Aging Berliners and Goses

Discussion in 'Cellaring / Aging Beer' started by dxtxxii, Jun 12, 2017.

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  1. dxtxxii

    dxtxxii Initiate (0) Dec 1, 2016 Pennsylvania

    I haven't been able to find too much information on this.. How well do Berliner Weisse and Gose beers keep for extended periods? Does anyone have experience with aging them, and do they change noticably? I have a couple 6%+ beers of this style that I'm wondering if I should drink as quickly as possible (tried it and it was great fresh) or if I can let them sit for a while (maybe for a year or more?).

    Thanks in advance!
     
    #1 dxtxxii, Jun 12, 2017
  2. stakem

    stakem Grand Pooh-Bah (4,070) Feb 20, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Since it has become very popular for breweries to add fruit to their gose and berliner offerings I think its important to mention that it all depends what you are looking to get out of aging the brew.

    If it has fruit, that fruit will fade with time.

    If the bottle in question does not have fruit, it can be aged and sometimes with favorable results.

    I have aged quite a few different berliners over the years and some have turned out to be fantastic with age while others not so much.

    Most of what changes in a berliner with age is quite subtle. Sometimes brett character comes a little more forward but aging them does not necessarily make them any more tart/sour.
     
    #2 stakem, Jun 12, 2017
    FonyBones, SovietBillCosby, dxtxxii and 2 others like this.
  3. stakem

    stakem Grand Pooh-Bah (4,070) Feb 20, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    #3 stakem, Jun 12, 2017
    FonyBones and dxtxxii like this.
  4. NeroFiddled

    NeroFiddled Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,276) Jul 8, 2002 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    What are these 6+% Berliner Weisse and Gosebiers? To me those are not really Berliner Weisse and Gosebiers but something else, perhaps "strong" sour beers?
     
    #4 NeroFiddled, Jun 12, 2017
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  5. stakem

    stakem Grand Pooh-Bah (4,070) Feb 20, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I agree to an extent but thats an entirely different topic that has been discussed ad nauseam.

    De garde refers to them as "imperial" whereas other places have very much americanized them to the extent that some have even tried to reclassify them as a whole new "floridian" style.
     
    #5 stakem, Jun 12, 2017
  6. dxtxxii

    dxtxxii Initiate (0) Dec 1, 2016 Pennsylvania

    Thanks for the info!

    I admit I'm not too familiar with the discussion about abv since I'm still relatively new to the berliner/gose game, but it's quickly turning into one of my favorite styles.

    And the beers that I have are the 6ix Days in Dade from JWB , labeled as an "imperial gose." They do have fruit added, but I recently tried a similar one from them that had about 6 months on it and it was still fantastic. Seems like it's worth the experiment since I have multiple bottles, I'll throw one in a cool dark closet and hope for the best!
     
    #6 dxtxxii, Jun 12, 2017
  7. hoptemologist

    hoptemologist Initiate (0) Jun 6, 2014 Canada (AB)

    i had a de garde bu weisse last night, not sure how old it was but it had the old white label and it was actually FANTASTIC, had way more body to it then i expected for 2.3% also
     
    #7 hoptemologist, Jun 15, 2017
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