All The Gose

American craft beer drinkers are an unusual lot.  They aren't particularly loyal to any one brand or style, instead floating from new beer to new beer, and new style to new style.  The craft beer craze has chased double IPA's, Triple IPA's, barrel aged beers, sours of various intensity, and many many more.  Of late it seems that the craze has transitioned from high alcohol beers, to lower ABV beers that are just as flavorful as their stronger cousins.  Craft beer nerds have looked back to the old world to fulfill their needs, looking specifically to Germany and consuming some of their sour beers like berlinerweisse, and gose, which is the purpose of this post.  It seems gose is the beer of the summer, as many craft brewers are releasing all types of gose, flavored with fruits, spices, herbs among other things.  These beers of course range in range of quality, but for local picks, I would look at any of the gose offerings from Texas Beer Refinery, and the gose from Galveston Bay Brewery is very good as well.  However, this post is focusing on gose from the mother country, specifically a brewery from Cologne, where I used to live: Freigiest Geiserzug.  My tasting notes will look at their standard Gose as well as their Quince Gose, but first let's answer the question of What is gose?
The Style:  Gose was traditionally brewed in the German city Goslar.  It is a wheat beer that is soured post boil with lactobaccilus, although originally it was a spontaneously fermented beer.  Additionally, gose is brewed with corriander and salt adding an herbal sea note to the beer.  Gose is an ancient beer going back to the 16th Century.  Over the years its popularity declined and shortly after World War II, the last producer of gose close.  However, shortly thereafter in 1949 Friedrich Wurzler brewery started producing the beer in their home town of Leipzig which is where it was produced until 1960.  At that point there was no gose being commercially produced.  It remained that way until the 1980's where it popped up briefly before disappearing again briefly in 1988.  However by the late 80's there was one small brewery in Germany producing a gose.  However, as with many styles, it found its way to America where craft breweries started experimenting and helped revive the style, and as always they added their own twist to the original recipe with many version made with added fruit.
The Brewery:  Freigiest Geiserzug is based out of Cologne, Germany.  Cologne is mainly known for their namesake beer, the easy drinking Kolsch. Friegiest started as an offshoot of Cologne brewpub Braustelle.  Their whole goal is to stretch the boundaries of German beer culture and work to bring back and reinvigoarte old styles of beer.  Their line up of beers is tremendous with a ton of different and strange styles being made. But the two I am focusing on are their Gose, and Quince Gose.
The Beer:
Spruced Gose - This beer weighs in at 5.2% and pours a cloudy hazy straw colored with a thin white head of foam.  The nose is tangy, tart, smells of salt air, coriander.  Mouthfeel is effervescent, medium bodied.  Satly, tangy, sour, coriander, lemon peel.  Very easy drinking.  The label mentioned there were some funky notes, but I really didn't get that.  Maybe a hint of buttermilk?  Lots of acidity.  Lemon cookie batter.  This beer was awesome, and a near perfect example of the style.
Quince Gose:  Again this one weighs in at 5.2% and pours a honey golden color with a bright white head of foam.  This one is slightly darker then the previous example.  On the nose there are some fruity esters, tartness, sea air.  The mouthfeel is fuller bodied than the traditional gose.  Notes of salt, tanginess, quince on toast, some astringency, sour.  Not mouth puckeringly sour, but a nice hit in the back of the tongue.  A really nice level of acidity, really good.  Thirst quenching, but you want more.  Seems less salty then the previous version, or maybe there is a little more going on so it hides the saltiness.  More orange/lemony notes, versus just lemon notes from the other beer.  Another really good example of a gose.
Highly recommend picking up either one of these beers from Freigiest or any of their other offerings.

New Beer Thursday: Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam

A day late, but not a dollar short.  This week's entry into New Beer Thursday comes from a brewery that I am incredibly excited is now in Texas, the great Jolly Pumpkin brewery out of Michigan.  Jolly Pumpkin is known far and wide for making awesome barrel aged sour and wild ales.  They've been doing it for a long time, well before it became THE thing to do.  Not only that, they do it extremely well.

