Gose
Farnham Ale & Lager - Vermont Laboratory

this is a little less than fully polished to me, but a nice gose nevertheless. i like them a little more subtle than this though, both in terms of the lactic acidity and also in terms of the fruit here, its really sour and its really limey, not sure if this is a special fruited edition or if their gose always has limes in it, natural here, but maybe overdosed a little bit. tangy zesty key lime dominates the nose and taste, well in front of anything else for me. acidity is clean and well done, its just a lot, especially for a style i generally want to have a couple of in a given sitting. there is a great freshness to this though, and i like that i can taste some wheat malt in it too, its fuller and bigger feeling than a lot of these are. the salt is pretty minimal in flavor, but there are minerals and body from it for sure. summery but not as light as i would like it to be, nor as well carbonated. it has sort of a cocktail vibe to me. an interesting take on a gose, one of the more unique beers we had in here...

The beer poured a cloudy light yellow color with no head despite my usual robust pour.

The smell opened with sweet pineapple followed quickly by strong lime and brine. Wheat was present, but light.

Holy hammers of hell, Batman. This stuff is aggressively flavored! Tons of lime. The fruity part first then a whallop of sharp, bitter rind. Did I mention pineapple? Of yeah, plenty of pineapple goodness to tame down the aggressive lime. If you can't find the salt in this one, you don't know what salt tastes like. Riding under this party is a mild wheat twang.

The feel...well, it is bracing. It is refreshing while drinking it, but quite drying after the fact. Somehow, it feels rough and maybe a bit too aggressive.

Overall, love the huge flavors this gose delivers. Could probably benefit from backing down the lime just a tad to achieve better balance. If you like a salty, puckery gose give it a shot, but find it fresh. Lime does not are well.

 

Can to pokal, the appearance was a milky dark yellow color with a white foamy to fizzy head that no matter how hard or light I poured there never seemed to be any head to it.
The aroma had some sweet pineapple and key lime up front melding with a fair salty character and then an ever so light sour wheaty behavior.
The flavor was moderately sweet through the pineapple and key lime. However, some noticeable key lime rind-like bitterness does seem to bend over the saltiness which showed an enthusiastic awesomeness. This is where this beer really turns it's course from good to stellar! I really liked the aftertaste with the pineapple pushing the saltiness a bit further back.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied with a fairly good sessionability about it. Carbonation felt fine. ABV felt on par. Finish was semi-salty with the pineapple and a touch of sour-ed wheat.
Overall, as a gose, this definitely does the trick and still maintains Ben's creativity to make this an exceptional unique Summer refresher. Pretty sure, I'll be drinking this all Summer long.