Getting beer from barrels into bottles isn’t as straightforward as you might imagine. One clear reality in barrel aging is that no two barrels are the same.

Virtually every single beer* you’ve ever enjoyed can be broken into one of two main types: ale or lager. The determining factor between the two? Yeast. 

There are a variety of ways to get sour flavor into a beer—and an almost endless variety of beers that you can add sourness to. To be clear, we’re honestly not the hugest fans of the term “sour beer.” For us, sour is a flavor descriptor and not a beer style. Sour beers can be dark, fruity, light, heavy, anything really. But that doesn’t answer the question: how do you make a beer sour?

For years, we’ve heard guests say that while they “don’t really like beer,” they love our flagship beer, Allagash White. If you’re thinking, “that sounds like me,” then we’d bet that there are probably plenty of other beers you’d like! One of the many wonderful things about beer is how varied it is. Ranging from dry to sweet, light to dark, even fruity or funky.