This particular beer is a traditional farmhouse hefeweizen made with local wild and sour cultures and aged for a time in oak barrels.  Now a traditional German Hefeweizen pours a cloudy yellow, with a thick thick white head, and has notes of clove and banana on the nose and palate.  So with that in mind, I poured the beer.

It pours a bright golden sunshine color, not very cloudy at all.  Its capped by a thin white head that quickly dissipates into a thin film covering the surface of the beer.  The first whiff of the beer brings a hint of cloves and banana, the second brings a souring tartness, hints of barnyard, that one should expect from a beer like this.  The mouthfeel is thinner when compared to a traditional hefeweizen.   Good amount of carbonation, very bright flavors, tart, sour, barnyardy.  Some white pepper, and other spices appear as the beer warms.  Maybe cloves?  No banana.  This is a good beer, very enjoyable and drinkable, but what hurts it for me is calling it a hefe.  Right or wrong I have some expectations when I hear that, and this beer as good as it is, doesn't meet the definition of a Hefe for me with its flavors.  Good sour beer though.

Avery Depuceleuse

Avery is one of my favorite Colorado brewers. They make great standard beers available in six packs, great large bottle higher abv beers, and lastly they have started releasing an outstanding series of barrel aged wild ales. The first of these was released almost a year and a half ago. In Houston it was only available in bottle at a bar (you couldn't buy them at stores like Spec's). Since then all the other ones have been available at your local craft beer carrying store. Each of these beers are incredibly unique, aged in different barrels, different base styles, etc. The latest of this series Depuceleuse,(say that three times fast)is an ale brewed with 100% Brettanmyoces, sour cherries and aged in Red Wine barrels.
The Beer: This one weighs in at a hefty 9.5% and pours a ruby reddish brown with a thin white bubbly head. THe nose is sour, tart, oaky, funky, with some almost wine-ish notes. The immediate impression is an effervescence with a dry finish. More sips reveals a sour funky barnyard flavor, sour cherries, vanilla, sweet malts. With the good level of cabonation one can imagine a funky cherry-vanilla cola. At times its mouth puckering sour but at the same times it's not completely over the top. As it warms you get notes of tobacco, dark fruits. Throughout it all it hides its alcohol very well. Its sour, its funky but there is a nice balance to it that makes this beer appealing. This one gets an A- from me. Lots of love from the BA folks as well.

A pair of Fight Night Beers

As I do from time to time, I settled down Saturday night to watch some fights on TV. Nights like this are also a good excuse to pop open some new beers (well at least new to me) and last night was no different. Two breweries I'm very familiar with, but beers that I'd never had.
New Belgium Eric's Ale: Now I have actually had this beer, well at least a sample of it waaaay back in 2008 at GABF. This is part of New Belgiums ever expanding Lips of Faith, beers that are usually oak aged, and focus on traditional Beglian brewing methods. This one in particular is named for NB's brewer and is an oak aged sour made with peach juice. It weighs in at 7% and pours a pale pinkish color with a thin bubbly head. The nose is of the barnyard, hay, sourness, peaches, white fruit, grapes. The mouth is effervescent and medium bodied. Tart and sour, notes of cherries, vanilla, oak, reminiscent of a Cherry Sprite. Barnyard notes, hay, funky horse blanket. Peaches, peach bellini. The label says this is a sour beer for those that don't like sours and a fruit beer for those that don't like fruit beers. I gotta say I really dig this one. I do like sour beers but am not a huge fan of fruit beers and this has me wanting more. This one gets a strong A from me.
Boulevard Tank 7: Next up was this farmhouse ale from Boulevard brewing one of their outstanding Smokestack Series of beers. This one though is made with a ton of American hops which raised my eyebrows in interest almost immediately. It weighs in at 8.0% and pours a cloudy straw honey color with a thick dense head of white foam. The nose if of pale malts, grapefruit, and bready yeast. The mouth is vibrant, medium to full mouthfeel. Hoppy, full of grapefruits, pale toasted malts, bready grain, yeasty, chewy, slight peppery notes. Very yeasty, can a beer be doughy? Its good, but I want a little more oomph in this one. This one gets a good B+ from me.

