Leipziger Gose

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Kaiser

Kaiser

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I had a Berliner Weisse when I was in Germany a few weeks back and I have to say that I wasn't impressed much. It certainly has to be drunken with syrup. Otherwise it is just to sour. It also has a fairly thin taste that I didn't like much.

Another German sour beer, the Leipziger Gose, impressed me more. This beer has more malt flavor to it and though it is mostly served with syrup as well, I though it was also very nice without. It reminds me of a Bavarian wheat beer without the yeast funk but a sour note to it. Here is a picture I took:

2249-Gose.jpg


But sour beers seem notoriously difficult to make. I still have to try to make one, but controlling the amount of sourness that goes in must be daunting. I wonder if it makes sense to set about a gallon of wort aside and ferment it with only lacto bacillus and then use this to sour the main batch that was fermented with only yeast.

Kai
 
Kaiser said:
I had a Berliner Weisse when I was in Germany a few weeks back and I have to say that I wasn't impressed much. It certainly has to be drunken with syrup. Otherwise it is just to sour. It also has a fairly thin taste that I didn't like much.

Another German sour beer, the Leipziger Gose, impressed me more. This beer has more malt flavor to it and though it is mostly served with syrup as well, I though it was also very nice without. It reminds me of a Bavarian wheat beer without the yeast funk but a sour note to it. Here is a picture I took:

2249-Gose.jpg


But sour beers seem notoriously difficult to make. I still have to try to make one, but controlling the amount of sourness that goes in must be daunting. I wonder if it makes sense to set about a gallon of wort aside and ferment it with only lacto bacillus and then use this to sour the main batch that was fermented with only yeast.

Kai
Click to expand...

The other way that people talk about controlling the sourness is to do a sour mash; let it get as sour as you want it in the mash tun (overnight, two days, whatever), then boil and stop the bacteria, ferment it out with only yeast.

Is the Gose the beer that's also brewed with corriander and salt?
 
the_bird said:
The other way that people talk about controlling the sourness is to do a sour mash; let it get as sour as you want it in the mash tun (overnight, two days, whatever), then boil and stop the bacteria, ferment it out with only yeast.
Click to expand...

I don't know what I should think about the sour mash. If you want it sour enough so you can tase the sourness, the pH will drop well below 5.0 and you should have conversion problems beacause the amylase enzymes are inhibited at to low of a pH. But it seems to work for brewers :confused: .

Another way would be to add sour wort to the boil. At this point you are not messing with the mash pH. Only the hop extraction will be affected, which isn't a bad thing for these sour beers. The other benefit is, that you are killing all the lacto bacteria and don't have to worry about them in your fermentation vessels.

Is the Gose the beer that's also brewed with corriander and salt?
Click to expand...

No, this is still brewed to the Reinheitsgebot. There are no spices in. To brew a sour beer according to the RHG you need to culture the lacto bazillus from the malt, which has plenty.

Kai
 
Kaiser said:
No, this is still brewed to the Reinheitsgebot. There are no spices in. To brew a sour beer according to the RHG you need to culture the lacto bazillus from the malt, which has plenty.

Kai
Click to expand...

:confused:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Gose

So, are there some versions of Gose that ARE brewed in accordance with the Reinheitsgebot, and some that are not?

EDIT: I need to search Wikipedia more often,

Gose beers are brewed with at least 50% of the grain bill being malted wheat. Because of the use of coriander and salt, Gose does not comply to the Reinheitsgebot. It is allowed an exemption from the rules on the grounds of being a regional speciality. It acquires its characteristic sourness through the addition of lactic acid bacteria after the boil.
Click to expand...

This is obviously a beer I've never been able to sample, so I'm curious whether the corriander/salt is not present in some examples, or what...
 
Geuze is an unblended lambic, IIRC.

Landhoney's doing a lot of REALLY cool experimental batches, including a Gose. Take a look at this:

(Then take a look at his experiment with spontanous fermentation here.)

EDIT: Err... a BLENDED lambic :rolleyes:
 
Kaiser said:
I still have to confirm the use of coriander though.
Click to expand...

My bad, you guys were correct. Gose is brewed with coriander even though it doesn't confirm to the RHG. This isn't a problem since it doesn't have to be sold as "beer" in Germany. It can easily be sold as Gose.

Kai
 
The only reason I know a damn thing about it is Landhoney's experiments.

Have you ever seen this available in the U.S.? I can't imagine there's very much distribution.
 
RTFW:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gose

The All Wise Wikipedia said:
Gose is a traditional, top-fermented, pre-lager, beer style of Leipzig, Germany.
Gose beers are brewed with at least 50% of the grain bill being malted wheat. Because of the use of coriander and salt, Gose does not comply to the Reinheitsgebot. It is allowed an exemption from the rules on the grounds of being a regional speciality. It acquires its characteristic sourness through the addition of lactic acid bacteria after the boil.
The beers typically have a moderate alcohol content of 4 to 5% ABV. Dominant flavors in Gose include a lemon tartness, a herbal characteristic, and a strong saltiness (the result of either local water sources or added salt). Gose beers typically do not have prominent hop bitterness, flavors, or aroma.
Gose is not to be confused with Geuze, an equally unusual though wholly different beer style brewed in the Brussels region of Belgium. Both Gose and Geuze do, however, belong to the same family of sour wheat beers which were once brewed across Northern Germany and the Low Countries. Other beers of this family are Belgian Witbier, Berliner Weisse, Grätzer (or Grodziskie) and Broyhan. The latter two, like most of the German varieties, are now extinct.
Click to expand...



So Sayeth The Wikipedia. You may be seated.
 
I consolidated the Gose discussion on the two threads....

What I find most interesting, Kai, is that you didn't immediately perceive this as being a salty, corriander-ey beer. This leads me to conclude that those ingredients are much, much more subtle than I think most people would believe. I could see that, if done with enough care, the corriander could be complementary to the yeast and be perceived as a character of that yeast, not a separate ingredient.

I'm curious; do you happen to know if the water around that region is particularly soft? Is that why one might add a regular salt to a beer?
 
the_bird said:
What I find most interesting, Kai, is that you didn't immediately perceive this as being a salty, corriander-ey beer. This leads me to conclude that those ingredients are much, much more subtle than I think most people would believe. I could see that, if done with enough care, the corriander could be complementary to the yeast and be perceived as a character of that yeast, not a separate ingredient.
Click to expand...

You read my mind Bird, that's immediately what I thought. I've read a lot of the reviews of Gose/s on beeradvocate and some/most pick up the coriander and/or salt, but of course they may have been looking for it(power of suggestion?). I would love to hit the right balance my first try, but I doubt I will. Hopefully I'll like it enough to brew it a few times and improve.
 
Well, I have not been looking for it at all. I noticed a taste that I contributed to some malt (the same I thought of SA Summer Beer before I knew that there are spices in the beer). I'd definitely will dial down the coriander to almost the taste threshold. And for the salt, I think it should only be enough to enhance the flavors and not be noticeable as salt at all.

To bad I have overlooked Gose in the past even though it is the indigenous beer style (though not a popular one) from the region in Germany that I grew up in.

Kai
 

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