Ok, first, I'm sorry. Blogging takes a discipline that I sometimes lack, and my work schedule has really gotten in the way lately. It's been a month since my last post, and I certainly hope that doesn't happen again. Thanks for sticking with me. If anyone's interested, I tried a case in Milledgeville over three days in May, and then got handed a defense verdict, and my ass. Asking the judge for a new trial, but that hearing is not until the end of August.
On to beer. It's turned hot out, and most of us drift a bit afield of porters and stouts in the summertime, kind of like we skip the stew and opt for a chicken caesar. That means light, crisp, refreshing farmhouse ales, saisons and kolschs. Add to that list Gose, which I have only recently discovered. What is Gose, you ask?
Beeradvocate.com describes it thusly:
An old German beer style from Leipzig, Gose is an unfiltered wheat beer made with 50-60% malted wheat, which creates a cloudy yellow color and provides a refreshing crispness and twang. A Gose will have a low hop bitterness and a complimentary dryness and spice from the use of ground coriander seeds and a sharpness from the addition of salt. Like Berliner Weisse beers, a Gose will sometimes be laced with various flavored and colored syrups. This is to balance out the addition of lactic acid that is added to the boil.
Untappd lists about 20 non-home brewed Goses in its database. A great one made right in Charleston is Westbrook's (@westbrookbeer), which is 4% ABV, and is an excellent combination of sour, funk, citrus and salt.
I shared a growler of this with a few friends, none of whom had ever tried a Gose (pronounced GO-suh, by the way - it's German, doesn't rhyme with 'hose'), and all were taken aback and unsure at first. Before the first pints were half gone, however, everyone was digging it. Get some while you can, and carry it to the beach with you. Westbrook's Gose also comes in 22 oz. bottles. Prost!
