I love a good milkshake IPA.

I'm still way into Bell's Two Hearted. If a place doesn't have that, I'm kinda bummed. I guess what I'm saying is, I'm no help to you.

Try some sours, brute IPAs or scotch ales if you're inclined to darker beers in winter.

Sours are blech.

Not a surprising statement from a guy still recommending Two Hearted.

No, no. I never recommended it. Why can no one read my posts today?

Regardless, I get that I'm an asshole and completely out of it and all of that because I haven't jumped on that sour bandwagon yet (though, somehow I'm still RM's resident hipster??? yeah, you figure that one out because it's beyond me). They just don't taste very good to me, in general. Like anything, I'm sure there's one out there that I'd like. But I've tried a bunch and I'm just not into it. It's not a bad recommendation for someone looking to break out of a rut, though. I wasn't saying that. Just that they do not work for me in the slightest.

I think I made fun of your stupid hat once because it was fucking stupid, but I never called you an asshole or a hipster. I've never called anyone on RM a hipster.

Fair enough. I didn't mean to project on to you specifically. I just meant in RM's general view. Still, you're right and I apologize. Sours are still terrible.

Lolz

This shit is so good.

Don’t consider it a rut. There’s something to be said about settling into a comfortable groove. I’m sure your favorite breweries appreciate your repeat business, too.

I know right?

"You have something you like and you should feel badly for liking it!"

Hilarious.

Great, now I'm team Reid. The nerve!

do you like kombucha?

Yeah right, like I'm gonna admit to liking kombucha just so you can make fun of me about that too. Nice try, Christopher.

why would i do that? i thought you and i were friends. remember when i was the only one that remembered that you hated being called "joey" and was one of the few that referred to you as joe?

it was actually a serious question.

Sorry, I'm in a weird jokey mood. These last few posts were meant to read as silly, not serious.

Yes, I love kombucha.

oh i know. all good. but i was serious on the question.

the reason i ask is because kombucha and lambics are essentially very similar with wild, spontaneously fermented yeasts. if you like kombucha but feel like you can't get into sours, i think you should try some. now to be sure, some of the best ones (i.e., really representative of the style), are from belgium (cantillon and drie fonteinen) and not easy to get your hands on. but you can find some pretty good ones locally. you should go into your favorite beer shop where the workers are pretty knowledgeable and ask for their recommendations. some of the fruited lambics are unbelievable. it'll be a gateway into sours.

from the sound of it, some of the sours you had probably were acid bombs where you couldn't taste the base beer, strong enough to take the enamel off your teeth. those aren't good beers.

Interesting. I'm always up for trying new things. Kombucha doesn't taste anything like the sours that I've had. So you're probably right in your analysis. If you have any recommendations, I'll take them. Otherwise, I'll do as you say and talk to some of the local guys and gals here and see what they recommend.

Though, I may be a lost cause. I've heard people talk about how once you get into bitter stuff, it's really hard to enjoy other things. And I've found that to be very true for me. Things that I used to enjoy just don't taste right to me many times if I don't get that bitter/citrus-y bite. I've also never been much of a sour person in general, whether it's drinks or candy or food or whatever.

i hear you on the flavors and it being harder to get into other things once you plant your flag into a specific flavor profile. but i approach beers like i approach food. there are different types of foods that simply cannot be compared among each other. like, i would never say that i can't get into chocolate cake because i really like watermelon or salmon. obviously they're totally different. so if i want steak for dinner, i'm forgoing having other foods and i know what i'm getting myself into beforehand. the same holds true for beer. if i go home on a friday and want to indulge in a barrel-aged stout, i know i can't really compare the taste, mouthfeel, etc. to an iipa. and the same holds true for a iipa compared to a sour. so your affinity for piney/citrusy/bitterness is great . . . when you're comparing ipas. but drinking a sour (and by the way, that catch-all is probably a little lazy; there are many types of "sours," and most are drastically different from others, like the way they're fermented, the yeast strains, the goal of being funky or sour, etc.) is nothing like drinking an ipa, just like drinking sparkling wine is nothing like drinking bourbon.

this is a long way of saying that you shouldn't get hung up on comparing your go-to ipas with something like a lambic.

by the way, if you like kombucha, try a kriek (which is a lambic with cherries). if you don't like it, no big deal. sours sometimes just aren't people's things, and that's quite ok. i used to be repulsed by sours. but then i had a really, really good one, and i was hooked forever. and i also quickly learned to tell a good sour from a bad one.