Russian River Supplication

During my recent trip to Colorado I picked up quite a few beers that I can't get here in Houston. I love going to Co for many reasons, but getting beers that are unique to Texas is near the top of the list for me. One of the beers I picked up is from California favorite, Russian River, maker of not only one of the best IPA's in the world (arguably one of the best beers period), but brewer of unusual Belgian style ales as well. They specialize in barrel aging and sour ales. That's a lot to pack in for a brewery, but RR does it all incredibly well.
Supplication is RR's Brown ale aged in French Oak that previously held Pinot Noir. Three strains of bacteria were added along with sour cherries. The bacteria added are Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at 7.0% and pours a lightly beige almost pinkish with a dense head of off white head. On the nose its malty, sour cherries, oak, barnyard notes, hay, and horse blanket. The mouthfeel is medium, tons of carbonation. Funky, tart, sour, acidic are the first impressions of this beer. Notes of cherries, oaky, and dry finish. Vanilla and cherries. It gives me the impression of a cherry vanilla coke. Its not a sweet beer. Although there is a cherry sweetness up front the finish is dry enough that there is a great balance. Sour funky and barnyardy. Tons of sour cherries with undertones of roasted malts, caramel, even a nuttiness. This is such an outstanding beer. Every sip adds some new nuance to the flavor profile. I love it, this one gets an A from me. Here's what folks from BA think.

UPDATE: Experienced a mis-type in my entry. Brettanomyces is a strain of Yeast that was added to Supplication, Lacobacillus and Pediococcus are both different strains of bacteria. Sorry for the error.

Avery Black Tot

Boulder based brewing company Avery Brewing is widely known for producing outstanding beers. Not only do they have a solid line of beers available in six packs, but there big bottle series like the Reverend, Salvation, Hog Heaven, Czar, as well as their great beer they collaborated with Russian River on: Collaboration Not Litigation, are all top notch beers. In the last year they have developed a barrel aging program, releasing small batch beers, of differing styles aged in different types of barrels. Some of these barrels contained rum, zinfandel wine or whiskey. The first release of this series was the funky Brabant No 1, followed a few months afterward by Sui Generis. The next release was this ale dubbed the Black Tot, an Imperial Oatmeal stout aged in Giddings Rum casks (they've since released a 4th barrel aged beer).

The Beer: This one weighs in at 10.0% and pours a pitch black with a thick head of dense dark tan colored foam. The nose is of oats, molasses, chocolate, coffee, figs, and raisins. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, slightly thinner than expected. Notes of chocolate, coffee, espresso, some acidity at the finish. Vanilla, a light oakiness and some licorice notes. A very complex ale that starts to show some slight funky tanginess brought forth from residual bacteria growing the rum casks. This tanginess gives the beer a presence of sour cherries covered in dark chocolate. This is a wonderful beer, and might be my favorite of Avery's barrel aged line of brews. This one gets an A- from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

