Wiper and True: IMBC: Gose (England:Traditional – Gose: 3.3% ABV)
Visual: Pale lemon juice. Huge tight bubble white froth for head, which leaves a lot of sud trails as the beer is drunk. Quite a lot of small bubbled carbonation to the body.
Nose: Sour cream. Lemon curd. Tiny sulfur. Coriander. Sour dough. Hard boiled eggs. Palma violets.
Body: Gentle mouth feel. Light lemon. Prickly feel. Salt and pepper. Soft white bread. Noble hop feel and bitterness.
Finish: Sour dough and wholemeal bread. Fresh. Some sulfur and boiled eggs. Pepper. Light salt. Light wheaty character. Hop oils
Conclusion: My third gose review! Compared to the last one this is a somewhat simpler beast to get a handle on. It this was a “normal” beer then it would be a gentle, slight lemony, summer beer, low abv, easy to drink, and easy going.
It isn’t a quote unquote normal beer. It is the eternal enigma of the gose, so…
What we have here is a beer with a cloyed sour bread aroma to it, slight sulphur, or egg imagery to it. It feels and smells like reigned in cousin of a whisky mash tun. Though of course, this is a much more enjoyable drink, and doesn’t knock you out if you breath in too hard. I assume. I will admit I didn’t test that last one for health and safety reasons.
It also has that salt character I am coming to link with gose, not heavily in flavour, but the fact that it is rapidly thirst inducing. It all makes for something quite odd – the flavor says easy and just mildly tart, but easy time you dip your head to the glass you are engulfed by big bready sour aroma that utterly encloses the environment you drink in.
It is a charming conceit, despite how unusual it sounds, it feels a bit like a working meal pint. Something to go with a ploughman’s sandwich, or other savoury foods, in the middle of the day. Despite being amused by it, I can’t see it slipping into a standard beer session, or having just as an easy going beer. It does feel like a good complement for food, but it doesn’t quite grab me as a beer by itself.
Again, I describe more that critique – this is not a favorite beer, but of the two “More traditional” gose I have had this is more open and easier to get a hold on. Possibly due to being the less traditional of the two. An experience, and a pint with a purpose, but not one I would have for general consumption.
Background: Continuing experimentation with the Gose style to try and get a handle on this rare style. Apparently this is the less authentic of the two I picked up – though I don’t have the experience on this style to comment. Anyway, drunk, with the now very common background of the Guilty Gear XX music. Picked up from Independent Spirit.