Photo by Alyx Chandler.
Brewer Nate Darnell stands in the new barrel room where much of the beer for the Sour Tasting Room will be made.
Avondale Brewery is figuratively spicing things up by bringing sour beer into the mix.
As of August, their newly renovated Sour Tasting Room will be open and only a two-minute walk from the brewery’s outdoor patio. “This is going to be dedicated to those styles of beers, and it definitely has a different kind of feel,” said Avondale Brewer Nate Darnell.
Avondale Brewery’s newest addition features a cozy, wood-lined room with a cracked-glass ceiling that illuminates the bar where at least eight new beers will be up for grabs. The Funkatorium-styled tasting room shares a wall with Wasabi Juan’s Sushi Burritos and allows people to leave and enter through a new door.
Darnell, who moved from Good People to Avondale Brewery about two years ago, said this has been a project he’s been working on for about a year, with some of the beers aging for more than nine months already.
He’s personally been experimenting and brewing sours on his own for several years as a hobby, he said.
“These beers are kind of rare, but sours are getting popular,” Darnell said. “People are starting to really like them and realize how much experience it takes to make them.”
The brewers of Avondale plan to line all the walls with booths, throw in some tables and chairs and then let the broad spectrum of beers offered — saisons, 100 percent fermented beers and barrel-aged sours — speak for themselves. Not all of the new beers are barrel-aged though. Some are kettle-sours, which combine a quick turnover rate with a tart, crisp taste.
“Try it one month, then a month later it tastes particularly different,” Darnell said.
In its entirety, the new tasting room, which includes a small outdoor patio, can hold about 50 to 60 people.
Aug. 1 is the planned opening day, though Darnell said they might have to push it back a little bit. The new room plans to have the same hours as usual, but probably with a limited number of weekdays open.