Two More New Glarus Brews

This was a wonderful weekend in Houston. The weather was beautiful, and this ended up being a good beer weekend. As most of you know Anvil tapped a keg of wine barrel aged Real Ale Coffee Porter. I wish I could say it was earth shattering good, unfortunately it wasn't. It was still a great Coffee Porter, but I didn't (and neither did the 4 or 5 other folks I talked with) really get any barrel notes or wine notes. But alas it was a nice effort from the small brewery in Blanco Texas. I didn't get discouraged though, I had more New Glarus beers to try.
Hop Hearty: Claiming to be a Wisconsin IPA gets my attention right of the bat. Brewed with old and new world hops and additional dry hopping of Cascade and East Kent Goldings lends this to be a hybrid beer, between what one expects an American IPA to be and what an English IPA is. The beer pours an amber orangish color with a thick slightly off white head. The nose is of hoppy citrus, and caramel malts, some bready notes as well. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and hoppy. Citrus peel, earthy floral notes, caramel, breadiness, sweet pale malts. Very smooth and easy drinking, my hop headiness thinking this is more of a pale ale than an IPA, more British style, more restrained. Biscuity notes as the beer warms. A little more bitter than a traditional English pale ale, some more citrus-y notes. A good drinkable, dare I say sessionable beer. Gets a solid B from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.
Old English Porter: Having spoken to some beer folks about this beer, I have been pretty excited to try this one. This beer is brewed in what I imagine was a traditional sort of way. Per the website on the brew, their recipe is based on the research of one Graham Wheeler. The beer was made with multiple different malts including a small amount of smoked, half the batch went through a souring fermentation, then the whole beer was aged on wood. The beer weighs in at 5.5% and pours a rich brown with a quarter inch tan colored head. The nose was of richly roasted malts, oak, sourness and tartness, almost a tang to the nose. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied, and the sourness hits you with a right hook. It's tartness right off the bat, then subtle notes of roasted malts, slightly burnt coffee, vanilla show up. This is exactly what I would have expected a Porter to taste like some 100 plus years ago. The sourness, tartness, and out right tanginess hit you up front, but the other flavors are what lingers giving you the impression that you are drinking two different beers. Notes of chocolate show up as well. It's almost like drinking slightly sour chocolate milk, except it tastes much better than that description. Amazingly done, and gets an A from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Russian River Consecration

I had this beer back when I was in Denver over the holiday's. As I mentioned in earlier posts we had the chance to hit up a few breweries up in Fort Collins, on our way back to the city we stopped by the Oskar Blues brew pub in Longmont. This has place has some really great food, but it also has an amazing guest tap list and it was here back along the wall that I saw they were offering RR Consecration. Living in Texas I jump at the chance to have anything from Russian River and this day was no exception.
The Beer: Consecration is a dark Belgian style ale aged in Cabernet Barrels. It weighs in at 10.0% abv. It was poured into a 12 oz snifter. Deep dark ruby read with a thin white head. sour cherries, oak, vanilla all on the nose. The mouthfeel is shocking. Effervescence, sour, just mouth jolting taste bud slamming sour. Oak, caramel, tartness, incredibly wonderful. Something new that would shock BMC drinkers, it expands one's thoughts of beer. It makes you sit down and contemplate the meanings of things..meanings of beer, life, LOST, anything. Having said that, its a wonderful beer...in small doses, I couldn't imagine drinking more than the 12 oz that I had at one sitting, it would be just too much. A great beer that gets an A- from me. The folks at BA love it too.

