Bärentöter
Ritterguts Gose

A gorgeous creation.
Waited 25 years to try this one and it doesn't disappoint.

 

My first thought is "a bock gone bad," which is a bit unfair since the brewer seems to want it this way. The color is an pleasant orange dark amber with plenty of foam in the Timmermans goblet. While the stuff is quite repellent at first mouthful, it gets a little better as you sip. The salt and spices add to the weirdness. It's slightly sweet and slightly sour, a combination that only Rodenbach seems to have mastered. Flavors of strange fruit, then some cinnamon lingering. It's not bitter but the aftertaste has some bark and barrel. I can't say this is a pleasure, but anyone who enjoys trying truly weird brews will want it.

500 ml bottle, from the Norwegian importer. ABV is 6.6%. Deep amber colour, moderate off-white head. Nice aroma of spices and malts, hints of brown bread, dark fruits and sea water. Medium sour flavour, notes of lactic acid, lemons, citrus peel, plums, spices and salt.

gose bock? thats new to me i think, and from a beloved brand like ritterguts this was a no brainer. one of the weirder beers ive had so far this year, but affordably priced, enjoyably challenging, and entirely different than anything i can recall ever having before. airy headed at first but fast fading, a lightly shiny tarnished penny color, some viscosity to it, some bubbles on the edges of the glass but not overly active, and a deep malty looking tone. the nose is puckery, familiarly mineral forward from the salt like in their other brews, maybe a little more sour really, highly lactic with some lemon and a little cheesy thing to it, sweeter with the heavier grain to me, longer boiled and concentrated as well, cognac and raisin in the mix, and then the spices sort of give it a mulled complexion, cider-esque to me with the cinnamon, herbal and well integrated, but strange with the acid and the salt on top of the richness. the flavor is the same, spices subtle enough but present all the way through from start to finish, more coriander here, a clove thing, fully autumnal with all this german grain. at first i thought this might be a blend of a marzen lager or bock type into their original gose, but i do not believe that is the case. a hint of smoke as it warms, more red apple and earthiness, seems super old and kind of peculiar, but i dig it, even if the whole bottle is a little more than i want to take on by myself. fall weather would suit this well!

 

 

 

L:
-pours a cloudy copper with a small, quickly dissipating,foamy,grey-ish head
-medium to high carbonation visible
S:
-leaf-y,cherries,plums,raisins,strawberries
T:
-Follows the nose + sweet,sour,salty,red wine,bready
-Finishes dry
F:
-low to medium carbonation
-medium body
-slight alcohol noticable
O:
A pretty nice Gose Bock

No bottling date

Pours a darker ruddy orange-amber body topped with a creamy few fingers of tan head; good retention fades steadily to a fluffy collar, paper-thin cap, and minimal-no lacing.

Aroma brings a healthy medley of orange peel, raisin, fig, dried caramel, green apple, and concord grape intertwining throughout; a touch of salinity brings a savory quality to a bouquet dominant in dark fruits.

Taste welcomes a soft, borderline muted oaky acidity before a familiar dosage of dark fruits (fig, raisin, cherry skins) comes into play; bits of caramel, green apple, and earthy spice coming through on the mid-palate, with a light cocoa dusting lingering into the finish.

Mouthfeel presents a medium-light body while a minimal spritzy carbonation remains steady along the palate; minor, evenly-distributed acidity fades toward the back end, leaving a bone-dry texture toward the close, almost to the point of flattening.

A gose-bock hybrid; an attempt at ingenuity I can get behind. The aroma is pleasing, definitely leaning overall in style toward a bock, while the rest of the beer just doesn't come together as I might have hoped. Muddled, inconsistent, and hardly defined; the end product is just ok, with plenty of room to refine and improve.

Unusual brew. I love the ritterguts original gose; it's easily my favorite gose and I'll fight the bayerischer banhoff fans to the death. Naturally, I was very curious to try the "bock" version. Little boozier, little darker, sounds great!

Sadly, this beer doesn't do it for me. Poured from a 500ml undated bottle on 10/24/19 into a 10oz nonic glass. Color is a reddish murky caramel. Aroma of tootsie roll pops. Yes, a grape tootsie roll pop. Suddenly I was a child again, with a mouth full of post-grape tootsie roll pop saliva. It would be that association that ruined the beer for me. The taste followed the aroma; the same Ritterguts gose structure with its wonderful sweetness to elevate the salt, spices, and acidity. In the Barentoter version, though, the sweetness takes over and becomes an artificial candy kind of flavor that overwhelms the experience for me. It's decidedly a winter brew, and the warm snap we're currently experiencing in my area doesn't help my estimation of the merits of this beer, but even in the proper climatic context I'm not sure I could shake that weird artificial grape candy association. I love the savory herbaceous quality of the ritterguts original; this is an unwelcome departure.

