Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Kosmic Sour

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams Kosmic Sour.

Its been a while since I sampled a new Samuel Adams product, but during a recent trip to the beer store to buy beer for a Sheva Berachos I happened across this and figured that I would give it a shot.

I'm not big on sour beers in general as the "interesting" yeasts that they introduce are just funky in my opinion. The Samuel Adams people call this beer a "tart and wild ale." The tart ale is not really a style, but the Wild Ale is a defined beer style, which the experts at BA reclassify as an American Wild Ale and define it as:

Sometimes Belgian influenced, American Wild Ales are beers that are introduced to "wild" yeast or bacteria, such as Brettanomyces (Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, Brettanomyces Lambicus or Brettanomyces Anomolus), Pediococcus, or Lactobacillus. This introduction may occur from oak barrels that have been previously inoculated, pitching into the beer, or gained from various "sour mash" techniques. Regardless of the method, these yeast and/or bacteria leave a mark that should be noticeable to strong, and often contribute a sour and/or funky, wild note. Mixed-fermentation examples will display a range of aromatics, rather than a single dominant character.

The beer poured a rich cloudy orange/yellow with decent carbonation and some lacing. I shared some with Mrs KB who found this beer delicious (that makes one of us). The beer had some sweet and tart so I could see why she liked it, but there were no hops and the breadiness just made me wonder why they bothered. At 4.6% abv the beer is not high on the alcohol scale and the alcohol flavor is not strong, but I have no idea what if anything this would pair with.

The Kosmic Sour is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K and has a Star-K certification mark on the label. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this brew, please follow this link - beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/432874.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Lastly, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up