Beachwood BBQ Sour Fest

The sour fest has kicked off as of yesterday morning and I stopped by for an hour to check it out on my way home from Long Beach. Lots of familiar things on after having attended the Stone Sour Fest a month ago. Anyone remember Chili Wonka? That was one of the most talked about beers at Stone and deservedly so.

I started off with a 5.5 oz glass of Allagash Confluence. It is their blonde ale made with a couple strains of brett. It has quite few similarities to Russian River Sanctification, especially with the way Sanctification has been going lately (less tart). Confluence has an extra dimension though since they also use their regular house Belgian yeast to ferment some of it. It's super light, earthy, slightly lemony, mildly tart and super easy to drink. It has shown up around my house in bottle form for $20, might be worth a bottle or two for a special occasion.

The next glass I got was of the Cantillon Bruocsella Grand Cru '07. My intention was to smack the shit out of my palate with some ultimate Cantillon-brand sourness. This Lambic did not produce the mouth puckering sourness I was inaccurately expecting. It's spontaneously fermented and aged in oak barrels for 3 years. It is also a still beer- no carbonation. It pours a murky deep gold and was moderately tart with some malty sweetness behind it. Other than that it was unremarkable to me, although I could have come up with more to say about it over a full glass perhaps.

The last glass was the always fantastic Bruery Berliner Weisse. It's hard for me to see this beer on tap anywhere and not order it, so I did. As I've said a million times before, I could drink this allllllll day. And good news for non-So Cal area residents, it's being bottled now so it'll be easier to get.

Tonight they feature New Belgium sours, and Thursday they'll feature Lost Abbey sours. I won't be able to make either but you definitely should.