Draai Laag Brewing Company

Peter Kope and Michele de la Reza are smart, fiercely devoted to their art (modern dance) and determined to do good by whomever they meet. The creative inspirations behind Pittsburgh's Attack Theatre met us at Draai Laag Brewing Company for three rounds of sour beers, a Slobby Bifko (that's a brisket sandwich with cheddar, pickled onions and horseradish mayo) and other-worldly ice cream sandwiches from Leona's Ice Cream.

Clockwise from left: Black Briar, Razmata,
more Black Briar, Plastic Cup, Nanabam.

In my first flight I tried Black Briar—Draai Laag's signature American wild ale made with blackberries. It is solid. Deep. But my first swigs smelled like ammonia. "Yeast," said Michelle. Dave behind the bar assured us that the huge head—he had four foamy glasses settling below the taps—didn't indicate anything was wrong with the keg. Once, he said, they had a beer where they had to draw a whole pitcher of foam and wait for it to settle to pour one glass.

The other winner in that flight was Razmata. "There are two distinct notes," Michelle said. "The Weiss beer and the raspberry." She was right, according to the menu. It's a raspberry Berliner Weiss.

I wish I could give you a report from my second flight, with R2Koelschip, Tafelboer and Relic, but honestly all the sours started tasting the same at that point. Michelle ordered a glass of the Relic, however. She said it smelled like a campfire. (I thought it smelled like a camp latrine.)

I like sour beers, honest. I even like Draai Laag's sours. All misplaced snottiness aside, I don't think they do anything poorly, and I don't think that I have the discriminating palate to tell if they did. But nothing I drank gave me the life-changing aha of the Fetish Brewing Company Wild American Dark in Lancaster, Pa., or the Belgian drinkability of Ommegang's Rosetta, or the confident satisfaction nearly anything I've tried from Free Will Brewing Company in Perkasie, Pa.

But I like to drink, and I like to try new food, and I like sitting outside in beautiful weather with some of the best people I know. Pretty sweet.

www.draailaag.com