15 notable sour beers made in Charlotte, from delicately fruity to fragrantly funky
Sour, fruity, or just downright funky: there is a plethora of varying flavors underneath the Wild Ale umbrella, and we’re fortunate in Charlotte to have many local breweries making quality options.
But what makes a wild ale, you know, wild? It’s all in the fermentation. “Clean” beers use strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to achieve their end result of pilsner, stout, IPA etc. However, their “wild” counterparts utilize strains of yeast like Brettanomyces (simply ‘Brett’) that are often coupled with bacteria like lactobacillus or pediococcus.
Depending on the microbes used, sippers can encounter a flavor range from enamel-shattering acidity to fragrant barnhouse funk, delicately fruity to aggressively sour, and everywhere in between.
Want to know what all the fuss is about? Curious as to why folks line up to score bottles, or even attend an beer festival dedicated to funkier flavors? While nearly every local brewery has walked on the “wild” side, here are a few outfits cranking out some notable examples.
Free Range Brewing
2320 N. Davidson Street, Charlotte, NC 28205
When Free Range teamed up with local bakery Dukes Bread for “I Knead You,” the resulting sour IPA was an attention-getter. Eschewing typical brewers yeast completely, this beer was instead fermented with a 200+-year-old sourdough starter provided by the Plaza Midwood baker.
The end result found the citrus-forward hop profile pairing well with the starter’s light sourness, which led to a trio of follow-ups. The latest installment in the cleverly-named collaborative series, “Who Do You Knead,” is currently on tap, and carries a pleasant lemony tartness underneath juicy hops. Fans of sourdough and West-Coast IPA should shelve any skepticism and be quick about seeking this out.
Plus, Free Range is about to release their first bottled beer. “Jeff’s Breaktime Surprise” began life as a porter, with this portion diverted into neutral spirits barrels and fermented on a mixed yeast culture cultivated from the dregs of various bottle-conditioned beers. Finally, the beer was refermented on blackberries for an additional three months. There’s no release date set just yet, but expect imminent news on this fruity chocolate tart treat.
Lenny Boy Brewing Co.
3000 S Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28217
Kombucha-making relies on a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, or “scoby” for short. This scoby is what transforms the tea-based beverage into the effervescent fermented tea that’s enjoying a raised profile lately.
While Lenny Boy began their business just making their nonalcoholic kombucha, they soon wondered what flavors and concepts could be coaxed out of alcohol-containing versions. That question was answered in 2013 when Peachy Rose first went on tap, utilizing organic peaches and rose petals.
While the brewery may better be known for “clean” beer offerings like Citraphilia, these scoby-created wild ales are an interesting alternative. A personal favorite is Holy Moly, an autumnal offering made with sweet potatoes, molasses, and various spices. Imagine drinking a light-bodied and effervescent pumpkin pie, and you’ve got the deliciously right idea.
Lenny Boy also puts an interesting twist on their Burn Down Brown ale, with the ensuing Burn Down For What carrying additional dark fruit and oak layers to the chocolatey base beer. Similarly, the De La Wit has a remixed relative in Tart De La Wit.
Wooden Robot Brewery
1440 S Tryon St #110, Charlotte, NC 28203
Before opening their own doors, Wooden Robot collaborated with Durham’s Fullsteam Brewery on a sour IPA, Hop Rocks. This decidedly tart and very hop-forward treat began raising expectations for the fledgling brewery. A Wooden-Robot-brewed follow-up, Return of Hop Rocks, proved this was no fluke.
November 2016 saw the brewery releasing their first bottled offering, a foeder-aged sour beer sporting a generous addition of raspberries. The ruby-hued Galactic Nexus was a delight to sip or simply stare at. Since then, several other fruited sours have been bottled by the South End outfit, but a recent release showed fans what the base beer looks like naked.
Foeder For Thought began life as a farmhouse ale before spending months aging in the oak foeder on a mixed-yeast culture. While no fruits were added, this beer shows bright notes of citrus-meets-peaches, layered over a gentle funkiness. Limited bottles remain of this taproom-only release.
NoDa Brewing Company
2229 N. Davidson Street, Charlotte, NC 28205
Just because NoDa’s original taproom has been closed to the public since July 2016, that doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy behind the scenes. Slumbering inside a stainless steel fermenter is Boba Brett, an effervescent pale sour with a whole lot going on.
Champagne drinkers, pay attention: this beer is tart and funky, with a touch of barnyard mustiness playing nicely with tropical fruit notes, culminating in a crisp kiss of acidity.
We’ve already seen Boba Brett make several special-occasion draft appearances, or blended with other base beers (Boba Brett’s GaLactic Trip, Ariana Saison), but it’s about to become NoDa’s first bottled sour release. Just 500 bottles of the base beer, aged on blackberries, will be released on March 30 at the original NoDa facility, so don’t miss out.
Resident Culture Brewing Company
2101 Central Ave, Charlotte, NC 28205
While you may know Resident Culture for their multitude of hop-forward offerings, this Plaza Midwood outfit has been making forays into the wild world, with serious eyes on the future.
The inaugural offering, Resting Brett Face, was an interesting exercise in excess (a blend of more than Brett strains handled fermentation). A pair of follow-up fruited berliner weisses soon found their way into cans (the Salud Cerveceria collab Tropical Ponche in January incorporated tropical fruit puree, February’s Punch For Lunch brought peaches, mangoes, and raspberries).
Further down the pipeline are spontaneously-fermented offerings that use Plaza Midwood air to cool down and inoculate future beer with airborne yeasts and bacteria. When their coolship is in use, taproom visitors can literally watch fermentation at work as foam bubbles and churns. While we’re many months away from those brews being released, you’ll one day be able to sip Plaza Midwood in a pint glass.
Photos: Jonathan Wells
This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 11:00 PM with the headline "15 notable sour beers made in Charlotte, from delicately fruity to fragrantly funky."