Geisterzug Gose
Freigeist Bierkultur

I like the Freigeist Bierkultur ghost logo on the neck of the bottle. There is no date on the bottle. The pour is a murky golden yellow color. The taste is tart, salt, baked biscuits, slight spruce & slight honey near the finish. All in all, this beer was not as bad as I expected considering how old my bottle is. Cheers! B

 

 

 

 

 

16.9 oz bottle from Pilgrim's. Aroma is wheat, lacto, lemony, oxidation. Pours lightly hazy golden with a one finger white head that falls into a big bubbly ring somewhat quick. Taste is very lightly tart. Not getting any salt or spruce. A little oxidized. A little underwhelming and obviously past its prime. 5,3,5,3,11

 

 

 

Golden color with a thick four fingers head with good retention.
Mild salty aroma with notes of coriander, lemony and lacto sourness, pine and bread.
Distinct flavor with notes of coriander, a bit of sea, lots of pomegranate, pear, soap, wheat, plums and dough. Maybe the spruce was overdone. Dry aftertaste and a low bitterness and finishing just a bit acid.
Light body with slightly effervescent carbonation.
Easy to drink Gose; more elegant than intense. I would tune down the spruce, but this might have been their proposal to differentiate from the crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

L: Pours a mostly clear medium yellow-gold with a minimal head.

S: Spruce and juniper notes, with a mild sweatiness and some German Kölsch ale notes.

T: Very mild spruce and juniper, with understated tartness and a mild salinity. Quite dry, with some mild cracker-like malt, light wheat and slight citrusy acidity. Dry, but slightly off-putting spruce-like finish.

F: Light bodied with very moderate carbonation. Seems appropriately thin, but inappropriately undercabonated.

Thoughts: Highly drinkable and light, but ultimately lacking in character and the spruce quality happens to be a bit off-putting. The base recipe for this actually has the makings of a nice dry kölsch-gose hybrid, but in its current iteration with the spruce it simply doesn’t come together as well as one would like. I wouldn’t steer someone away from this beer, but I wouldn’t really recommend it either.

 

Geisterzug ("Ghost Train") looks ugly but it must be good for your health: brewed with Lactobacillus (an essential, helpful digestive bacteria) and spruce (loaded with vitamin C and other nutrients), it also packs a ton of fiber and protein as evidenced by the deep, hazy complexion and dense marbling of sediment.

You'd expect eyebrow raising from a spruce-flavoured Gose, but this aroma really fails to excite. It's also fair to assume a great deal of distinctive, unusual flavour but this lives up to expectations about as much as 'Speed 2: Cruise Control'. The nose reveals a little more with warmth but still...

Fortunately the taste is about as exciting and action-packed as the Keeanu Reeves and Denis Hopper original. Pop quiz hot shot: what do you get when you combine a spritzy, saline mouthfeel with a pinch of zestful coriander spice, a high portion of malted wheat, and cooling, minty, evergreen spruce notes?

Answer: a kick-ass flavour. This Gose is disappointing in some regards, but taste is not one of them. That being said, most consumers will likely expect something a lot more tart and funky; this isn't convincingly either of those things, relatively speaking. It would have to be to earn a higher rating.

Freigeist is a phenomenal brewery but, it must be said, Geisterzug is not their strongest offering. For such a distinctive style and intentionally off-kilter recipe, it's actually a pretty humdrum beer. Nevertheless, be it known that this brewery doesn't only uphold German brewing traditions, they enhance and normally excel at them.