Eric’s Ale at Dublin’s: Sour Beer Goes on Tap in Oshkosh

Eric's Ale at Dublin's

If you’re a fan of sour beer this summer is looking promising. At this time last year, you couldn’t find a sour beer in Oshkosh unless you’d brewed it yourself. Now, however, there are a number of sour beers to be had around town and for the first time we’ve got one on tap. Dublin’s in Oshkosh recently brought on Eric’s Ale from New Belgium. It’s a near perfect sour beer for the summer months and a fine one to start with if you’re sour curious. Eric’s Ale is a bright, golden beer with a florid aroma that hints at all the flavors to come. Take a little while to breathe this beer in. You’ll notice a candy sweetness and the tart/sour aroma of green apples along with a hint of oak. Swimming under all that are notes of wild-yeast funk.  The sourness isn’t the first thing to hit when you start to drink it. Initially, the beer comes across with more of a sweet, lemon-like quality, but that gives way quickly to a refreshing, piquant sourness that dries out near the end and invites the next drink. Man, this is a fun beer and it’s incredibly drinkable. On a hot day I could see chasing down a few of these. But at 7% you might want to pace yourself on this one. If you haven’t tried a sour beer before, you ought to give it a shot. Especially if you’re the sort that loves intense, American IPAs, I think you’d find Eric’s Ale abundantly agreeable.