Coolship Urgose 1375
Freigeist Bierkultur

Pours a cloudy, dark amber coloration with a medium, fizzy head. Smells of doughy wheat malt, fruity yeast esters and oak, with just a hint of funk, cinnamon and pine coming through as well. Taste is an excellent balance of sweet'ish, doughy wheat malt, distinct fruity esters of green apple and gooseberry, with lighter blue cheese funk, resinous pine needle and earthy oak notes, as well as just a hint of spices. Finishes with a medium tartness and some funk and yeast esters lingering in the aftertaste. Full mouthfeel with a medium bodyand carbonation.

A rather rich and complex Gose that almost drifts off into Lambic territory, with a distinct, funky brett character from the coolship fermentation and aging in wooden barrels for two years. There's a great balance of light malt, fruity yeast esters, funky character and subtle wood and tartness at play here, with the pine needles and perhaps wormwood adding a rather welcome herbal, resinous dimension to this while the spices remain firmly in the background. Perhaps not the most typical, but a rather enjoyable, old-fashioned and rather complex example of the style.

Had on tap. So with the 1940's yeast, this beer is older than me, or at least one major component, pretty cool. I'll just say up front this was a weird beer. From the burnt orange body to the flowery and woody feel, gose is not the style I would have ever guessed if blind tasted. The gose yeast and slight pucker is there... somewhere in the finish. Otherwise the coolship treatment has provided a ton of wood, citrus zest, a lightheartedness to the sour and acid. The cinnamon hits hard in the smell but very faintly in the near finish in the taste.