Category: Sour

Magical History Tour

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Magical History Tour was added in September 2024 and is Untappd’s badge for Historical Beers. To claim it check in five different “historical beers”.

Untappd’s “historical beers” cover a wide range, they currently include:

As you can see, quite an eclectic grouping!

Sour Beer Day

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What is hopefully a new recurring ‘Beer Day’ badge was added in 2024. Sour Beer Day is celebrated every September. For 2024 this badge was available between 19-22 September.

Untappd defines a Sour Beer as any style of Wild Ale, Brett Beer, Lambic, Sour or Farmhouse IPA, Berliner Braunbier, Lichtenhainer, Non-Alcoholic Sours, or of course, any Sour (Berliner Weisse, Fruited Berliner Weisse, Flanders Oud Bruin, Flanders Red Ale, Fruited, Gose, Fruited Gose or Other).

I Remember My First Check-In

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For Untappd’s 10th anniversary, a version of the Untappd Anniversary badge simply wasn’t enough. Instead, they have teamed up with DogFish Head to create a sour beer recipe that is available to other brewers and homebrewers.

Of course, accompanying this is a badge – simply check into any version of this beer between 18 October and 31 December to qualify for the badge. Find out more about the project on the official site.

You Don’t Know Brett!

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Introduced in December 2019, have 5 American Wild Ales, Brett IPA’s, Wild Ales – Other or Brett Beers to claim this badge.

Brett stands for Brettanomyces, a type of wild yeast that can infect fermenting beer – usually its unwanted but for these beers it’s a deliberate, or at least encouraged, addition.

They share some similarities with traditional Belgian styles like Lambics and Flanders Oud Bruins, so can be seen as a modern craft twist on these styles.

One of the weirdest Wild Ale brews has to be Beard Beer by Rogue Ales. The beer was fermented using yeast harvested from the head brewers beard!

Silence of the Lambics

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Check in 5 different Lambics to gain this badge. Lambic is a Belgian style of beer that is unique because it is left and allowed to ferment naturally, with wild yeast. The natural yeasts in the area around Brussels give Lambics their distinct dry yet sour taste.

After fermentation, Lambics are aged in barrels for over a year. Usually old port or sherry barrels are used to add additional yeasts and flavours. Untappd currently recognises seven different styles of Lambic: Traditional, Faro, Fruit, Framboise, Kriek, Gueuze and “Other”.

Lambics are one of the few styles where there is a tradition of adding fruit. Raspberry (a Framboise) or Cherry (a Kriek) are popular enough to be their own styles, but other fruit such as peach, grape or other berries are also commonly used.

A Gueuze is a combination of both old and young lambics blended together. This blend is then further aged to make a delicious, dry style of Lambic.

A Faro is also a blend, this time between a Lambic and a younger ale, sweetened with brown sugar.

Fruits of Your Labor

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The badge for Fruit beer. Have 5 fruit beers for this badge.

Fruit

Fruit has been added to beer to improve the flavours for hundreds of years. The practice gradually fell out of favour in places such as Germany and Britain due to purity and trade laws. This was partly due to fruit often being used to hide the taste of off beer. However, you can now find fruit being used in experimental and exciting ways by craft brewers.

Untappd currently counts five styles towards this one: Fruit Beer, Sour – Fruited, Sour – Fruited Berliner Weisse, IPA – Fruited and Sour – Gose – Fruited. However fruit Lambics, such as Kriek or Framboise, don’t count.

Ich Bin Ein Berliner

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Berlin is Europe’s second biggest city, so it’s no surprise that it would have its own style of beer: the Berliner Weisse. Have 5 of them to get this badge.Berliner

Called the ‘Champagne of the North’ by Napoleon, a good Weisse is crisp, cloudy and tart. They are not strong in alcohol and are a perfect refreshing beverage.

The style was once the dominant style in Berlin until it started to fade away in the second half of the 20th century. Now revived by the craft revolution, many craft breweries are experimenting with adding fruit to the style which has led to its own style on Untappd, the Fruited Berliner Weisse.

Flan-didly-anders

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Celebrating two styles of beer from the Flanders region of Belgium, have 5 Flanders Red or Flanders oud Bruin’s to claim this badge.Flanders

These sour red and brown beers have been brewed for centuries. The beers are defined by their patient ageing in oak and nuanced blending which creates low carbonated tart, almost musty, beers. Flanders Reds are probably more well known of the two, and are sometimes know as the Burgundy of Belgium. The fruity, cherry, plum notes are certainly more reminiscent of wine than beer.

Oud Bruin, or Flanders Brown, are similarly aged in oak but the result is less fruity and wine-like. Both rely heavily on the art of aging and blending and it takes a true craftsman to produce a good Flanders Red or Oud Bruin. They are certainly not a beer that is designed to be enjoyed by the mass-produced lager drinker!