History

New Belgium's wood-cellar programme, long steered by brewmaster Peter Bouckaert, made La Folie one of the defining American sour ales and put a hall of oak foeders in the middle of the Linden Street brewery tour. When Bouckaert left after 21 years, he stayed in town, opening Purpose Brewing and Cellars on South Mason Street to blend four-hectolitre batches with fruit, spice and barrels. Between the two, Fort Collins offers sour beer at both industrial and jewel-box scale.

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Common allergens: Gluten

Make it at home

Yield Makes 19 litres of homebrew, agedHands-on 5 hrTotal 8760 hrDifficulty Advanced

Ingredients

  • 4kg pilsner malt and 1kg wheat malt
  • 15g aged or low-alpha hops
  • Clean ale yeast for primary fermentation
  • A mixed lactobacillus and brettanomyces culture
  • Oak cubes or a used oak barrel
  • Optional: 1kg tart cherries for the final months

Method

  1. Brew a simple pilsner-wheat wort and ferment clean for two weeks.
  2. Rack onto the mixed culture with oak and leave 9 to 12 months at cellar temperature, tasting quarterly.
  3. Add fruit for the final two months if using.
  4. Blend to balance acidity, then bottle to a modest carbonation and condition a month.

Tip from the editors. Dedicate plastic gear to sour projects; brettanomyces never fully leaves equipment and will haunt your clean beers.

Where to eat wood-aged sour ale

Wood-aged sour ale in Fort Collins

New Belgium Brewing ★ 4.7

$$ BreweryAmber ales, wood-aged sours, IPAs at the Linden Street campusRiver District

New Belgium Brewing pours Fat Tire and La Folie at its Linden Street mothership in Fort Collins, with tours, food trucks and the Tour de Fat bike parade.

TipBook the 90-minute brewery tour ahead; it ends in the foeder hall where the sour programme lives. Tour de Fat returns 29 August 2026.

Directions

Purpose Brewing and Cellars ★ 4.6

$$ BreweryMidtown

Purpose Brewing and Cellars is Peter Bouckaert's tiny Fort Collins taproom on South Mason Street: four or five new beers a weekend, barrels and sours first.

Why locals goPeter Bouckaert brews 4-hectolitre one-offs in a strip-mall unit; the beers never leave the room, so you drink them here or never.

TipBouckaert spent 21 years as New Belgium's brewmaster; whatever barrel-aged beer is on this weekend is the order. Closed Monday to Wednesday.

Directions

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