(Another guest post by Bucky Knaebel, who will soon be writing more for louisvillebeer.com!)
The first time I tried a Gose style beer, it instantly rang up a childhood memory of me watching my Father take a salt shaker and dash some salt in his freshly poured beer. I always assumed the salt would make his Old Milwaukee taste better, but wasn’t sure as the guy literally poured salt on everything. Along with hypertension my Dad also has shitty taste in beer. I think he would like a Gose. It’s not that Gose is shitty, it’s salty.
Gose (pronounced “goes-uh” for you snooty types) is a sour/salty beer that is typically flavored with coriander. It is mostly associated with the German town of Leipzig and is named after the Gose River that flows thru Goslar where the beer was created. Originally, Gose didn’t pass Reinheitsgebot (German Beer Purity Law) but has since been accepted as a regional specialty. You would think after WWII, the Germans would have abandoned all purity laws… Anyways, due to WWII and lack of demand, the brewing of Gose ceased in the mid-60’s and it wasn’t until the mid-80’s that it started popping back up in German bars. Now you can easily find Gose in craft breweries across America.
There’s a Swedish chef (not that one) named Magnus Nilsson that makes a tea from the tree leaves that have been rotting under an ice shelf for a year. I think Evil Twin/Two Roads breweries must be fans as they make a Gose using Icelandic moss, rye, herbs, sea kelp, skyr, and birch smoked sea salt. It’s an incredibly interesting brew and probably my favorite Gose that I’ve had thus far. It’s called Geyser Gose and is available locally.
Should you want to jump on the Gose Train, here are some local breweries kicking out their version:
- Against The Grain: There Gose The Neighborhood
- Country Boy: Ghost Gose
- Akasha: Gose II
Prost!
