/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.6423377]

had a belgian ale a couple of weeks ago that tasted like it was drawn from a well of recently fermented grapefruits. needless to say, it was shit, everyone on my table thought it was shit, even one of the bartenders i shared a sip with thought it was funky as hell. i got into a spat with another bartender because he immediately accused me of having a terrible palette; not that i care about the pretentious insult, it was more the fact that he wouldn't admit their draft was bad even if he visibly cringed when he tasted it. anyway, i'm wondering, why the fuck are these summer ales so delicate? has anyone had a bad experience with these exceedingly fruity beers? it was called somerset or some shit like that, all i know is i'm never having that bullshit again.

[Anonymous No.6423509]

>>6423377
sounds to me like you got a sour/wild ale. I tried one once, and it just tasted acrid, rank, and medicinal.
I'd actually like to hear an explanation of how these extreme funky sours get a pass. The saisons, those I can understand. But the sour ales just seem like a beer gone wrong and the seller just convinces the buyers that it's SUPPOSED to taste the way it does, and that it doesn't ACTUALLY taste like it's spoiled, but instead you're just a plebeian.

[BelgianFag No.6424098]

>>6423377
Maybe something like this?

[Anonymous No.6424139]

I guess some people like it, maybe it's more white wine like? I just steer clear of them.

[Anonymous No.6424755]

Belgians from belgium usually have pretty good quality control
Belgian-style ales in the US, especially the recently-popular "sour" beers, are all over the place. There's a brewery where I live that does them almost exclusively and most of their beer is basically undrinkable

[Anonymous No.6424770]

>>6423509
>I'd actually like to hear an explanation of how these extreme funky sours get a pass.
Sure.
First of all, lambic brewing is extremely old, and all beers were sour until brewers figured out how to isolate yeast. If you just leave wort out to ferment, it's going to naturally gather lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, and different sorts of yeast floating around than just 'brewers yeast'. So sour ales aren't some weird new thing, they have just gained some popularity in the US after being commonplace in Europe for hundreds of years. They have already long passed.

Why still make them? Well variety in the bugs you use to ferment are already important if you're just considering normal ales fermented with yeast only. If you love Blue Moon, which is a hefeweisen fermented with a clean yeast, and then you try a Bavarian-style hefeweisen, you might be disgusted when your mouth is unexpectedly assaulted by the taste of banana and clove. Well, there's no banana or spice in it, they intentionally use a unique strain of microorganism (but still yeast) to get those banana flavors. Sour ales are made with kind of the same idea in mind, the goal is to introduce tartness, acidity, 'funk', and it's accomplished by using a unique combination of microorganisms to get that result. So unless it was some rando brewery trying to sell some experimental spontaneous ferment, it is absolutely supposed to be the way it is.

Being made intentionally doesn't mean you have to like it, but in order to like it you have to approach it knowing what to expect. Sours are often wildly different in taste than other styles of beer. If you're expecting to drink a clean beer like OP was and you drink something that tastes like cheese vomit then you have no chance of enjoying it. If you think, 'ok I know this is supposed to taste like cheese vomit' and then you try it, you can decide whether or not you enjoy the taste of cheese vomit without the shock reaction.

[Anonymous No.6425466]

>>6424770
Alright, that's a pretty thorough explanation. I appreciate that.
That said, cheese vomit is not a flavor that I would put in a beer. Or into anything. I just don't think it's worth standing on tradition for cheese vomit. That's a flavor that should really just be established as "dang that's super nasty, let's go back to the drawing board and make it in a way that we don't have that rank cheese vomit flavor."

[BelgianFag No.6425593]

I just heard you talking about yeasts
I was just passing by