Style family · 5 styles · node 07 of 11

Sour

Kettle sours to spontaneous wild ales — the family runs from quick-turn fruit vehicles to foeder-aged patience projects. The filings tell you which: check the barrel and fruit language on the label.

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On record: 1,171
This week: 8
Median ABV: 5.9%

Styles in this family

Fruited Sour 674Wild / Brett / Lambic-style 218Gose 170Kettle Sour (other) 67Berliner Weisse 42

Fruited Sour674 on record: Kettle sours with fruit, including the smoothie and slushy end where purée dominates and the label reads like a farmers' market. The fruit list is legally required, so these filings are unusually legible and easy to date. High volume, fast turnover: the clearance date is close to the shelf date here.
Wild / Brett / Lambic-style218 on record: Mixed fermentation, Brettanomyces, spontaneous and lambic-style beers, Flanders reds and browns: the patience end of sour. Filings are low and deliberate, often naming a barrel, a foeder, a vintage or a blend number. These labels reward slow reading and are among the most collected in the register.
Gose170 on record: Salted, coriander-spiced sour wheat beer from Leipzig, now more often a fruit vehicle in the American register. The label almost always says gose and names the fruit; salt and coriander appear in the fine print. Summer-weighted filings, quick to brew and quick to release.
Kettle Sour (other)67 on record: Kettle sours without fruit, and tart ales generally: lactobacillus-soured, quick, clean. A smaller node than fruited sour because most houses add fruit before they file. Where a label says simply sour ale or tart ale with no fruit named, this is where it rests.
Berliner Weisse42 on record: Light, tart wheat sour in the Berlin tradition, usually under 5%, often fruited in its American life. Filings are fewer than gose and skew toward houses that also file kettle sours. Berliner on the label is reliable; look at whether fruit or syrup is named alongside it.