whosisbrew: (Thank You! Great Review of a Harvest favorite!)
#106: Leipziger Gose – Gasthaus & Gosebrauerei Bayerischer Bahnhof, Leipzig, Germany
Today we’ll take a look at our first Gose. I thoroughly enjoy saying that word for some reason. The word “Gose” comes from the town of Goslar in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was likely first brewed in the 1700s, and it quickly rose to wild popularity in the city of Leipzig, inspiring many other local brewers to adopt the style. It was originally brewed with spontaneous fermentation, likely with help from wild yeast or bacteria, but that would later change as brewers began using top-fermenting yeast and lactic acid. After enjoying great success for quite some time, the style was on the verge of extinction by World War II, and by the mid 1960s there were no German breweries making gose. Then in the 1980s, a man named Lothar Goldhahn aimed to bring the style back, and partnered with a brewery in East Berlin to recreate gose. Today, three German breweries are making gose: Bayerischer Bahnhof, Familienbrauerei Ernst Bauer and Brauhaus Goslar. Luckily, Bayerisch Bahnhof exports to the United States, so we can get our hands on this rare style. Stylistically, gose is quite an interesting beer. It’s brewed with at least 50% malted wheat (often rising to 60%), with the remaining 40/50% of the grain bill being made up of malted barley. Salt and coriander are also added, which adds some spice and interesting characteristics to the mouthfeel. Generally it’s a pale, cloudy beer, with some interesting tart flavors and saltiness.
Today’s brewery, Bayerischer Bahnhof, does not have an English version of its web page. Thus, I can’t provide an accurate brewery history today. I say “accurate” because I know a fair amount of German, and I was actually able to decipher most of the web site’s text and get the gist of what they were saying, but I’m too afraid of making even one inaccurate translation and giving you information that is false. I can at least tell you that “Bayerischer Bahnhof” means “Bavarian Train Station” in English. So, there’s that.
The beer poured with a large, fluffy white head, which maintained a pillow-like stature atop the beer and lefty plenty of webby lacing in its path. I can’t emphasize the fluffiness enough. I wanted to go to sleep on it. The color was a cloudy, largely obstructed shade of golden yellow, which was absolutely radiant in the light as the base and sides of the glass glistened. Steady, slow carbonation could be seen gradually making its way to the top. The aroma was extremely interesting. I immediately notice an abundance of earthy scents, likely a result of the malted wheat, which might be giving the beer a hay-like impression. The remainder of the aroma is a blend of malt sweetness and spices. Salt and pepper are both evident.
The taste expands the range of flavor, yet maintains excellent balance. Citrus flavors are the most prominent at first, as juicy orange slices and perhaps lemon peel provide an initial assault of sweet, juicy, and tangy flavors. After that initial hit subsides, the malted flavors take over, as a soft bed of earthy wheat flavors provide the proper base for the beer’s sweeter components. The malt flavors aid in binding the beer’s flavors appropriately, as an array of spices present themselves on the backend and finish. The beer’s label explains that the level of salt used in the beer is calculated to be just below the point at which a person can taste it. While I can’t actually taste any salt, its presence in the beer is definitely noticeable. There is a tingling bite to both the mouthfeel and the finish, which I would assume the salt is responsible for. Black pepper and coriander provide a pleasant bite of spices on the way down as well.
This is a wonderfully crisp, interestingly flavored, yet very refreshing beer. As this is my first gose, it’s easy to understand why the revival of this beer style has been fought for. It seems to draw from other wheat ale styles I’ve come across, such as witbier. But gose offers something more as far as the spices are concerned, creating a very unique style of beer. Also, the wheat really acts as this beer’s driving force, providing a delicate softness while still maintaining a crisp character. It might be hard to track down, but if you can do so, welcome this beer to your pint glass and smiles will ensue.
Score: 9.0/10.0
