Paste Magazine - 64 Goses blind tasted and ranked

"This is a tasting of goses, largely determined by how the breweries chose to label their products. To be admitted, the beer had to describe itself as a gose, or at least fit the general definition. There was no ABV limit. When in doubt, we simply allow a brewery’s marketing to define a beer’s style, and expect them to stick to the designation they’ve chosen."

 

Gose... the absolute nadir of pun beer names.

 

I wonder how this was setup. Sour beers wreck your palate tremendously. The 1st beer to the 25th beer will be hard to compare.

 

Um................

 

I'm surprised to see Otra Vez at 25. I didn't like that beer at all. I may have to revisit

 

Glad to see Westbrook so high. It was the first gose I ever had, and was my gateway into sours in general. Though TBH I hated it at first because I had never had anything like it.

 

I had to look up nadir, but not only did I learn a new word today, I completely agree with you.

It probably beats out the word "hop" in its many pun-y forms it takes in beer names.

We get it breweries, "Gose" invites itself to many cute beer names...how about you just make a great beer first? Note, Westbrook is highly regarded...it's also just called, "Westbrook Gose". There's a lesson in there.

 

I found that pretty odd as well. I'm wondering if maybe they meant only kettle soured, as in no barrel aging. But isn't that the norm usually?

 

Damn near the definition I believe.

 

Although most US versions are soured on the hot side (kettle soured), traditional versions were ambiently/spontaneously inoculated via a coolship and did spend some time in wood, though not as long lambic style beers. Modern versions can be made without kettle souring, but most brewers tend to use the technique because it shortens the time of production.

 

There's almost no gose sold today from America that resembles a traditional gose.

 

I wish I could fine more traditional/unflavored gose. My first was Ritterguts, and nothing has surpassed it.

Same with Berliner weisse.

 

A few years back on here I said praise about two roads and some seemed to be "who is that" "why" and reading this article plus a few of their past releases I'm quite happy to say how much I enjoy them and they truly do make great beers yet most of their stuff flies under.

 

Agree 100%. Quick story - About 18 months ago or so I was at Magnify Brewing and I started talking to a dude - come to find out he worked at Two Roads. Prior to that I had never had any of their brews. He was a super cool guy and we had a great chat - he sincerely spoke highly of their brews so I decided to give them a shot. The first brew I tried was Bog Wild and I was blown away - fantastic beer. Their IPA game is solid but its their Sours/Gose and Saisons where they really shine.

 

This is a pretty interesting article discussing the history of the Gose from a couple years ago. https://www.eater.com/drinks/2015/10/30/9643780/gose-beer-germany

While the process is very different now, as mentioned in the article, I can't believe that none of the American versions resemble a traditional one. Though it doesn't seem like it, there are a few non-fruited ones out there besides Westbrook. Maybe @Sixpoint can chime in regarding the Jammer recipe in regard to the half pilsner malt, half wheat malt, salt and coriander tradition.

 

We kept it closer to the traditional style, but definitely brought in some of our own "proprietary" influence as well.

IMHO the way Gose (and other session sour beers) will evolve will be very similar to the way IPAs evolved from the 1990s into today. It started out with some pronounced hop bitterness and flavor, then went into a full-on "arms race" of who could throw the most hops into a kettle. Eventually IPAs became bitterbombs. The true folks who love the style migrated back to flavor, mouthfeel, and aroma, as that is where all of the magic and finesse is at.

You're going to see the same things with sour beers. Its not a pissing contest to see how puckering of a beer you can make, or if you can melt the enamel off your customer's teeth. Sour flavor and aroma should be prominent but part of the overall balance of the beer, without being deliberately offensive. Jammer keeps on building year after year!

 

Shane, what are your thoughts about kettle souring vs. using lacto as regards the Gose style?

Cheers!

 

Agreed. I think Lost Nation does a well balanced one.