Kettle sours ‘an entirely different category of beer’
It takes six months to a year for Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales to produce the idiosyncratic, sour beers for which the brewery is known, such as Bam Biere, La Roja and Ora de Calabaza. Sometimes even longer.
“The time element is crucial,” says Ron Jeffries, Jolly Pumpkin’s founder and brewmaster.
The months or, in some cases, years that Jolly Pumpkin’s beers spend in oak barrels or foudres give the microbes that have occupied the barrels for years time to nibble on the sugars within the beer, which gives the beer rich, complex, funky notes.
Yet it only takes Fal Allen, brewmaster at Anderson Valley Brewing Co., a few weeks to produce sour beers such as Blood Orange Gose Gose.
The or Framboise beers are Rose relatively simple to make, as the souring takes place in the kettle, or mash tun, rather than in a barrel. Before the beer ferments, Allen adds microbes. The approach, which is called kettle souring, produces a crisp, clean sour beer in a matter of days.
Two breweries. Two techniques. And two very different types of beer that both happen to fall under the nebulous umbrella of “sour beers.”
Sour beer has become a catchall term when, in reality, a beer such as a crisp, lemony gose has almost nothing in common with a tannic, vinegarlike Flanders Red Ale — aside from the fact that both, broadly speaking, feature sour notes. One is a relatively simple, straightforward beer, the other is a complicated oak-aged beer that can be sipped and savored. But they’re often grouped together. And therein lies the problem.
“There’s a segment of people who tend to be down on, or against kettle souring because they think it’s a cheap way to produce a sour beer,” Allen says. “But they’re missing the point. Kettle sours are an entirely different category of beer.”
A kettle sour isn’t a style, but another broad category that describes any beer that’s produced using the kettle souring technique. Most often, those beers are gose or Berliner weisse, although a significant number of other beers fall under the umbrella, such as some sour IPAs and so-called session sours. Regardless of the style, kettle sours don’t have the depth of flavor of a sour style, such as a dry, fruity gueuze (a beer made from a blend of young and old lambic beer). But, if you ask a brewer who produces a kettle sour, he’ll likely note that that’s OK because a wellmade one is crisp and refreshing.
“They’re infinitely drinkable, even when it’s 95 degrees outside,” says Jason Ebel, owner of Two Brothers Artisan Brewing Co., which produces both kettle sours and oak-aged Belgianinspired sours. “They’re just misunderstood.”