Night Shift Brewery cofounder Michael Oxton thinks there’s a sour beer for everyone at the upcoming We’re Funk’d Festival.
“I wasn’t super into sours the first few times I had them.” Oxton assures the newbies. “I think the first sour beers I had were homebrew batches that just went bad. But when I started drinking really well-made sours, I couldn’t get enough.”
The festival, which is being run in conjunction with Jack’s Abby’s Springdale offshoot, takes place on July 8 and 9. It came about in a response to a North Carolina brewery’s May decision to sell a stake to Anheuser-Busch InBev. Many brewers backed out of Wicked Weed’s annual Funkatorium Invitational when the brewery sold out to the conglomerate.
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“If we’re going to be supporting a festival, spending the time and money to go out there to do it, we’d rather not do it in support of big beer,” says Springdale general manager Joe Connolly. “We prefer to remain fiercely independent. It wasn’t a question of hard feelings or trying to stick it to anyone.”
Many of the brewers who were going to North Carolina are now coming to Boston. They include Colorado standout Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, San Francisco’s Alamanac Beer Co., and Long Island’s Transmitter Brewing, among more than two dozen others.
“It’s a crazy list,” says Oxton, who also uses the term “sick” to describe some of the best sour beer purveyors in the country.
“Sour” can be a dirty word for beer drinkers, some of whom had bad early experiences, like the Night Shift founder. While Oxton says he now loves paint-stripping, extremely sour beers, he knows they’re not for everyone.
“The most interesting thing I’m seeing in the sour category right now are a lot more easy drinking, sessionable sours,” says Oxton. “The flavor profile is more tart more than vinegary. Across the board I think you’re seeing a lot of breweries realize that that caters to a wider audience.”
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Connolly says the sour monniker itself might even be outdated.
“I think a lot of us bristle at the idea that this category is called sour,” says Connolly. “I want the first thing you say when you try one to be, ‘This tastes like X or Y.’ ”
The We’re Funk’d Festival will span two days. On July 8 the brewers will take over taps in Cambridge and Somerville. The full festival takes place Sunday, July 9, at the Boylston Schul-Verein in Walpole. There are more details, including a complete list of bars and brewers and a way to purchase tickets, on the event’s official website.
Gary Dzen can be reached at gary.dzen@boston.com.