Possible cause · chemical compound
Lactic Acid
Lactic acid can contribute sour taste in beer; perceived sourness is not reducible to one acid concentration or pH value.
Flavor Compass · Taste & Flavor
Sourness / Acidity
A sour or acidic taste impression; perceived sourness is related to but not identical with analytical acidity or pH.
Sensory identity
What this word means in BEU
- Primary modality
- flavor
- Secondary modalities
- None asserted
- Descriptor class
- taste
- Fault use
- contextual only
Context before verdict
Sourness can be defining in some beer styles and undesirable in others. The descriptor does not establish acid identity, pH, contamination, or defect status.
Possible causes
What might contribute to this perception
These are evidence-backed possibilities, not deterministic troubleshooting diagnoses.
Style context
Where this descriptor can be characteristic
A characteristic-of edge describes style convention, never a universal requirement or quality score.
Berliner Weisse
Sourness is central to Berliner Weisse style context; this does not make sourness universally desirable in beer.
Graph discovery · explainable
Explore outward from this node
Ranked by a transparent navigation heuristic, never by quality, taste, popularity, authority, or commercial value.
chemical compound
Lactic Acid
An organic acid relevant to sour beer chemistry and sour taste perception.
Navigation heuristic: 45. semantic 16 + evidence 8 + verification 8 + confidence 5 + cross-type 3 + route 3 + extra-relations 2
contributes_to · reverse
Lactic Acid — contributes to → Sourness / Acidity. This explanation is being viewed from the target side of the directed relationship.
Contribution is contextual and evidence-scoped; it is not a guarantee of perception or magnitude. Lactic acid can contribute sour taste; overall sourness remains matrix-dependent.
Evidence: Beer Molecules and Its Sensory and Biological Properties: A Review · An Overview of the Application of Multivariate Analysis to the Evaluation of Beer Sensory Quality and Shelf-Life Stability
beer style concept
Berliner Weisse
A pale German sour-wheat concept with low strength, very low hop emphasis, pronounced acidity, wheat support, and very high carbonation.
Navigation heuristic: 43. semantic 16 + evidence 8 + verification 8 + confidence 5 + cross-type 3 + route 3 + extra-relations 0
characteristic_of · forward
Sourness / Acidity — characteristic of → Berliner Weisse.
Contextual style association only; this does not make the descriptor mandatory or a quality criterion. Sourness is central to Berliner Weisse style context; this does not make sourness universally desirable in beer.
Evidence: BJCP 2021 Beer Style Guidelines · 2026 Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines