The World's Sourest Beers Slideshow

Uniting a Belgian lambic with the fermented tea called kombucha, both of which contain a Brettanomyces strain, makes this mouth-twisting mash-up. The mixture is monstrously effervescent, with sharp flavors that flit from green apples to zested lemon.

This Belgian ale is inoculated with wild yeasts and consigned to cabernet barrels alongside plenty of blackberries. The outcome is fruity, tart, and suffused with spicy, tannic notes of oak.

This face-contorting treat is aged in French oak barrels for up to three years, creating earthy, sour-apple flavors and a bright, acidic body. A tidbit of caramel keeps the sourness in check — somewhat.

This straw-toned ale spends months in Brettanomyces-infested oak casks before being finished with Champagne yeasts. The result is a funky bouquet of wood and lemons crossed with lively carbonation and the subtle flavor of citrus and leather.

At the Michigan outfit, brewers let yeast strains drifting through the air inoculate the amber ale, which is a blend of batches aged in bourbon or red wine barrels for two to 10 months. The outcome is an earthy revelation with a perfume of dark fruit and hay.  

The Maine brewery's innovative delight hits you with flavors of citrus, apple and sour funk that are smoothed out by a stint in French-oak barrels that once contained red wine.

To create this Belgian beauty, one-, two-, and three-year-old batches of oak-aged lambics are blended. Though releases slightly vary by year, expect an aroma that's by turns funky, citrusy, and super-sour. Gueuze goes down sharp and crisp, with hints of melon.

The Belgian brewery's kriek is constructed by adding black cherries to a lambic, then storing the elixir in oak for more than a year. When ready, the results are transcendent: A barnyard-hinted nose of cherries and vanilla oak are matched by a beautifully fruity, bone-dry tartness.

The blend of Belgian-style tripels, golden ales, and blonde quads is refermented with the juice of fresh-pressed white wine grapes. It packs a puckering sourness, with a sweet fruit foundation and breakneck bubbles.  

Spontaneously fermented in oak barrels by a kitchen sink of wild yeasts and bacteria, Beatification boasts a pedal-to-the-metal sourness mixed with a touch of citrus, bread, and Granny Smith apples.