Monday 31 March 2014

#219: Here It Gose

Following on from the previous post's anomaly - a dark saison - the weirdness continues with this beer from the Brown Paper Bag Project and Fanø Bryghus. This time, it's not a stylistic deviation that delivers the weirdness, it's the style itself.

The beer is Gøse, and it is in fact a gose. No, not geueze, gose. Ever since I heard of this style seasoned with salt, I've been marvelling at its weirdness from a safe distance while ultimately desperate to try it. Thankfully, Ireland's only gypsy brewing outfit have teamed up with Fanø Bryghus in Denmark to give me the chance. You know things are good when you can go to town and buy a gose in Bradley's.

Pouring a pale hazy yellow, the first nose receives plenty of herbal, lemony and spice treatment, not giving away any of the sourness that was to follow on the palate. Having not read the label beforehand (and therefore not knowing this was spontaneously fermented) I wasn't expecting a hit of sourness at the very beginning, but it's a cleansing hit that fades to leave behind lemon sherbet and prickly spice. The body is light enough to make this a very refreshing beer while the aftertaste is of wheaty biscuit that lingers for a brief, delicious moment. I was almost hoping to find salt, in a horrible 'I accidentally swallowed some seawater' way, but thankfully I didn't. 

This is great stuff, and that's coming from someone who still makes a concerned frown when encountering any hint of sourness in a beer. It goes far beyond that though, and delivers spicy, grainy goodness aplenty. 

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