Flavour group
Tart & sour
Beers with deliberate lactic acidity, from gently tart to aggressively sharp, usually light-bodied and highly refreshing.
A BeerHQ grouping for finding beer, not an official classification. No style body recognises these, and that is fine — they exist to bridge the gap between how a beer tastes and what it is called.
Suits you if
- Likes sharp drinks — lemonade, dry cider, kombucha.
- Wants maximum refreshment in hot weather.
- Is eating rich, fatty or fried food that needs an acidic counterweight.
May not suit
- Anyone expecting conventional beer flavour; the first sip is genuinely startling.
- Drinkers with acid sensitivity or reflux.
- Anyone who assumes sour means spoiled — here the acidity is designed.
The shape of this group
10 styles in this group
- Berliner Weisse
A very low-strength sour wheat beer: sharply lactic, bone dry, lightly sparkling and enormously refreshing.
- Kettle sour
Beer soured with Lactobacillus in the kettle over hours rather than months, then boiled and fermented normally — usually fruited.
- Lichtenhainer
A historical Thuringian smoked wheat beer that is also lightly sour — an unusual combination of smoke and lactic acidity.
- Gose
A lightly sour German wheat beer with added salt and coriander — tart, savoury and unusually thirst-quenching.
- Oud Bruin
An East Flanders aged brown ale, maltier and less sharply acidic than Flanders red, with raisin and caramel depth.
- American wild ale
A broad New World category of mixed-fermentation and barrel-aged sour beers, often fruited, with no fixed base style.
- Flanders red ale
A deep red sour ale matured for years in oak foeders, balancing sharp acidity against dark fruit and a vinous depth.
- Lambic
Spontaneously fermented Belgian wheat beer, matured in oak for years — funky, acidic, dry and unlike any other beer.
- Gueuze
A blend of young and old lambic, refermented in bottle — intensely complex, bone dry and Champagne-like in its carbonation.
- Fruit lambic
Lambic refermented on whole fruit — traditionally sour cherry or raspberry — producing a dry, tart, intensely fruity beer.