Lavendula
Bent Hill Brewery

 

 

Had the whole four pack before decided to say something here.
Poured into a stange twice, a pokal once and a Pilsener glass, there weren't any noticeable differences between the experiments.
The appearance was a pale yellow to paper white color with a two finger white foamy head that slid off nicely. Some messy lace wound around the glass.
The aroma settles on all of the normal qualities of an authentic Southern German gose - the sour-ed wheat is there pushing and pulling against a well rounded saltiness, nice and level and warranted well. Then the floral sweet lavendar character slides in just enough to tell me about the American ingenuity to create this beer.
The flavor partially yields to an initial blend of sweet wheat, lemon, lavendar, saltiness, biscuit/cake and white bread. Superb aftertaste of sour-ed wheat, salt, tart to sweet lemon and white bread.
The mouthfeel felt like a spectacular gose taking the normal salty slinging quaint-ness of a sly grip pushing any sort of harshness away from anything that could be sour. I'd say this was about light bodied with an absolutely stellar sessionability about it - I feel like I could pound a case of this in a day. Carbonation felt a tad lighter but didn't seem to effect anything in the overall "feel" of it all. ABV felt as projected. Semi-salty to wheaty and a touch of lavandar floral semi-dry finish.
Overall, it's as if the brewer dipped his own brewing tanks into the Rhine River in southern Germany and brought back the right water to fulfill his desire to re-create a true German gose and just added a touch of lavender to make it his own. To me, not only is this Bent Hill's best beer to date, but it's exceptionally close to style.

Moderate pour yields a 1/2 inch white head over a slightly hazy golden body with scant lacing. All lavender on the nose with taste of lavender and subdued Gose characteristics. Very nice feel and overall, a nice refreshing beer, but to the German purists, this Gose might be considered an abomination. I like it for the mouthfeel and it is refreshing as all get out. Cheers!