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I guess it is Gose day. Here is the write-up from Sierra Nevada on their newly bottled, Otra Vez, “a sweet-tangy blend of native-grown prickly pear cactus and grapefruit combined with the zing of a traditional gose for a vicious but delicious twist on the stodgy summer sippers.”
Seems like every brewery needs a Gose and an IPA in their line-up and Modern Times is the latest with their newest special release, Fruitlands, a cherry gose.
Here is their backstory on the beer: “First, we created a traditional gose mash with loads of salt and coriander. Next, we dosed it with 4 different strains of Lactobacillus to create the perfect funky, salty base beer. Finally, once fermentation finished, we added a healthy portion of tart Michigan grown Montmorency cherry juice.”
Traditionally, I break out the more expensive beers for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The holidays demand something more, in my mind.
This year, a bit of a change-up though. I had a Gose from Cascade to pop as 2014 became 2015 but decided to save it for a different type of taste test. A Colbert Platinum version. (Sad to see that show go)
I brought a Gose and my beer buddy Richard provided the Black Tuesday (2014) and we proceeded to have a light vs dark but both over $30 session.
The Gose starts off with a green apple aroma coming off the well laced glass. The salt is in the foreground but not in a savory way until it sits for a bit. I took one sip near the end of the glass and it was a bit more concentrated. The sourness does bite. The mouth does pucker. This is certainly one of the more straightforward examples of the style. Especially considering that Cascade is not shy about additions of fruits and spices. After it sits for awhile, a ton of floral aromatics show up. Almost potpourri like.
The 2014 Black Tuesday begins with a hot aroma. That heat extends to the taste which is also quite syrupy. So to start it seems the balance is off. Was this meant to sit longer? Lots of chocolate and maple syrup taste. Their is some coconut from the barrels but the alcohol runs over that taste. Overall, the dominant flavors are syrup and caramel.
On a positive note, the near 20% alcohol doesn’t warm up the cheeks or burn on the way down which is good. But I just wish it wasn’t so syrupy. I keep thinking pancakes when drinking. I think I will age my bottle a few years.
The winner for me was the Gose. It had multiple elements going on and despite the high salt factor it was still quite tasty to drink.
Not only does Anderson Valley can their Gose, but they also can a spin-off. A Blood Orange Gose! Time to see how the Gose melds with citrus.
BOG pours a Tang orange color with absolutely zero head to it once the initial foam winds down. There is a certain orange jello aroma to this beer.
The taste has an initial bite to it. A slight tartness that fades into more of that Jello citrus note. Then the beer morphs into a salty drying note. Then a third taste of wheat and cereal pops in at the end. I am not getting the buttery part of blood orange that I really enjoy from the fruit. But this beer does not skimp on orange flavor at all.
But the salinity cuts through it to make this really well balanced.
I am a fan of the Gose style of beer. Unfortunately, American versions tend to include many additions of fruit and/or spices that stray from the original version.
But when I saw a canned version from Anderson Valley, I raised my hopes again that I might find a reliable source of Gose for the summer.
And I was not disappointed. The beers pours a dark orange color with a citrusy aroma. There is another smell in the background that I can’t put my finger on as well. The taste follows with an orange hard candy taste that has a touch of sour to it. This is a very crisp and refreshing beer. And the salt is like a light undercurrent with each sip.
Very similar to a Berliner Weisse but that salt adds just a little kick to the proceedings. I can see myself trying this a few more times during a hot LA summer.
Love the old time feel of the black and white photo on the label of this Spruce infused Gose from Freigeist. Pours a hazy light yellow color. This is one of my favorite styles that I first encountered by accident when I visited Leipzig (briefly) in 2006. It has a light tart note in the aroma along with a slight woodsy tinge to it. Sweet tart is what first comes to my mind because the taste is light lemonade. There is an acidic burst that flames out but is quite nice. The bottle was gone very, very fast. I will have to look for this the next time that I am in Europe so that I can compare a fresher version to the older, bottled type.
One of the great sites on the beer interwebs is CraftCans. From time to time, I check out their site and a few weeks back, I did and ran across two unique beers.
First up is a Gose, the old German style brewed with salt that us wily Americans have grabbed and then re-configured in the way we do. It comes from Westbrook Brewing in South Carolina. The can design utilizes simple design elements and a minimum of colors but is very effective.
Now if I only knew someone in South Carolina.
Like the spooky top hat dude on the label and the hard to read font too on this new to Los Angeles Gose from Brauhaus Hartmannsdorf in Borna, Germany. And it goes excellently with my book on the spies and royal court of Elizabeth the 1st “The Watchers” (even though Spain plays a bigger role here than Germany).
Pours a medium orange color. The aroma is in the ballpark of a Berliner Weisse with some Belgian funk added but the taste is really, really dry. Puckery but not sour. I get a touch of salt but I actually taste more cinnamon for some reason. After that a touch of white wine acidity creeps in. Quite a complex beer.
If you haven’t tried this (thankfully) resurrected style from Leipzig then give this one a shot and get the Bayerischer Bahnhof version and then try to find the Upright Brewing one as well for a trio of Salt & Coriander goodness.
Gose is a little known East German specific style that is one of my favorites. I had it in Leipzig and was hooked. Now there are two brewers in Portland re-creating this forgotten beer. Cascade and now Upright Brewing.
Here are the specs:
Gose – Upright’s first German-style beer. It’s a neat style that dates back nearly 300 years and uses a unique ingredient – salt.
Malts: organic pale, wheat, organic caramel 15
Hops: hallertauer mittelfrüh
Also: coriander, salt
Yeast: French saison
5.2% abv
Lipschmacker Gose – A NW version of a historic German wheat beer that was almost lost to the world. Unlike most beers from Bavaria which are Lagers, or bottom fermented, this beer was historically top fermented. Gose which originated in the small town of Goslar, near Leipzig which at the time was outside Bavaria and did not have to adhere to Reinheitsgebot, the German purity law. This historical wheat beer was made with the addition of coriander, and hint of salt. It then under goes a second lactic fermentation. Similar in style to a Geuze, but with a slight hint of spice. This is a perfect beer for quenching your thirst the heat of summer. It is 4.8% alcohol by vol.