‘The Rare Barrel’ is a brewery that makes sour beer exclusively. There are other breweries making fantastic sour beer in our area, but they are the only brewery in California that focuses on this one style alone. The taproom, which opened in December of 2013 is located at 940 Parker St. in Berkeley.

The process can be long and expensive for the breweries. ‘The Rare Barrel’ ages their beer  in oak barrels for a minimum of six months.

There are three partners involved in this new brewery that has been gaining a lot of attention and notoriety amongst the beer geek community. Jay Goodwin, Alex Wallash and Brad Goodwin are the team.

Jay and Alex went to college together at UC Santa Barbara where they used to home brew in their apartment when not attending class. Shortly after graduating, Jay was hired as a brewer at ‘The Bruery’ located in Orange County. ‘The Bruery’ has received many medals at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup.

Sour beers seem to be an acquired taste. Many people new to drinking craft beer can be overwhelmed by the tart flavors that the style provides. Those that enjoy the style will argue that it is one of the best in the world.

The following quote was pulled off their website:”Sour beer is our favorite style of beer.  The flavors produced by this unique fermentation and aging process cannot be replicated in any other food or beverage. Due to the involved process, sour beer is not often a commonly brewed style, making it difficult to find. We’d like to help change that.”

For more information on ‘The Rare Barrel’ and their quest to create the rarest one of all check out the website. http://www.therarebarrel.com/about

– Peter Lopez