Oh the power of the sour...

[mashani]

@Screwy:

If you want to try a Berliner, Whole Foods sells "1809 Berliner Style Weiss" which is an excellent representation of the style.

It is a lacto culture infected beer, and it's a beer that will age somewhat well if you want to buy a couple and see how it changes when it's older.

If you want to try a Flanders Red, which is a complex aged sour, try Rodenbach.

If you want to try an American interpretation of a Flanders Brown ale - also called "Old Bruin", I would highly suggest "Lips Of Faith - La Folie" by New Belgium brewing. It's a really good - I would say excellent - interpretation of the style. Petrus is an authentic Begian version.

If you want to try a Geuze (blended aged sours) anything by Cantelion is good.

I've seen all of these beers at Whole Foods here.

They also sell a brand called "Monks Cafe" that has beers of these styles. The Geuze is good, the Flandars Red is alright, but I'd rather drink Rodenbach.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Thank you I'll be on the lookout for these on my next trip to the liquor store. These styles aren't standard fare at most small breweries, neither are lagers for that matter, but they do sound interesting and are certainly worth trying. Thank you.

[braukasper]

HINT: When you change out your plastic fermenters. Save the old ones for doing sours.

If you ferment in glass, stainless steel you can safely sanitize those. Do keep seperate racking & tubing

[jivex5k]

I only did about a 20 minute boil, frankly I don't care if my gear gets infected, I plan on making only sours.
Thanks for all that info Mashani, awesome stuff!

Screwy it really depends where you live as to what you can find. The suggestions given to you are all solid, I rarely see a berliner weisse on the shelf though. Part of the reason I'm making one is because a local brewery lost the guy who made them and they haven't had the same kick since.

Beer is fermenting at 68F right now bubbling away =D. I expect a pretty short primary.
OG hit 1.042, not too shabby for 6 lbs of grain in a BIAB. I did a sparge and squeezed the crap out of it. Actually my OG was 1.050 but only 4.2 gallons (even after sparge, was hard to do with no way to hold the grain bag up)
Actually doing calculations that seems like way too high of an efficiency, my guess is the lacto culture screws up the reading somehow.
I topped it off to 5 gallons and it hit 1.042.

[mashani]

FWIW, I don't even think they really boil that "1809 Berliner Style Weiss" I mentioned for more then a few minutes. If even that long. Just a 50/50 wheat/barley decoction mash, bring it to a boil, turn off the heat, pitch lacto when it's in the 60s, and your done. There are hops in it, but they are just mash hops, just bringing it to a boil gives it a few IBUs which is all it needs because you don't need IBUs when you pitch a lacto culture... sour replaces bitter.

Yeah, I know not boiling is heresy, you will get dms, blah blah. Forget about it. That stuff is good beer.

[BeerRust]

Can anyone recommend a commercial craft beer name of a sour beer? It's a style I really haven't given any attention to yet. I've read posts where some brewers will add lactic acid to their wort in order to sour their beer. I think they mentioned adding 10ml per gallon is a good starting point and in about six weeks it should be ready to drink. I'll have to try and bookmark the post I found. Just like adding oak to a stout to simulate barrel aging I guess adjusting the amount of acid to taste is the key here too.

Roedenbach......