Salty Kiss
Magic Rock Brewing

Rerate, 330 ml can, Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 4.1%. Pale yellow colour, moderate white head. Moderate aroma of sea water, lactic acid and crushed gooseberries. Flavour of crushed gooseberries, sea buckthorn and lemons, medium sour and quite refreshing, moderate salt. I’m upping it a point or two. Original rating: Sample on tap at What’s Brewing BF, Stavanger. Notes of lemons, sea water, sea buckthorn (crushed berries) and gooseberries. Thin mouthfeel. Can’t say the berries improved a classic gose.

 

look: three finger white head with good retention and lots of lacing, beer is a hazy straw to amber colour, good bit of fast moving carbonation in the beer.

smell: smells good, definitely gooseberry present, has a vinous quality to it, champagne, lemon and orange, green apple, fruity anyway, also a nice tart sour character to it, lightly salty, inviting.

taste: this is delicious, quite biscuity and bready on the opening, then all those fruit flavours come rushing in, lots of gooseberry, lot of green apple, light on the orange and lemon, lots of champagne flavour, nice level of sourness on the finish, only very mild saltyness, yeah this is great.

feel: light bodied, medium carbonation, super smooth, totally crushable, very refreshing, would love to session this on a hot summer’s day.

overall: i seem to think more fondly of this beer than most, but i’m loving this beer, super tasty and interesting, while still being refreshing and light, good stuff.

 

 

330ml can.
L: Opaque, orange colour with a two-finger, thick & bubbly head and lots of lacing.
S: Light, yeasty, lemon pith.
T: Tart & fresh tasting. Very salty (which I like) to complement the clean, zippy gooseberry.
F: Dry & sour, but not mouth-puckering. Medium/light body with light carbonation.
O: A tasty, refreshing, highly drinkable gose. Sourness is pitched on the lighter side. Would be great in the summer.

 

 

 

 

 

Not bad, not good. Pretty boring unless you're on the beach or the high seas. Had at Hopcat as sample.

Had again at World of Beers in Canton for World of Sour Event 7/31/19. Like being on the high seas - better than Seaquench but not great.

 

i thought this was great, i didnt even really know it was fruited right away, the tang and tartness of the fruit plays so well with the lacto sourness, its so well integrated, really nice. what i like about this more than the unique and well used fruit though, is the yeast character, this has an almost english breadiness to it, definitely not flavorless on the fermentation side, and with some slight oxidation too, its so classically english while also being so decidedly unique, thats what i will remember about this out. acidity is pretty high, but there is enough grain body and flavor for this to have some balance to it. further complicating things is all this salt, this is briny like ocean water, full of minerals that influence not just the taste but the texture as well, beefing it up, highlighting the sourness, and accenting the fruit nicely as well. a pretty bold recipe, especially for its really modest abv. i kind of like that it tastes a little stale, but its probably even better closer to the source. a very clever gose, unique, it really stands out from the increasingly large crowd of these. well done!

Pours a deep gold/pale amber coloration with a medium, foamy head. Light aromas of tart gooseberry, buckthorn, doughy malt and sea salt, but pretty understated. Taste is similarily understated, but with a decent balance of tart fruits, citric acidity, doughy malt and sea salt. The buckthorn is almost more noticeable than the eponymous gooseberry, but both are equally faint, with the tartness and saltiness being more at the forefront. Finishes quite dry, with a crisp tartness. Medium body with lively carbonation.

Balance is all right, but a bit too heavy on the tartness/saltiness, with the fruity notes not really shining through enough. Still quite crisp and refreshing.

 

A 330ml can with a BB of June 2018. Purchased a while back from Booths. The label calls it a gooseberry gose and the ingredients include gooseberry, sea buckthorn and salt.

A: Poured into a tulip. Can-conditioned. A bright, hazy golden-amber hue with light carbonation and plenty of floating sediment. Produces a large head of creamy white foam that lasts for a moment or so before collapsing and dissipating.

S: Aroma of sharp, tangy gooseberry with subtle hints of wheat, earthiness, mild brine and faint buckthorn. Pleasing but very understated.

T: Tastes of sour gooseberry with notes of lactic acid, earthiness, mild wheat, subtle malt, a hint of buckthorn and faint salt. Virtually no bitterness to speak of; very sharp and refreshing with a clean finish.

M: Mouthfeel is smooth, tingly and dry with spritzy carbonation and good body. Quite astringent; dries the palate. Aftertaste of lactic acid sourness, gooseberry, earthiness and faint malt.

O: A delicate masterpiece - subtle and beautifully balanced. Sour but not overly so. Looks OK; shame about the head retention. Aroma and flavour are sour, fruity and crisp. Nice body, light and refreshing. Goes down a treat - would be perfect on a hot day. Well worth sampling.

 

 

Hazy golden color with a thin head with medium retention and quite apparent carbonation.
Aroma with notes of salt, red berries, lemon and a bit of coriander.
Flavor with notes of lemon, sea salt, some coriander, a bit of acid lactic and drops of green pear juice. Dry aftertaste with a restrained sour acidity.
Light to medium body with effervescent carbonation.
Refreshing and faithful to style Gose. The gooseberry is quite mild and does not take over relatively subtle flavors of a Gose.

 

On tap at Mule Bar, Winooski, VT. They poured this into a tulip. The appearance was a hazy burnt yellow to orange color with a quickly dissipating white foamy head (bar pour). Speckled light clingy lacing. The aroma starts off with a some sweet fresh tropical fruit. Subtle dry grassiness. Subtle tart to sour citrus rind. The flavor follows through in the sour to tart fruitiness. Dry tart refreshing sort of berry aftertaste. Quick dry finish. On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a nice sessionability about it. Carbonation rides fairly light. Overall, gose, hmmm, but no saltiness anywhere, hmmm...yeah, unsure if I’d have again.

