The Session: Sour beer

It has been a while since I have contributed to The Session. This month I am back, and this time the topic is "Sour beer" and it is hosted by Jon Abernathy at The Brew Site. Thanks for hosting, Jon!

The Session is the beer writing project where beer writers and bloggers from around the globe write on a single beer-related topic on the same day.

I have never tried a sour beer before, so this month's The Session was a great starting point. My local supermarkets do not sell sour beers, so I had to check out the nearest Vinmonopolet outlet.

There were not that many beers to be found there. I found some Belgian triples and several IPAs and porters together with the occational pale lagers that are too strong to be found in Norwegian supermarkets. But there were no sour beers in the beer section.

By chance I went to the shelf with the newest products from Vinmonopolet. Among wine bottles and liquor I found one beer bottle. And guess what! It was a sour beer. I had hoped to find a Belgian lambic or gueuze. Instead I found Mikkeler Spontanale. The Danish brewery calls it a geubic, by the way.

Mikkeler Spontanale was a fizzy, pale beer with a tiny head. In the nose I found some fruit and a touch of yeast. The taste was very different to what I expected. I felt lemon, some spices and a touch of vinegar. It was not a favourite, and I believe this beer to be an acquired taste.

I will try other sour beers in the future, but there are other beers that suits my palate better at the moment. For instance is a can of Pilsner Urquell waiting for me in the refridgerator right now.