The gose project has certainly been a learning experience. It's a style that very few brew pubs in America tackle, and with a wide amount of interpretation. Mine took on inspiration from a few homebrewers brave enough to brew the style, and from experience of small scale craft brewers. The tasting that follows is from the bottle conditioned Gose, given about 1 month in the bottle up til this point. I've chosen to drink the rest because the Brett has started to work on the remaining sugars and giving the beer a huge amount of carbonation, nearly to the point of exploding the bottles (the remainder sit in the fridge, hopefully stalling any fermentation).
Aroma: A piercing lemon and coriander bouquet burst forth with a sweaty, salty background giving it girth. The brett character is much more forthcoming in the bottled samples than the keg. Overall, it's quite similar to my Berliner as most of the flavor is from the Lacto than the Brett or spice.
Appearance: Just a touch hazy, with a small, quarter inch of head upon pouring that quickly dissipates into a thin white covering. Color is just north of straw, very pale.
Flavor: This beer is certainly delivered in waves of bright, tart lemon notes, earthy coriander, a touch of savory saltiness, and finishing with a distinct bready, cereal like maltiness. The flavor vascilates between a nice champagne and a pale Belgian, with it's high carbonation, bracing acidity and earthy, bready, clean maltiness.
Mouthfeel: This is one of the most highly carbonated beers I've produced, and certainly one that I've had in a long while. In turn, it thins out the body considerably more than the kegged version (review to come in the near future). The prickliness of the carbonation combined with the acidity give it a really light feel on the tongue and a smooth, yet bright finish.
Overall: The only complaint I have of this beer is that I decided to bottle (condition) it way too soon. I never gave the Brett the chance to really dry it out and funk it up. It certainly contains traits of all the things I put into it: wheat, Lacto, coriander, salt, Brett, and I think, very much in balance. It is a thirst quenching, highly carbonated brew that really cuts through the DC heat of the summer. I will definitely have to attempt something like this again, perhaps without the brett, and see how it turns out. Overall, fantastic!
Recipe and notes.
So, as fas as the salt goes, would you up the dose or reduce it? Seems you have two different "salting" rates between keg and bottle, maybe this also contributed to differences with brett fermentation?
ReplyDeleteI think the Brett fermentations were more a factor of temperature since the keg is around 45 degrees since kegging so it slowed/stopped the brett while the bottles were around 75 for a month.
ReplyDeleteI'd leave the salt where it is for both, I think with the higher carbonation and brett character in the bottle it's a touch high, but it's not something I'd mess with.
Dan - we really enjoyed this last week -- didn't explode or anything, though being refrigerated for a day certainly helped. I agree with your tasting notes on flavor and mouthfeel -- 1st impression was a very interesting champagne. Excellent warm-weather drinkability. Wish we had more on hand (in Indiana) !
ReplyDelete