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In what appears to be a growing trend toward sour beers in the craft beer industry, two Alberta brewers have released sours. Calgary’s Wild Rose Brewery is offering Cowbell kettle sour ale (4.5 per cent alcohol by volume) and Lacombe’s Blindman Brewing has just launched its Kettle Sour #1 (4.5 per cent ABV).

Sour beer is brewed to be intentionally tangy, tart and sour. These beers traditionally have been Belgian and German and are produced by inoculating the beer with bacteria during fermentation. It can take up to two years to produce the beer. Wild Rose and Blindman are using a different technique, known as quick-souring or kettle souring, where the beer is soured with the bacteria added before it is boiled and fermented.

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The Wild Rose Cowbell has a tangy aroma with obvious lime and a very slight hop bitterness around the edges. The beer pours a golden colour, with minimal head and champagne-like carbonation.