America Gone Wild — How an Ancient Tradition Became the New Wave in U.S. Brewing | Good Beer Hunting

Illustration: Charlotte Hudson

The last decade has witnessed a steady about-face in public perception of sometimes challenging, often misunderstood wild beers. They’ve gone from outcasts to lust objects, bottles of Cantillon revered as the high art of beer connoisseurship. Consumers now worship at the altar of Brettanomyces, flocking to festivals such as Crooked Stave’s What the Funk!?, Upland Brewing’s Sour Wild Funk Fest, and the Funk Collective Sour and Wild Beer Festival, which takes places in Charleston, South Carolina, this summer.

How did this ancient tradition take American take taste buds by storm? I tackle the topic for Good Beer Hunting.