A Brief History of Sour Beer

On a quiet June afternoon at Philadelphia’s Monk’s Cafe, William Reed, a former Boston Beer Company brewer, popped the top on part of an experimental batch that he’d brewed in 1996. Originally made at the request of Tom Peters, the happy pasha of Monk’s, it was a Flanders red ale called Brewhouse Tart, fermented with a mixture of conventional and wild yeasts, which can wreak sensory havoc.