Carmel Gose

First Post!

I made a Caramel Gose yesterday! First gose and no clue how it will turn out especial with the high % adjunct.

5.5 gallons
4.5# German Pils
3# Malted Red Wheat (didnt have white)
.5# Honey malt
.5# 120L
1# Special B

Step mash with Compubrew RIMS system

123F - 10min
136F - 10min Plus 2quarts decoction for 10 min
146F - 45min
154F - 20min

Wyeast 3191 Berliner Weisse


Salt not added yet. I was thinking of maybe spliting the batch to 5 1 gallons in secondary any adding different fancy salts. ie Black Lava salt - Fumee de Sel - Alder wood smoked salt or I even found a ghost peeper salt.

I was thinking 3 grams per gallon of salt.

I also thought about adding Lactose but Im unsure how that would be affected by the acidity and possibly the brett in the Wyeast blend.

Any thoughts?

Did you mean "lactose" or "lactic acid"? Lactose (aka milk sugar) increases sweetness and is typically used in milk stouts. The Wyeast 3191 contains Lactobacillus, which would probably eat the lactose, but the Brett might also be able to metabolize it as well. There's no guarantee that lactose will be converted to lactic acid and add to the sourness, however. If you just want to increase sourness, you are probably better off adding 88% lactic acid to taste.

Lest I sound like an expert, I should mention that I'm just cold-crashing my first gose now, which I made with acidulated malt and no bacteria. The pH is about 3.6 and it has a sourness around the middle of my preferred taste range. I think I also taste some acetic acid, though it isn't overly vinegary. I'm planning on carbonating it, tasting again, and adding salt (as a solution) and maybe some lactic acid to balance out the acetic taste. I'm also interested in what others have done with this style -- one of my ideas is to brewing a gose with citrusy hops (Citra, Cascade, maybe Amarillo or one of the experimental varieties) and grapefruit peel.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes lactose as in milk sugar. My concern is how the lactose would react to the low ph. The other concern was what it would taste like if the brett consumed the lactose.

I was thinking of lactose to round out the salted caramel "experience ". I may end up sorbating some of it and adding the lactose back and keg it. But then I don't know how the acidic and sweet flavor will taste together

I did the above recipe.

I failed at the camel flavor.

According to Brewtoad my target OG was supposed to be 1.048 @75% in 5.5gal. I crushed it and got 1.058!

FG: 1.003

That being said there is zero head retention.

It drinks like a salty/sour Alt beer.

scubahoundnc said:

I did the above recipe.

I failed at the camel flavor.

According to Brewtoad my target OG was supposed to be 1.048 @75% in 5.5gal. I crushed it and got 1.058!

FG: 1.003

That being said there is zero head retention.

It drinks like a salty/sour Alt beer.

Click to expand...

I'm glad you got no camel flavor, that would probably be awful.
Be careful about unproven recipes you find on the internet, you never know what you might get.
Glad you had a high efficiency, and that you have salty/sour, because that is what you're supposed to get in a gose.
Many sours have problems with head retention.

I think part of the taste issue is I use WYeast 3191 Beliner. It has a little Brett in it adds another layer of complexity.

Im still debating on sorbating it and adding maltodextrin or lactose back to it to see if i can coax some caramel out of it.

That's the beauty of making your own beer.

My next crazy idea will be an Oyster Gose.

I'm wondering if vanilla would have lent itself to help make it taste like caramel. Regardless, this has me intrigued, not something I would want to sour, but maybe a different style. I'd be afraid of getting a sour milky beer, and that just doesn't sound appetizing.

The only thing with the Lactose I'm worried about is can/will it curdle.

I'll pull some growlers and try it out one with Lactose and one with Maltodextrin.

Lactose is munched on by Lactobacillus (that's what starts milk spoilage). It shouldn't curdle though, it doesn't have the proteins that allow milk to curdle, just a different sugar. I'm unsure if lactobacillus will allow anything to be left from the the lactose though.

if i added Lactose or Maltodextrin I would sorbate it a couple days beforehand.

scubahoundnc said:

First Post!

I made a Caramel Gose yesterday! First gose and no clue how it will turn out especial with the high % adjunct.

5.5 gallons
4.5# German Pils
3# Malted Red Wheat (didnt have white)
.5# Honey malt
.5# 120L
1# Special B

Step mash with Compubrew RIMS system

123F - 10min
136F - 10min Plus 2quarts decoction for 10 min
146F - 45min
154F - 20min

Wyeast 3191 Berliner Weisse


Salt not added yet. I was thinking of maybe spliting the batch to 5 1 gallons in secondary any adding different fancy salts. ie Black Lava salt - Fumee de Sel - Alder wood smoked salt or I even found a ghost peeper salt.

I was thinking 3 grams per gallon of salt.

I also thought about adding Lactose but Im unsure how that would be affected by the acidity and possibly the brett in the Wyeast blend.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

My salt addition was 15 grams of "Red Gold Hawii Kai's Palm Island Sea Salt". Because its red and has a really long name.

The package states this salt is saltier tasting than others, which I can believe. 15 grams of this salt would probably a little to salty in a standard Gose.