New Beer Alert: POG Tropical Sour
Bursting with tropical fruit flavors Rochester’s new POG Tropical Sour is a kettle sour made with passion fruit, orange and guava. David heaped in a whopping 132 pounds of fruit during fermentation to create this delicious tropical beer.
David’s longtime friend and Rochester bartender extraordinaire, Jon Martin, is the inspiration behind the POG Tropical Sour. It’s Jon’s brainchild, and we are excited to see it come to fruition (pun intended). It’s perfect for sipping in the sunshine!
What Are Sours?
Traditional sours attained their unique tartness through contamination during the brewing process. Before refrigeration and modern sanitation methods, most beers were “sour” to some degree. Belgian brewers used wooden barrels where naturally occurring bacteria like Lactobacillus and Pediococcus as well as Brettanomyces yeasts lurked. With the advent of more sanitary brewing methods, the production of sour beer naturally declined. Today’s craft brewers, however, have embraced this traditional brewing technique, developing methods to deliberately infect beer with the same “wild things” that teemed in the wooden barrels and troughs of yesteryear.
Modern-Day Sours
Brewed in shiny stainless steel kettles, kettle souring, or quick souring, also gives us beers like Gose and Berliner Weisse. They are soured in a stainless steel mash tun and fermented in a similar tank. Brewers add controlled amounts of the magical Lactobacillus. Then the “Lacto” bacteria eats up the sugars, converting them into lactic acid. If the name sounds familiar, it’s the same live culture that’s in unsweetened yogurt and sauerkraut.
Today’s kettle sours are infinitely versatile, allowing craft brewers to experiment with a bewildering array of flavors. Rochester’s POG Tropical Sour represents a perfect example of this. The naturally tart base beer balances perfectly with the sweet passion fruit, orange and guava, yielding a refreshing, drinkable summertime beer, perfect for sipping with friends on our sunny deck in Parkville or cafe seating in the Crossroads.
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Rochester Brewing and Roasting is Kansas City’s first craft beer and coffee roastery under one roof. We’ve created welcoming spaces to gather – day and night. Come early for the coffee, stay late for the beer!
