Recently, I have released three posts about sour beers (two on Gose and one on Berliner-Weisse). While I mentioned that these beers seem to stray away from the American craft beer market, that does not imply however that there are not other sour beers out there. In fact, there are a few breweries in the United States creating some unique sour beers, typical to the Flanders region of Belgium. Now there are really two main types of beers from this region of the world and they are often separated into two categories: Flemish Red Ale and Oud Bruin. Basically, you have your red sour beers and your brown sour beers. For this post, we are going to concentrate on the Oud Bruin style of beer.



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Oud Bruin is most commonly brewed in Belgium even to this day. However, some major craft breweries in the United States have recently taken a chance on brewing one of their own. New Belgium in Fort Collins, Colorado, released La Folie as part of their Lips of Faith series (and thus it was a once and done brew). And, just a few weeks ago, Avery in Boulder, Colorado, released their Oud Floris. There are a few others floating around these days but these are arguably the two beers most widely available. That does not mean that you are going to find them in your local beer store (unless you happen to leave within 30 miles of Boulder or Fort Collins, but you don’t have to go to the brewery to get the beer itself). Last night, we were fortunate enough to open a bottle of the Oud Floris; it is potentially the most complex beer that I have ever tasted.

Avery’s Oud Floris has quite a sour aroma. In fact, you may assume, just from the aroma alone, that the Oud Floris was brewed or fermented with sour cherries. But, that is not the case. In fact, the sourness comes simply from the second fermentation in which the yeast and bacteria in the beer join forces to create chemicals in the beer that our tastebuds find to be sour. The Oud Floris has a rich, deep copper, almost brown, color and just a bit of head. The taste however, is something extraordinary. And, one should expect this give that the beer was aged in 13 different wine and liquor barrels to produce the 252 cases released to the public. For a nice comparison, in 2006, Budweiser produced approximately 2.2 billion cases of beer! Now you see why you need to be close to Boulder to get this beer.

The beer was aged in the 13 barrels and then blended before bottling so that the ale is 67% aged in cabernet sauvignon barrels, 17% in bourbon barrels, 8% in rum barrels, and 8% in chardonnay barrels. While the liquor barrels constitute only 25% of the total, the flavor profile generated by these barrels is quite potent, especially the bourbon. It almost tastes as if there is a teaspoon of bourbon in the beer (even though we know that that is not the case). Your throat will tingle as you take each sip. The warmth you feel from drinking the Oud Floris makes it a perfect beer for a cool winter day. On the other hand, the tartness and acidity of the beer stems mostly from the use of the cabernet barrels. Cabernet barrels are being used much more often these days in the aging process of craft beers. The advantage to using cabernet barrels is that you expunge the tartness from the barrels that gives you the sour notes that you want (and could get from using, say, sour cherries), but you also get the oak notes that many real beer drinkers are after. You also will find that the Oud Floris is high in tannins, at least for a beer (you get that feeling like the beer is stuck to the roof of your mouth).

So, if you are in the mood for sour and find yourself in the Boulder area, check out the local beer stores and pick up a bottle of Oud Floris today (since, I doubt that they will be on the shelves much longer). If not, you will just have to take my word for it on this one and keep your eyes out for another Oud Bruin-style beer to hit your local beer mart’s shelves in the near future.

Cheers.