In the realm of post-acquisition giants in “craft” beer, it is tough to beat Lagunitas.  You can find their tasty wares in random scary gas stations in the bando, they serve them at ballparks and movie theaters, and their pricing is absolutely ridiculous.  I don’t need to give a recap of greats like Hairy eyeball, Sucks, or even regular ass cappuccino stout, they hold a special place in my heart for entry level tickers.

Now they are all up in the kettle sour, or I am sorry, SOUR MASH craze.  So let’s see how that shit pans out for them:

Alright so at the outset I need to tip my hat to Lagunitas for not doing some predictable Wyeast 5335 Lacto addition to the wort. This has none of the stupid trappings so endemic to that craze: low carb, no sheeting, overly acidic, weird phenolic finish.  You can go ahead and point the finger at your favorite brewery doing that in the game right now.  This is more subtle and restrained.

With their sour mashing process, Lagunitas has basically taken an APA, hopped it less, then sour mashed it to give it a light acidity in the realm of Westbrook Gose or Anderson Valley gose.  It has the lemon and zesty lime notes, but still the bready underpinnings of plain old 2 row malt.  It is a touch salty and there is a sulphuric egginess on the nose at higher temps.  The minerality works with the faint tartness and works to make this as drillable as a 750ml of Perrier.  The slow and careful execution seems deliberate to serve that tart-curious market.  Janelle from your office will probably tell you about this shit she had at a murder mystery dinner party over the weekend and you will have to listen to uninitiated dumbfucks stumble and marvel at things you have been punishing your body with for years.  Finally, a beer you can bring to a party that is delicious but wont make you look like a pretentious prick.

It remains clean and tasty, highly sessionable, the price will probably be laughably cheap, and you can get it next to every Payday loan/Pawnshop in the hood.  What is not to love? If you were a fan of simple table beer offerings like Classique, you will like this shit.  You already knew what this was going to be: a solid, crushable, tasty tart banger from the old standby that always has your back.