The Best Beers We Had at 2019 Sour Friends Fest
June 24, 2019
The Cellador Ales-hosted Sour Friends Fest has swiftly become our favorite celebration of all things sour in the greater Los Angeles area. Last year’s inaugural Sour Friends Fest, while a great time, admittedly hit a couple of speed bumps— it hosted all of its sours at a few tables, which caused some seriously lengthy lines from those craving their sour fix. This year, however, the organization of the event showed considerable improvement. Each brewery had its own table, and there was plenty of shade, water, and food available. Combine that with the beautiful 80-degree day California provided, and we can’t imagine a single ticketholder complaint. Even the people who last year were doused by the contents of an exploding barrel would be pleased to find that Cellador had placed exploding barrel warning signs! We even found a dog named Ralphie who was overjoyed to be spending his weekend sipping sour beer.
Nearly twenty California breweries were on hand, pouring sumptuous, scrumptious sours. We drank nearly every sour being served at the festival– and, as you may expect after the consumption of nearly fifty glasses of sour beer, ate a few Tums a piece. (Shout out to the Rare Barrel table for bringing Tums!) We’d had a few of these sours at other recent beer festivals: Same Tree by Monkish Brewing, Summer’s Gonna Hurt You by The Rare Barrel, and Violet Underground by Firestone Walker Brewing were among our favorite beers at this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational. So while we went back and drank more of those this weekend (obviously), we focused in this article on the best sour beers we had on Saturday that were new to us. Thanks to Cellador Ales for putting together an event with so many terrific sours that this list was an absolute chore to narrow down to ten. No matter what you’d list as your favorites at Sour Friends Fest, rest assured that all parishioners at the Church of Sour left this event with high spirits, smiling faces, and delightfully unbalanced personal pH levels.
Any sour festival is going to contain a variety of big, bright fruity flavors, but sometimes, as Parliament famously said, “We want the funk.” Bruery Terreux is here to appeal to the George Clinton and Bootsy Collins in all of us. The Brazo Brazo delivers the big acidic sour pucker we crave, and it boasts some serious juicy blackberry flavor, but the big-time funk is what makes this sour stand out. They’ve got a real type of thing going down at Bruery Terreux— there’s a whole lot of sour going round.
Casa Agria Specialty Ales: Fruta Mixta
We’ve raved in the past about Casa Agria— especially about the quality of its sours. We definitely had them pegged entering the festival as a favorite to make this list, and they did not disappoint. The Fruta Mixta is their Saison de la Casa aged on apricots, peaches, and raspberries, and the latter two fruits in particular shine in this end result. It’s got some saison funkiness, but it leads with some tremendously bright and sour juiciness. In short, it’s another Casa Agria banger.
Craftsman Brewing: Honesty Ale
They say honesty is the best policy. We’ve concocted a related piece of wisdom: whenever you see Craftsman Brewing’s Honesty Ale available, the best policy is to order it and drink it. Cherry color, cherry nose, big sour cherry flavor. To quote Neil Diamond, “I love the way that you do me/Cherry, baby, you really get to me.” This Craftsman ale, barrel aged for two years, is perfect for a hot August night— or a warm June afternoon, for that matter.
Dionysus Brewing: Guava Paradise
This was our first experience with Dionysus Brewing, yet we were so impressed that we’re confident it won’t be our last. The Bakersfield brewery’s Guava Paradise, a golden sour aged with pink guava, would receive commendation from us alone on its incredibly fresh guava flavor, but then, for the piece de resistance, they give us ginger on the finish. The end result is one of the most unique sours of the day.
Since the first time we visited The Good Beer Company a few years ago, they’ve expanded their production, done more frequent bottling, and even moved into canning. Considering how far Santa Ana is from our neck of the woods, we’re grateful that we’ll get more chances to drink The Good Beer Company’s better-than-good beer. The George, one of several terrific beers they brought to the festival, isn’t the more unique or inventive sour— but it hits your tastebuds with tidal waves of sour peach juice in a way you won’t easily forget.
Homage Brewing: Cherry Blossom Girl
Pomona-based Homage Brewing is putting the “must” back in “must-have sours.” Their Cherry Blossom Girl certainly contains plenty of the bright sour-sweet taste that makes cherries such a welcome ingredient in the sour beer world, but Homage doesn’t let the cherries completely overwhelm the oak of the barrel or the tannic, musty Malbec skin flavors, giving this sour some standout complexity.
Long Beach Beer Lab: Pass the Kvassia
When you visit Long Beach Beer Lab, it’s crucial to eat some of their freshly baked bread— they’ve even brought slices of it to festivals in the past. This time, however, they eliminated the middleman. Why bring sourdough bread *and* beer if you can bring… a SOURDOUGH BREAD BEER? This light yeasty drink, clocking in at under 3% ABV, stands out at a festival with so many strong acidic fruit flavors by featuring the bread and emphasizing the drinkability.
Modern Times: Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Modern Times consistently brings the heat when it comes to barrel-aged sours— so when you get them to join forces with Jester King, the legendary farmhouse and wild ale wizards from Austin, Texas, you know the end result is going to sinfully delicious. The Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is like packing a grenade with raspberry Warheads, pulling the pin, and shoving said grenade into our mouths. It’s designed to make your cheeks implode and your hand reach out for another glass.
Pure Project Brewing: Scyndication
Appropriately enough, Pure Project brought to Sour Friends Fest their collaboration with Cellador. This San Diego brewery co-created Scyndication, a stupid sexy Flanders style sour red ale that gives you some wonderfully balanced dark cherry sourness, caramely sweetness, and some deep barrel booziness. Drink enough of this and it’ll feel like you’re wearing nothing at all… nothing at all… nothing at all…
Cellador was destined to make this list— not just because they’re the host brewery, and not just because they routinely cook up some of the greatest sours in the LA area, but because they had so many grand slams being served all day Saturday. Picking one was borderline impossible. The Hollywoo coffee sour was a stone-cold stunner, one of the best coffee sours we’ve ever had, and their collab with Horus Aged Ales, Tammy, was a certified 5-star gem. However, we kept returning to the Cinque, a sour with rich vanilla and black raspberry flavor. We may have mispronounced it differently every time we ordered, but it’s the one we kept craving all day. Salute to Cellador on another masterful sour festival.
What were your favorite beers at Sour Friends Fest? Are you fellow parishioners at the Church of Sour? Have you ever had a barrel of sour beer explode all over you? Please let us know in the comments below– and keep an eye out on our Instagram pages for more beer and website updates! Cheers!
