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Lauren Salazar of New Belgium Brewing Co.

(New Belgium Brewing Co.)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - To know sour beers is to understand and embrace yeast.

It seems whenever brewers - especially ones at new breweries - talk about their craft, upcoming releases and the state of the industry, many invariably will say: "And I want to do sours."

A sour symposium doesn't have the sexiest of rings to it, but one held recently at the Winking Lizard in Bedford Heights focused on the chemistry and artistry behind the beers. The symposium featured Lauren and Eric Salazar of Colorado's New Belgium Brewing Co. discussing the nuances behind the style - specifically, Brettanomyces.

Understanding the basics of sours means understanding Brettanomyces. I've seen multiple pronunciation descriptors, but generally hear breh-tah-no-MY-sees. This particular resilient yeast strain, Lauren Salazar said, is the bridge between beer and wine. (Brett can come out in certain wines, especially red, and at certain levels it gives a distinct taste that can be pleasing albeit acquired. But too much and it causes faces to squish and glasses to be pushed aside.)

For brewers, nailing down that flavor profile is a constant trial-and-error process involving blending and calculating. And it's Lauren Salazar's specialty.

She was in on the beginning of New Belgium's sensory program in 1997 and is the brewery's wood-cellar manager. She helped usher in the Lips of Faith series, whose bomber bottles are distributed in Northeast Ohio.

"They used to joke around and call it the Salazar Brewery," she said.

Lauren Salazar's job is to taste beer - often. It's beer that is stored in massive old wine barrels called Foeders, and Brett loves wood. Consider it beer that is growing up, and Salazar, with honed skills, is looking for that ale that is ready for blending. Eric Salazar, a brewer and intricate part of the wood-barrel system, speaks with equal passion about sour beers.

Probably the best explainer of yeast came from Lauren, who likened it to a fable:

"When I think of brewing yeast and Brett I think of the rabbit and the hare. You have a rabbit. And the rabbit just goes and eats tiny little sugars, fermenting, making alcohol. And it winds up taking a nap and never finishing. And about that time the tortoise - the Brett - just starts walking ... they're pretty incredible, but they just don't stop. They're like marathon runners."

Brett cells "do whatever they feel like doing, and you can't stop them," she said.

The aroma Brett can yield draws a creative collection of words. It can give off "sweaty pineapple, sweaty horse ... throat spray, mothballs." Even Band-Aid is a fairly common descriptor.

What it doesn't do is sour. Brett can produce acid but not the acid you want. Making sour beer sour means using certain bacteria.

"The problem is it's very hard to produce," Eric Salazar said. "There's a lot of brewers who want to, but it's a lot of money in raw materials. I don't think it's going to hit the popularity of the barreling of IPAs. The more people we can help produce good beers the better. It's the rising-tides-lift-all-boats concept. (It takes) people who are willing to take the chances."

To produce sours you need a designated room - and space is something that is a luxury for many brewers whose fermentation tanks and brewhouses already are cramming every nook of their breweries.

"We're going to start dealing with Brett; I've got barrels coming," said Matt Cole of Fat Head's Brewery in North Olmsted. "We're taking baby steps."

John Najeway of Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. in Akron is a bit past the baby-steps stage.

"Whenever I let people know we have a sour going (on tap) they are running to the brewery," said Najeway, who said he recently procured wood fermenters from France. "Of the few sours he keeps on tap, one is a Saison dry-hopped with Brett. Usually his run 4 to 6 percent in alcohol, he said, but some can go 7 to 8 percent.

New Belgium, which started in 1991, has been at the forefront of producing sour beers. Its first was La Folie, started in the 1990s when the brewery had no budget for a sour program.

"It means 'foolish and financial endeavor,' and we thought 'oh, that's perfect'," Lauren Salazar said about the brewery embracing sour beers.

She added: "What I find funny is that no one, when we started the program, knew to be terrified of this. No one knew these things were terrifying. For me, when I think of Brett now, I think of safety, cross contamination."

In some areas, New Belgium workers even have special boots to wear in an effort to limit the proliferation of Brett throughout the brewery.

Sour beer starts like any other at New Belgium, but then is transferred after fermentation to a wood cellar. That's when souring begins, Eric said. Sours at New Belgium start with a base of light and dark beers, known as Oscar and Felix. (Oscar is the dark lager, Felix is the light.)

"For me, it's really all about senses," Lauren said. "You know when they (Brett cells) are happy, when they are sad, when they are cold - you can correct the action. It's about nurturing and blending."

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