Cool, and this renews my thinking that sours are the new "it" thing. First it was double IPAs, then barrel aged everything, now it's wild/sour fermentation.

As much as I wish you were correct, I don't think it's true at all. Maybe 20% of the places I've been that have at least 15 or so craft beers on tap have had a single sour/wild ale on tap. And how many decent U.S. breweries even make one? Maybe there's some growth in recent years but it's from an extremely small base. At least in CA, DIPAs never stopped being the "it" thing.

As far as DIPAs go, you're tainted by your location. You always had them, but most of the rest of the world didn't, and now they're all over the damned place. As for sours, I am seeing them crop up at more of the top-shelf places, and while I don't think they'll get Ubiquitous, they'll spread a good bit. You will see more than west coasters and belgians making these, mark my words. It's the new thing to do to distinguish yourself as being ahead of the curve. I got a feelin...

But I say they're going to be made by at least one or two guys in all the big beer centers - WI/MI, New England, NC, Colorado, etc. Right now that's not happening. It just seems like the sort of thing the upper crust nano guys will be chasing as a line-in-the-sand product, saying "we're serious, and here's how we prove it."

I do not think they'll ever get as common as DIPAs are now. No way, for all the reasons you mentioned. But I say they're going to be made by at least one or two guys in all the big beer centers - WI/MI, New England, NC, Colorado, etc. Right now that's not happening. It just seems like the sort of thing the upper crust nano guys will be chasing as a line-in-the-sand product, saying "we're serious, and here's how we prove it." There's not much left right now for them to do that a bunch of mid-level guys with 8-state distributions aren't also doing. Oh you make a quadrupel? Awesome, so does Smuttynose, Sam Adams, and Harpoon. I'm telling you, these guys chase status.

Cool, and this renews my thinking that sours are the new "it" thing. First it was double IPAs, then barrel aged everything, now it's wild/sour fermentation.

I read they're focusing on sours this year. Bloor I will send you one if I can find it.

FWIW - I went into Five Points Bottle Shop in Athens the last time I was in town. The manager grabbed the beer guy and said to him "this is Stu, he's from Nashville and wants to know what all the cool new shit is." First thing out of FPBS guy's mouth to me was "Do you like sours?"

This stacks up with my experience as well. Sours are definitely having a moment; it's not going to be enough to register for you, Bill, because it's your favorite style of beer.

Just because you have the unreleased Sours EP and saw Sours in someone's living room while wearing a SHHHHHH getup doesn't mean the rest of the world might not dig the debut album produced by Butch Vig, yaknowwhatimean?

"this is Stu, he's from Nashville and wants to know what all the cool new shit is." First thing out of FPBS guy's mouth to me was "Do you like sours?"

I do foresee significant increased production of sour beers as consumers are becoming more and more interested in them. In fact, people who have previously pursued wine and cocktails are getting into craft beer more and more, as are women who (generally speaking) have a tendency to be averse to the bitterness found in most beer styles, and their interest in beer has often come via sour/wild beers. This is because the acidity and fruitiness and often tannins and oak flavors in many representatives of this category closely mimic those same familiar characteristics in wine.

While we’ll see breweries like Avery continue to lead the way in experimenting and regularly releasing barrel-aged sour beers, we’ll also see newer breweries like Crooked Stave who have an exclusive focus on the production of these beers. They are fascinating beers to brew, and more challenging than pale ales or IPAs. They take considerably longer to produce as well – months or often years per release as opposed to just three or four weeks for an IPA.

There’s more at risk when making these beers – cross-contamination, the time and money lost when a batch doesn’t turn out as expected, considerably higher labor – but this has never been a risk-averse industry to be sure. So we’ll see increased availability of these beers, but don’t expect them to supplant IPA as the country’s favorite craft beer style any time soon. Even if demand were there, we wouldn’t be able to brew enough!

I see nothing but the baby bjorn.