Wild Beer Co: Smoke ‘n’ Barrels: Summer (England: Gose: 4% ABV)
Visual: Light clear lemon juice. Small mound of bubbles for a head.
Nose: Lightly tart. Peaty smoked bacon. Light brine. Black olives. Tart lemon juice. Salt. White bread. Meringue.
Body: Fresh. Pocari sweat. Pineapple. Mineral water. Light squeezed orange. Mild salami. Lightly acidic.
Finish: Brown bread. Smoked ham. Lemon juice. Squeezed orange. Dried seaweed wraps.
Conclusion: Another gose, I seem to be almost tripping over them these days. This continues the trend of each gose I encounter being very odd in a completely different and distinct way from the last one.
It is quite light texture wise, and this the acidity and citrus flavours brought to it are similarly mellow. That is a touch disappointing as the smooth aroma was promising a bigger, smoked bacon style beer. Being promised bacon and then having it snatched a way is a mean trick indeed.
In fact the smoke doesn’t seem to have made a huge impact on this. What you do get of it is more an edge note that saves itself for a slightly bigger showing in the finish. Now the smoke isn’t absent, but it isn’t heavy and the aroma promised more. However because of that it lacks the instant hook that the excellent spring version of this had. Instead, and oddly for an orange gose, you mainly get a salted lemon juice flavor with the smoke just adding a gritty feel at the edge.
It is ok, kind of fresh, and shows the gose character without being heavily defined by it – but it doesn’t really hang its various elements together well enough to become more than, or make full use of, the sum of its parts.
A fresh gose then, light of texture, with only a bit of smoke weight.
So, erm, ok.
Background: The second Smoke and Barrels of the year. As I was very impressed with the Spring one, I thought grabbing the next take was a no brainer. This one is going a tad more unusual, with the base being the suddenly popular gose style, made with smoked malts, sea salt, and smoked orange, after time spent aging in the wooded ex beer barrels. Drunk while listening to Dope: Life for a bit of energy to the night. This was grabbed from the ever reliable local – Independent Spirit.
