Sour beers are tart, sour, acidic, sometimes funky beers made by fermentation with yeast and wild bacteria. It’s a beer style that has many subsets including Flanders red ales, Gose-style beers, Berliner weisses, lambics, gueuzes, as well as simple “sour beers”. To add another dimension, sour beers are often brewed with various fruits like passionfruit, mango, guava, raspberries, peaches, and citrus fruits.

Sour beers are made by fermentation with yeast and wild bacteria. There’s a lot more to it and the process changes based on the particular style, but this is the basic, simplistic process. It gives it the sometimes funk, always acidic, tart, sour flavour fans of this style relish.

Like a sparkling wine, sour beers are the perfect complement to many foods. Strong, flavourful cheese like extra sharp cheddar, goat, cheese, blue cheese, and gorgonzola pair well. Seafood, particularly clams, oysters, and other mollusks make flavourful accompaniments. Creamy, cheesy dishes, and cured meats like ham and bacon also work well with sour beers. All in all, if your food has a strong, maybe even stinky flavour, it probably pairs well with at least some version of sour beer.