Margarita Monday
Rhinegeist Brewery

 

The silly bird of the dodo seems blissful in its carefree and no fuss lifestyle. And the silly sourness of gose seems to go the same places. With a slumber in tequila barrels and then tied together with lime and salt, the beer's natural tendencies toward margarita flavors gives Rhinegeist's Dodo Gose a new look on life.

Margarita Monday pours with an innocent enough hazy yellow color and capped with a fluffy white sheet. Piercing aromas of citrus, cider, wine and brine strike the nose with a souring force. But its gentle sweetness glosses over the tongue with sourdough, saltwater taffy and a hint of lemonade.

With that wheat malt being short and sweet on the early palate, the middle palate shows a bold shift toward sourness. Leading with those lime additions, the fruitiness extends also into lemon, crabapple, gooseberry, white grape, kiwi and guava; all with a twist of rice wine vinegar. Its bold salinity doesn't only provide roundness to the fruit but it also adds balance to the acidity while amplifying it as well. Low bitterness allows the sourness to shine while bringing out a scant earthiness of burlap and brine.

Light, crisp, clean and highly refreshing, the sour ale certainly takes on the taste, texture and soul of margaritas extremely well. Being decidedly more sour than margarita, the gose seems much more like berlinerweiss because of its intense dryness and acidity. Its light, earthen and wheaten aftertaste is brisk and short while stripping the thirst with ease.