Westbrook: Gose (USA: Traditional – Gose: 4% ABV)
Visual: Hazy lemon juice yellow. Large loose white bubbled head.
Nose: Mixed tropical fruit juice. Fresh. Grape skins. Dried apricot.
Body: Sharp. Lemon juice. Salty. Cider and sharp apples. Dried banana. Carrot. Pineapple. Slight sulfur. White wine.
Finish: Sharp lemon juice. Pineapple. Salted biscuits. Carrots.
Conclusion: You know, after the utterly wonderful De Molen Muhle and Bahnhof Barrel Aged Gose every other gose I have had have been interesting but not really enamoured me with the style. I was wondering if I just don’t get the non barrel aged version of the style. This, thankfully, put me back on track as it is a lovely gose – I have no idea how authentic or not it is, but what matters to me is it is a damn enjoyable beer.
It has a lambic like dry and sharp fruity base, with lots of tropical fruit and some cider apples style. In a way it reminds me of Wild Beer co’s sour beers, mainly in the cider styling. The flavours seem surprisingly consistent for a sour beer as well, with non of the holographic flavor tendencies. A lot of the time it can feel like a very dry alcoholic fruit juice, but one that really enlivens the mouth.
The gose style shows its own twist that comes in with that slight thirst inducing saltiness – not too heavy, but it gives a real urge to drink on and adds to that slight sulfur feel mid body that gives it some weight. For closest comparison it seems like a Wild Beer co Sourdough style base, and then makes it so it drags you into drinking more and more – enhancing rather than quenching your thirst. Each mouthful you take gives the illusion of slaking that thirst before it comes anew.
I am impressed – for me it is far more robust that most goses I have encountered and it means the special elements are not the only elements that stand out. Lambic, cider, salt, fruit juice and white wine all meet and mix to make this a great beer.
Background: Ok, here we gose again. Seriously I should stop doing gose puns. Anyway, the salted wheat beer sour, thing, from Germany – it is getting a nice resurgence from the craft beer movement after damn near dying out. When this turned up on Brewdog’s Guest beer selection I figured it was, again, time to expand my gose experience. Drunk while listening to even more Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Lovely drinking music.
