreme, right? I started light and moved up the pucker scale. Now, I love ’em! It’s one of my favorite styles overall. Here are three must-try sour beers.
 

Brooklyn Bel Air (5.8%)

Brooklyn Brewery rarely puts its limited-release beers into the year-round rotation, but Bel Air Sour was too good to keep on the bench. It starts with plenty of tart, but it has a fruity mellowing-out to it. This Amarillo dry-hopped, refreshing brew is one you’ll want to have handy as the weather warms.

Peekskill Simple Sour (4.5%)

Typically on tap at Peekskill Brewery, Simple Sour is a good intro to the style. It’s got lemonade-like notes, but the wheat and corn help balance it out. Its low alcohol content makes it a sessionable, chug-worthy local selection.

Grimm Pop Series (4.8%)

Blackberry orange, cherry raspberry, passionfruit. Take your pick, because anything Grimm Pop is a hit. They’re brewed with whatever fruit the beers are named after, plus milk sugar and vanilla, to create soda-like, milkshakey deliciousness. Grimm Ales are very limited — as in you might never see certain ones brewed ever again — so if you see it, buy it.