IBU: 10

I first fell in love with Upland Brewing Company two years ago at the Avery Sour Ale Festival in Boulder, CO.

While, Upland is based in Bloomington, IN with a second tap room in Indianapolis and no Colorado distribution, they still managed to send bottles of their Upland Reserve sour for Avery’s celebration of tarts and they made an instant fan out of me.

Fast forward two years and a more knowledgable palate later, I found myself making a pilgrimage to Indiana for a friends wedding and the obligatory beer excursions surrounding. I would have been remiss had I come so close to Upland without once again quenching my thirst with one of their now infamous sours. Luckily our great friends at Upland managed to hook up us with a bottle of their newly released Raspberry Lambic.

My memory of their tart offerings weren’t hazy. This lambic aged in oak casks for over a year, with whole raspberries from Starlight, IN poured a bright ruby red and immediately ranked amongst my favorite sours. Unlike some lambics, Upland’s raspberry offering yielded less sweetness and landed higher on the pucker inducing scale while still retaining a great depth from those natural raspberry flavors.

If it weren’t for Upland bearing some great will in sending their product to Boulder two years ago I never would have discovered the prolific sour program they’re currently developing. And while the Raspberry Lambic may be harder to get your hands on as it was a limited release, keep an eye out for their future sour releases as they’ll certainly be worth scooping up.