Gose is a magical style that somehow appeals to both beer drinkers and those who would prefer wine to anything hopped. It’s dry and has no real hop character. It’s sour and it’s salty — creating a dance on the palate that is both interesting and infinitely refreshing.
The Durty Bull team knows their beer; the partnership is made up of former beer salesmen. When Matt Penissi decided to leave his lab job to pursue his beer dreams, he became cicerone certified and joined a beer wholesaler to learn the business. While there, he worked with future partners Ryan Trask and Ryan Weir. The beer is crafted by Chris Davis, a craft beer veteran with tours of duty at Fullsteam and Big Boss.
When craft brewers use their Lazarus Machine to bring back styles of beer from the dead, they often imbue them with new flavors. Such is the case with Durty Bull’s Key Lime Gose.
Key Lime Gose has a creamy mouthfeel and a delightful salt finish. The taste of Key lime pie jumps out at you first. The cracker notes fill your mouth, and the dry cloudy beer slakes your thirst. It’s like a song from Queen — with bold notes, soft sections, a chorus and a solo.
Not to be confused with the Belgian style Gueuze, Gose comes from Germany, specifically the northwestern corner where the Gose River flows. It’s a wheat-focused beer, dominated by notes of coriander and salt. Traditionally, Gose was a wild fermentation — meaning yeast was not selected and added, but rather found its way to the beer on its own.
If beer styles could be likened to animals, Goes would be a cat on its ninth life. Born in the 1200s, Gose’s popularity dried up during World War II. In 1945 the last brewery in Germany producing the elixir closed. In 1949, a small brewery opened in Leipzig that made the salty sour beer, but when the brewer died in 1966, the Gose followed him to the grave.
Life was breathed into Gose again in the mid-1980s, with many American craft brewers taking the style off life support. It’s now alive and well — with a healthy following among fans of sour beer.
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