If you’re anything like me, then when you do something for the first time, you like to make it as complicated as possible. Case in point: making a sour beer.

Sour beers get sour by adding bacteria that converts sugars into various acids. Lactic acid is most common in sour beers, providing a clean, lemony taste. However other acids that could be found include malic acid; which tastes like sour apples, acetic acid; which is basically vinegar, and butyric acid; which is similar in aroma to bile. The bacterias and wild yeasts that create these acids (namely lactobacillus, pediococcus, sherry flor, and brettanomyces) can very easily be purchased by a number of yeast labs. But I thought it would be more fun to culture my own lactobacillus.
WARNING: long-winded, microbiology filled post!

Lactobacillus (henceforth known by it’s more common street name: lacto) can be found virtually everywhere, including inside the human body. Lacto is also what’s used to sour milk into yogurt. In fact, I’ve read that you can even use yogurt as a lacto starter to add directly to beer. I decided instead to use a more practical source: malted barley. (more…)

May 6th-9th, Goose Island is celebrating what they are calling ‘Migration Week,’ by visiting 32 different cities and having several different tap takeovers. Here in Las Vegas, they will be having several different tap takeovers, and beer and food events, featuring various vintages of different barrel aged beers!

Tuesday, May 6, from 6–9 PM at Atomic Liquors for our Kick Off Party

Beer List:
– Bourbon County Brand Stout ‘13
– Rasselbock ‘13
– Sofie
– Matilda
– 312 Urban Pale Ale
– 312 Urban Wheat
– Honker’s Ale
– IPA
– Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout ‘12
– Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout ‘10

Wednesday, May 7

3-5 PM: Chocolate and beer pairing at Whole Foods Las Vegas Boulevard
6-8 PM Growler station sampling at both Total Wine & More locations
6-8 PM Tap takeover at Khoury’s Fine Wine
7-9 PM Beer pairing dinner at Todd English PUB

Thursday, May 8

3-5 PM Beer and cheese pairing at Whole Foods Ft Apache
6-8 PM Tap takeover at Money Plays UPDATE: This is a 3 day takeover, carrying over into Friday and Saturday!

Friday, May 9

3-5 PM Chocolate and beer pairing at Whole Foods Green Valley

6–8 PM at Aces & Ales for a Happy Hour Tap Takeover
Beer List:
– Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout ‘12
– Lolita ‘10
– Juliet ‘10
– Bourbon County Brand Cherry Rye ‘12
– Bourbon County Brand Stout ‘09
– Bourbon County Brand Stout ‘13
– Rasselbock ‘13

Somewhere near the end of 2013, New Belgium released details of what was going to be their newest year round beer: Snapshot Wheat. This beer was to be a blend of both a traditionally fermented wheat beer, and one fermented with the souring bacteria lactobacillus. Being a fan of the Berliner Weiss style made me excited to try this beer; with the assumption that it would be similar to that style of beer.

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Today, Emily and Melissa drink some kriek with Danny. Also, Emily and Melissa have a “moment.” There is only one more video after this one, and it can only go downhill from here.

To learn more about kriek, and more specifically, Transatlantique Kriek, read below.

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A properly aged beer is something that cannot be recreated without the hard work of actually being patient and waiting it out. It is incredible to taste the differences in a beer even just a year later. So, without further ado…

First of all, there are no rules. There are only suggestions, or even just hypotheses. The fact is, the exact same chemical changes happen within every bottle of beer as time progresses. Depending on some specific factors (alcohol content, hop content, beer style, etc) this chemical change can be called spoilage in one beer, or maturation in another. This is why guidelines exist for aging beers. Certain guidelines are generally true for most beers, some are not. The real truth, however, is that we all taste and perceive flavor differently. This is the biggest reason why aging rules vary so much. The effects of aging a beer are nearly always the same, but whether the effects are something that you want is another factor. That said, here are some things to consider: (more…)

If you only watch one of the Emily and Melissa Drink Beer videos, make it this one. Gueuze is probably one of the most unique beers there is. I’ve given gueuze to friends who like sour beers, thinking that they’d enjoy gueuze, but they had reactions very similar to this. Read more about gueuze below.

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2013 was a great year for us and we want to thank you all for continuing to read and share our articles, tagging your photos #hookedonhops, and saying hello to us when we are out at a bar or festival. We appreciate all of it, and we are excited for what’s to come in 2014!

In the meantime, I have compiled the articles and topics that were the most popular over the past year. Enjoy! (more…)

A year later than what was originally announced, but I was right when I suggested that the year-round sour would likely be a blended sour beer. The press release suggests that they will rotate through various sour beers by stating that “The brewery will use this expansion to bring Lips of Faith offerings like Tart Lychee and Eric’s Ale into year round production by 2015.” Tart Lychee was an amazing beer, and I’ve heard similar comments made about Eric’s Ale as well.

The benefits of using beer blends is that less of of the aged sour beer needs to be used for each batch, allowing them to then release more beer than if the beer was made up of 100% sour beer. Additionally, these beers would be less sour, and thus more approachable to drinkers who are unfamiliar with sour beers. As the label on Eric’s Ale states: “This is a sour beer for those who don’t like sour beers.”

Full press release below (more…)

Confirmed by a recent Reddit AMA:

We will have some kind of sour out year round starting in 2014

I’m a huge fan of New Belgium’s sours, and I’m excited to see what, and how, they release a year round sour beer. More than likely, I think this may be referring to La Folie. Lauren Salazar has said before that she hopes to be able to release La Folie year round.

My other guess, is that it won’t be a 100% sour beer, and will instead be a blended beer; ie La Folie is 100% dark sour beer (Oscar) and Le Terrior is 100% light sour beer (Felix). A beer like Tart Lychee, on the other hand, is actually a blend of Felix with non-sour beer. This allows them to use less sour beer (an important consideration since it takes a year or two to sour a batch of beer), but it also makes the beer less sour. If it’s going to be available year-round, this will allow it to be more approachable for more people who don’t have the palate for a full blown sour beer.