CLINTON HILL — Pumpkin ale won't be the star of this fall beer block party.
The New York City Brewers Guild is hosting a massive beer party in Clinton Hill next weekend, ditching the usual pumpkin brews in favor of trendy sour beers.
Blocktoberfest, on Sept. 20, will ring in the season with beers from 19 local breweries and let festival-goers hobnob with master brewers.
There will also be grub provided by Jimmy's No. 43 and a lineup of DJs, according to organizer Kelly Taylor.
Long Island City's Transmitter Brewing will be serving up their F5 Amber Brett Farmhouse, which is "refreshing, tart and lightly soured," along with other eclectic sour beers.
Big Alice Brewing — also in Long Island City — will have its Galia Melon Sour Wheat and Gowanus-based Grimm Artisanal Ales is brewing "a near extinct German-style smoked sour ale."
Brooklyn Brewery’s Sorachi Ace will also be on tap, Taylor said.
"Sours are a big draw right now," said Taylor, who is also brewmaster at Clinton Hill's Kelso Beer Company. "A lot of the new brewers are breaking away from your standard pilsners and pumpkin ales and diving into non-traditional flavors."
Sour beers are made by keeping bacteria and wild yeast present during the fermentation process and are considered more natural because they don't require the same sterilization process as other beers, according to Kelly.
The byproducts from the bacteria make the beer taste sour.
Other offerings that aren't so tart include Bridge and Tunnel Brewery's Slaughterhouse Stampede Black Rye IPA from Long Island City, Gun Hill Brewing Company's Gun Hill Gold and Gun Hill IPA from the Bronx, Harlem Brewing's Harlem Sugar Hill Ale and Rockaway Brewing Company's 1875 Pale Ale.
For fall traditionalists, Manhattan's Heartland Brewery will pour their Smiling Pumpkin Ale.
The event takes place on Saturday, Sept. 20 from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. in KelSo Beer Company's 5,000-square-foot indoor beer garden and 3,000-square-foot outdoor seating area at 525 Waverly Ave.
Visitors will have the chance to meet acclaimed brewers while tasting rare brews "as well as their latest and greatest new releases," according to Taylor.
Admission is $10 and each beer costs $5.
Tickets to "Blocktoberfest" can be purchased via Eventbrite.