330ml Can from Good Spirits Co. Wine & Beer, Glasgow (£2.20):
Definitely an unusual one from Magic Rock & not the usual type of beer I'd go for, I pretty much picked this one up to check a gose style beer off my list but the beer wasn't all bad in the end. Opening with a lot of salty flavours & a huge amount to sourness too, there was lemon & some citrus in the early going with a tart & almost acidic backing but it wasn't exactly a lambic style taste. It was a difficult one to drink at times, mainly due to the sourness & how dry it was but it was probably still worth trying if only for the novelty of it & that it was something different.

 

Poured to a tulip glass.

A: The body is yellow and hazy. The head is white and minimal, showing no lacing at all.
S: The aroma is fruity of berries and some tartness, having a slight funky touch.
T: The taste begins with a salty touch, having a very minimal berry profile going all along into the tartness that's not too prominent, creating a good environment for small funky touches.
M: Body is medium. Carbonation is low. Bitterness and sweetness is low.
O: Nice Gose, very drinkable.

 

Sounds like a ride at an inappropriately-themed amusement park: “Magic Rock Salty Kiss Gooseberry Gose”... well that is one ride I would be avoiding at all costs. So back to Magic Rock, their High Wire Grapefruit Pale Ale wasn’t quite up to the standard of Elvis Juice, however this brew is a Gose, and I haven’t had a good Gose in like forever brah. Gooseberry also feels like a natural addition to the Gose style given their tartness of flavour. Thus far my Gose drinking experience has been akin to drinking numerous glasses of that delightful lemon-flavoured antacid beverage known as Eno (not to be associated in any way with Brian Eno, I understand he tried it once for a bellyache but that was it) hopefully Salty Kiss will be different.

Poured from a 330ml can into a Duvel tulip.

A: Positively murky AF Goldenrod body with a white sea-foam head that settles around half a centimetre - I’m liking this so far... love the yeast haze on this brew: it’s like pea soup on a cloudy day in a Turkish bath. 8/10.

S: Funky yeast character mingles with a fruity white wine note and floral accents - it is a pleasing aroma indeed. There’s a freshness in the fruit notes that carries throughout the nose, really moreish, and floral. I need more adjectives... it’s Gooseberry-ish. Yeah, I’m going to go with that. 8/10.

T: First off - doesn’t taste like Eno (hooray!). Salt upfront mingles with fruity/white wine/floral characters, then as quickly as these flavours arrive tart Gooseberry cuts in an slakes the palate like some sort of palate slaker... (it is too a thing!). This is probably the most refreshing Gose I’ve had yet - admittedly I haven’t had many Goses. Complaints? It’s a bit thin in flavour - at 4.1% this is to be expected. Still this is a reasonably moreish Gose - the fresh tartness of the Gooseberry really works well. 7/10.

M: Mid to light bodied with a thin but dense carbonation - kinda glad this isn’t too fizzy, don’t think it would work with the flavour profile if it was. 7/10.

D: Still getting used to Goses as a whole - such an odd flavour combination in a beer, salty/sour is more something you would find in a glass of Ayran (a Turkish salted yoghurt beverage) than in a beer... I haven’t fallen head over heels in love with it like some others, however I also haven’t been deterred like I have with the black-hole-face-puckering sour beers out there... or Macro Lagers in general [as if we don’t know that already!]. This is one I will come back to again. 8/10.

Food match: Grilled Kingfish with a garden salad and a slightly spicy sauce.

Pours cloudy copper, small head. Looks so-so

Sweet and sour sweets, slightly cabbagy smell. Is that a word? It is now.

Tart-ish grapefruity, mineral salty middle (not too salty though thankfully). Not much else to it. Gooseberry? Very much in the background. No bitterness, juicy finish, slightly dry, pretty decent body and smooth mouthfeel. Mouthfeel easily the best thing about this beer.


It's really rather underwhelming overall.

 

 

Canned
Pours a golden body with decent enough foaming white head
Aroma of salt water, fizz bombs & citrus
I get hops then saltiness and tartness
Interesting brew

 

 

Hazy golden color with just a bit of foam that fizzes away in a second. Aroma is acidic, fruity with some tea like notes or maybe old hops. Taste also has the herbal note at first, continues tart and fruity and finishes slightly astringent with tart fruit flavor. Light, effervescent body, doesn't feel acidic at all. A really refreshing, tart and fruity gose. Easy drinking, with just a hint of salt on the finish.

 

Very salty and fruity gose. Acidic but not very tart nor sour. A bit refreshing. Not bad but far to be the best gose I've ever had. The mouthfeel is good though

 

 

 

A: Light berry, moderate coriander, mildly tart, grainy, with a slight saltiness.

A: Bright golden color, hazy with a small tight white head that has solid retention. There is some lacing left in the glass.

T: Light berry flavor that quickly gives way to a mild lingering tartness and slight saltiness.

M: Light bodied with moderate carbonation with slight perceptible saltiness.

O: Alright; the gooseberry and sea buckthorn is pretty mild. Moreover, as a general observation, not sure I've ever had a beer that has lots of gooseberry aroma and flavor and not sure why. The beer is a bit grainy and uneven in the aroma and flavor. Easy to drink, but could be better with a more expressive tartness.