Beerschooled - Sours Class

After the great intro to homebrewing class by Beerschooled, I knew I'd go to another as long as the topic was interesting to me.  I finally got my chance when they announced a sours tasting class.  The Hulmeville Inn was hosting a Cicerone exam proctored by certified Cicerone Nicole Erny and so Jeff (beerschooled Jeff, not Hulmeville Inn owner Jeff.  So many Jeffs) took advantage of that and asked her to teach a class on sours with a little bit on Belgium.  I arrived at the Hulmeville Inn a bit early so I got a glass of Rogue Shakespeare Stout, an oatmeal stout, to pass the time.

Petrus Aged Pale

I had another bottle of Petrus Aged Pale, a Flanders Oud Bruin, the other day.

Sour, tart smell with a tiny bit of vinegar.  Sweet and sour up front followed by a hit of bitterness and ending with a dry finish, leaving you wanting more.  As I worked my way through it, the hit of bitterness disappeared completely and the flavors switched between sweet, sour and tart.  I didn't get any hints of apple in this bottle unlike the last time I had it.  I really like this beer and feel it would make a good entry into the world of sours.  Search it out as it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Sours, sours, sours!

I was out for a couple hours going to a bunch of beer distributors today and ended up across the street from Hawthornes, a bottle shop / bar in South Philly.  I wanted to get a draft of Victory's new Coffee Brown Ale but it wasn't available yet so instead I picked up two different sours from Belgium.

The first I drank was Ichtegem's Grand Cru.

The beer is a really beautiful reddish brown and is really inviting.  The style of it is a Flemish Red Ale according to the bottle.  I've had a couple Flemish Red ales (although Beer Advocate calls them Flanders Red Ale for whatever reason) and the ones I've had have been pretty similar to this.  One you might see a lot is Duchesse du Bourgogne, at least in Philly.  Ichtegem's was quite good.  It smelled sour, tart, and mildly like vinegar.  Sort of like a really mild balsamic I'd say.  It sounds odd, but man it's really good.  The taste was sour and then sweet with a really slight bitterness at the end.  Reminds me of cherries to a certain extent.  As I drank it, the sourness started to build which happens with a lot of those beers and really accentuates the flavor.

The second beer I got was Petrus Aged Pale.

I had this a couple weeks ago during Devil's Den's sourfest and really, really liked it.  I thought it was the best of the bunch that I tried that day.  It smells like sour apples basically.  Unlike the Ichtegem's, there's no hint of vinegar in it.  It's just sourness all the way down.  The initial taste is so good, so sour.  Just like the smell, the taste is reminiscent of sour apples and again with a slight bitterness at the end.  Unlike the red above, this beer is pure sour without any of the vinegar edge.  The one thing that's great about this one, though, is that a case is only $80 or so at Global Beer.  Really reasonable compared to other Belgians you see.