A very lovely pink/orange-burnt orange color & a much bigger head than expected based on other reviews. Very pretty aroma, cinnamon, caramel & malt. Moderately salty, slightly less tartness with a hint of bitter. Flavors if salted apple, lime, caramel, malted grain & a little smokeyness (or smockyness for you Where’s the cinnamon? No alcohol detected. Feel is medium thin. I’m a little disappointed in the flavor but still very enjoyable.

Dark golden, quickly vanishing finegrained foam.

Aroma of salt-enhanced lime, a bit of fruitiness, just a little sweetness. Quite unique for a beer, really, even for a gose (usually the blend of aromas is much less subtle and does not impose itself as forcefully from the first whiff), although if you have ever drunk cheap tequila with lime and salt, the association is inescapable. The alcohol is completely missing, though. Even though this is strong for the style and above the taste threshold for alcohol (6.6%).

Taste fills the palate with even more lime, although it is wrapped in a smooth tartness that moves via a round saltiness to a minimal spiciness. Label claims coriander (as per gose style) and more exotic cinnamon. Also orange peel, I guess inspired by witbier. Cinnamon I just cannot detect at all, the others maybe. Of course it means the spicing has been successful and subtle. There are citrus notes, a bit of bitterness and a whiff of exotic aroma.

Feel is perfectly balanced.

Overall, a delightfully appetizing modern stronger version of a revived style with a bit of twist in spicing that is not obvious.

 

Brauerei Reichenbrand GmbH & Co. KG "Bärentöter - German Sour Gose Bock"
1Pint .9 fl oz brown glass bottle without production codes or freshness dating
$6.99 @ DeDicco & Sons, Brewster, NY

Look: A rough pour brings up a thick head of creamy off-white foam atop a very hazy copper colored body. Being a sour beer the head will steadily fade to nothing and no lacing will be left behind but it will put up a fight.

Smell: Malty, caramelish, and delicately spicy. Fruity like a tart red apple. Slightly smoky like burnt plastic - that seems to have been a passing note though, perhaps due to the yeast struggling because of age or condition.

Taste: As the aroma suggests, it's malty and caramelish, and not as tart as their "original Ritterguts Gose". There's plenty of apple, soft apple, regular apple, and tart apple and maybe a little bit of soft red berry as well. The salt seems a bit more limited as well but perhaps that's just because there's more malt there covering it up. There's not a lot of bitterness, and there's just a touch of floral and herbal hops in the far back. Still, it has a mostly dry finish.

Feel: It's medium leaning towards medium-full in body with a dextrinous edge, maybe even medium-full in body, and gently smooth with a soft, gently effervescent carbonation.

Overall: This is a wonderful cold-weather version of a gosebier, and the only one I know of. The apple-like fruitiness and salt and caramelish malt mix really well. It's expensive but at least with this one you get some alcohol for it at 6.6% abv versus their original at 4.7%. Well worth trying.

Review# 6,271

Review: 0,5l bottle of Ritterguts Barentoter, a German Sour Gose Bock: 6.6% ABV

The "beer brewed with spices" as it says on the bottle. This one is the Gose Bock version of the classic Gose style.  

Barentoter, as far as my German goes, means "bear killer" auf Deutsch.

One thing about these Gose beers is that you can't get a head from them. There is a good bit of carbonation for sure, all bubbling away but it just wont settle down to form a head at all. No real problem as the colour of the beer is nice. A lovely deep and dark amber colour, which I love.

On the nose I get the Gose trademark smell, the salt and the coriander. 

Loving the taste, is like a fruit juice, very sweet and tasty, love it. Getting the orange flavours which are very prominent. Very nice mouthfuls. Can also get the salt and the coriander. Spices too.

More sweet than sour me thinks, and not the most typical of bocks I have tasted. Perhaps the salt has a calming effect on it?

Very smooth. And all the complex flavours are very well balanced, and so easy to drink, with the alcohol very well hidden and no bitterness in the beer. 

Liking these Gose's a lot, will definitely pick some more up in time. So easy to drink and I can appreciate the new style.

 

 

Pours a frothy, light tan head. Sweet, tart aroma is fruity. Chill haze, burnt umber color; almost a slightly hazy bock color. Starts with a biscuity maltiness and a hit of sweet, toasted malt, then lactic acid sourness. As it warms, cinnamon comes through. The sourness subsides, transitioning back into sweet, toasted malt. The finish is lingering toasted malt, blended with a hint of sweet malt and lactic acid. If you let this linger on the palate, the cinnamon comes through, making for a lovely finish.

I actually really like this. I saw a "Gose-bock," and I was intrigued. This is not only an excellent Gose, but it's a great bock - not unexpected from a German brewery, though. This surpassed my expectations.