Avery Sui Generis

Avery brewing out of Colorado has a growing reputation for not only their solid line of beers, but their exceptional special release beers. Beer's that I've enjoyed like their Anniversary Beers, Collaboration Not Litigation, and Maharaja one of the best DIPA's around. Recently they have gotten into barrel aging certain beers, the first of these was Brabant No 1, and exceptional brew aged in Zinfandel barrels and made with two strains of wild yeasts. Their second beer from this series was released during Great American Beer fest. Only 138 cases were made and they were only available in the Avery Tap Room. Unfortunately the release day was the day before I arrived in Denver for GABF, lucky for me though a friend from Houston arrived early and picked up a bottle for me. So what is this beer? It is a blended barrel aged sour ale. Ok so what does that mean? It's a beer brewed with 1 special yeast and two different bacteria including Brettanomyces, lactobacillus and pedicoccus, respectively different batches are aged in different barrels and then blended for the final product. 20% aged in Cabernet Savignon, 35% in Chardonnay, 13% in Port Barrels, and finally 13% in Bourbon barrels.
The Beer: It weighs in at 10.2% and pours a hazy orangish brown with a thick dense head of foam. The nose is funky, sour, tart, notes of vanilla and oak. This is a full bodied beer, tart, sour, oaky, vanilla, winish notes. Its all here, warming to oak and bourbon, sour cherries, slight portish notes. A predominant flavor is cherries its reminiscent of a Manhattan with the flavors of bourbon. Tons of lacing here. More flavors coming through, green apples, tart, bready, figs and port, wine and cheese, earthy. Wonderful beer that with each sip and each sniff more flavors are brought forward. Yes its sour, yes its tart, there is no doubt that this is a sour ale, but there is so much more that it becomes balanced to me, hiding the alcohol relatively well. This is an absolutely wonderful beer that gets an A from me. Here's what the folks at BA think.

New Belgium La Folie

New Belgium is really a pioneer in the craft beer industry. They've been around seemingly forever, and their ubiquitous Fat Tire Ale is available almost everywhere (at least this side of the Mississippi). However as happens a lot of times, New Belgium faces an undeserved backlash because of how big they have gotten. I think its unfair for multiple reasons, one I don't understand why its bad to be successful? Has NB gotten large, yes, but they are still not that big when compared to BMC or even Sam Adams, so whats the problem? There are two other reasons why I think people shouldn't be hard on NB. The first having nothing to do with beer, but with good business practices is that they were one of the first (if not the first) brewery to run off of wind power. They truly are trying to make the world a better place by helping the environment, and keeping their impact on it as small as possible. The second and more beer related reasons is that while their regular line up is solid, I wouldn't call it ground breaking, however their special beers like La Folie, Abbey Grand Cru, Beirre De Mars, Eric's Ale, etc are what being called New Beglium is all about. They are all outstanding beers, some are even ground breaking. One of the first of these is the La Folie a Flanders Red Ale. Before getting into the beer though a bit on the style.
Flanders Red Ale: This a pretty unique style of Belgian beer mostly made in west Flanders. Most of these beers are aged in oak vats. This process of aging in non-sterilized wooden vessels allows the wild yeast on the wood to attack the sugars within the beer. The beer can be aged in this vessels for a pretty long time, sometimes up to two years or more. Once done aging and before final bottling, these beers are usually blended. Older ale with newer ale to help balance out the flavors. By aging the beers in the wooden vats, you can get lactic acid producing bacteria as well as the yeast strain Brettanomyces. All these things can cause different degrees of sourness, earthiness, and funkiness. While not unpleasant, brewers will blend to create balance. What this creates is a well balanced, extremely complex favorable ale that weighs in at around 4.5 to 5.5 %.
Now on to the basic spec's of the style (note these are from the BJCP website): The aroma should be fruity, black cherries, oranges, plums or red currants. You can also get some vanilla or chocolate with potentially strong sour acidic notes. There is little to no hop aroma. The color should be deep red burgundy. The mouthfeel should be medium bodied with low carbonation and flavors of plums, oranges, currants, cherry, vanilla, oak, chocolate, and some acidity and sourness.
The Beer: Ok now to the beer itself. La Folie comes packaged in a 750 ml bottled capped with a champagne cork and cage. The beer weighs 6% and pours a cloudy hazy brown with a good size taupe colored head. The nose is of sour cherries, oak, vanilla, caramel, roasted malts. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with a nice effervescence. Sour apple, cherry, vanilla, oak. Initially its mouth puckering sour, but as it warms up the sourness spreads out, and while still very powerful it is not over whelming. There are spicey notes, of black pepper, caramelly sweetness along with the fruitiness mentioned above. There is a rye bread quality there as well along with some notes of coco. An amazing beer, and a great example that New Belgium can make outstanding ground breaking beers. This gets an A- from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.