Watermelon Gose
Station 26 Brewing Co.

 

This is a curious beer. Long have I awaited another example of a watermelon gose, ever since my first encounter with the great Briney Melon Gose by Anderson Valley, which you can currently find in the list of "Other Beer Style Examples" to your right. This is still delicious, but not as great.

It appears Station 26 used more ripe red watermelon flesh, as the brew pours with a hazy pinkish orange body and I remember Briney Melon being yellow. The snow white head was short-lived and left no trace when it vanished. Love the can art.

It smells great. Like AV's masterpiece, it has some fresh, green melon rind notes up front, but this one definitely has more sweet red flesh on the nose as well. Tart pinches of quince and lemon are also prominent, along with some fermented fruit funk and there's a pleasant sourdough presence on the finish, as well as a dash of oregano.

Light, tart and clean up front, suggesting this is going to be super refreshing, but the fermented fruit funk is unfortunately a bit more prominent on the palate than the nose, and takes over for a second or two. Fortunately, it relinquishes for a refreshing mineral water finish with hints of that bready sweetness and lactic acid.

Now the thing I'm really not happy with is the mouthfeel. A gose should have a crisp dry finish, and this has a tiny bit too much lingering sweetness. It makes the finish smooth, which is not what we are going for in a light-bodied sour beer.

That said, I'm still happy I found it, and stoked to sip on the other three pints while chillin in the warm spring weather of Colorado. Cheers!