The Known Universe
Finback Brewery - Glendale

 

 

This is the beer you want to be drinking with seafood or at a lowcountry boil. Solid citrus to start with a nice chili finish. The tartness meets you in the middle. I want this with fish tacos, catfish, scallops. All day long.

Appearance: Pours a bubbly orange hue with a cream colored one finger head.

Aroma: It smells exactly like orange soda. There's a subtle sour, cheesy funk coming off it too. Smells very good for a gose.

I'm always impressed with how creative of a brewery Finback is . It seems each and every offering of theirs I try achieves new dimensions, aspects and levels of flavor in ways I would have never before thought attainable in brewing beer.

The Known Universe is an enigma of a beer. I have never in my life tasted so many different things going on in a beer at once. It's sweet, it's sour, it's salty, it's spicy, it's savory. But it's so much more than just an amalgam of different flavors sloppily and hastily thrown together in a can and packaged as """"beer"""". All of the flavors work so well with one another and are so masterfully blended together and intertwined - it's nothing short of an absolute delight and shock to your senses,

Taste: Upfront I'm getting that classic vinegary, pleasantly sour gose taste. Notes of salt with tangy fresh squeezed orange, lime and lemon juice follow. An understated, gentle, yet savory and decadent caramel malt flavor rounds things out midpalate with notes of honey and toffee just when things start to get overtly tart - and finally a very strong spicy presence from the heat of the chili peppers creeps up on you on the finish in a final crescendo of coalescing warmth and spice.

Feel: Light,slightly effervescent. Soft body, medium carbonation.

Overall: I'm starting to fall in love with this brewery, but I'm already in love with this beer! Definitely one of the most unique, surprising and astonishing interpretations of the style I have ever had.

 

 

 

Thanks Mr. Kevin

Clear orange with a large head that can't stand the evening humidity. Smells like lime and malty sweetness. Flavor starts with sweet orange and lime citrus then the salt transitions and carries the back end heat. Not too much heat and not too little either.

I don't like chili beers, I don't like gone. I love this though.

A- a sublime pale gold.

S- sharp citrus, sea salt and chilli peppers

T- perfectly balanced, tart citrus fruits up front, then a little salty in the middle, definite and perfectly balanced spice from the chilli peppers on the back end.

F- crisp and refreshing, great mouthfeel.

O- for a Gose, this is by far the tastiest and well made i have had so far.absolutely superb. What a great brewery Finback have turned out to be.

The beer comes a deep gold to pale amber.

The aroma offers intense juicy blood orange, salt, a hint of tart and pepper flavor.

The flavor follows with that blood orange juiciness with a reasonable handed salt covering the orange slice. Mostly the flavor of blood orange, reminders of sweetness without it actually being there. Tart qualities are medium minus. However, at the mid palate, the heat hits! It smacks of jalapeno and cayenne being throw into a beer. It lingers on as fruit flavor and salt balances that slightly, but the heat really offers a lingering burn at the back of throat.

 

 

L: Pours a gorgeous washed out ruby, with a nice white head.

S: not much on the nose -- a little caramel malts, a little lemon, a little bit of pepper. Stayed pretty staid (heh) even as the beer warmed up.

T: a riot of diverse flavors coming together. Salt of the gose comes through clearly, but it is backed by a sweet malt presence that i've never experienced in a gose before -- and it really makes the drink sseveral layers more complex. The heat starts by assaulting the palate as the drink is cold -- but as the beer warmed I found the heat much more present in the background (but maybe that was my tongue adjusting). Lemon and grassy notes in evidence as well, with the coriander floating around somewhere.

F: full bodied and smooth drinking. Lots of heat but none of it from alcohol ;-)

O: this Gose has character -- a must try if you get the chance.

 

 

Try this again when you aren't stuffed up.

 

This is the first beer I've tried from Finback and it's incredible. The flavors stand out on their own, yet blend well together. I have a low tolerance for heat and was worried about the spiciness, but it's not too bad. I preferred to drink it colder to keep the heat level low. The spice definitely builds as the beer warms and you drink more of it. Overall, it's cool to see a new take on a gose and this one was well executed!