- Recipe Type
- Extract
- Yeast
- WLP036 Düsseldorf Alt
- Yeast Starter
- 1L
- Batch Size (Gallons)
- 5
- Original Gravity
- 1.050
- Final Gravity
- 1.014
- Boiling Time (Minutes)
- 15
- IBU
- not much
- Color
- varies
- Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
- 14 days at 66F
- Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
- 4 weeks on fruit (optional)
- Tasting Notes
- citrusy lactic sour, hint of coriander and salt
Much like the IPA craze in years past, it seems to me that everyone and their momma's making a gose these days. I suppose that's good to get the sour word out but quite frankly I think most of them suck. I admit I'm a snob, but I like my gose to be real sour...yes that may not be true to style, but hey, here in America we like to kick it up a notch. Our IPAs are hop bomps, our Russians would manage to kill even Rasputin, and the goses I like are tart enough to put hair on your chest. (disclaimer: I still don't have chest hair). This recipe is a bit complicated, but it allows us extract brewers to make a gose with all the complex lactic goodness that you can't get from a weak lacto culture...by growing your own culture. This recipe (and fruit variants) have won a handful of ribbons for me, including a 2nd BOS at the 2015 NERHC out of 443 entries for a raspberry variety.
You will need:
3# Pilsen or extra light DME
3# Wheat DME
handful of fresh uncrushed 2-row (let's call it 4 oz)
2L flask with airlock
couple bottles of unflavored or lemon-lime seltzer
initial lacto starter:
1. Make a typical 2L starter. let cool and add your uncrushed grains. Open a bottle of seltzer, pour in 4-6 oz, and then cap with an airlock. I got this idea from the Bear Flavored homebrew blog. I hear the man is brewing at Kent Falls in CT and I think his stuff is pretty damn good, btw. The purpose of this is to knock out most of the oxygen to avoid growing crap you don't want (i.e. Acinetobacter).
2. Try to keep that starter at 90-100F. Again, this is to try to get Lactobacillus species to grow and not that other crap (i.e. Clostridium). I put it in a giant cooler in the bathtub and use hot water as needed to maintain the temp as close as possible.
3. Hopefully within 24 hours you will get activity and when you smell that activity it will smell nice, with tart, citrusy, bready notes. (I have done this 4 times in the past year with no problems). Give it a couple days and then you are ready to proceed to the next step. If you're not sure, pour yourself a sample. Should be nice, sour, and clean.
3 gallons of sour:
1. Make 2.5 gallons of wort using 1# Pilsen DME and 1# Wheat DME. Cool and add to a carboy; I use a 3 gallon carboy for this. Dump the entire 2L starter into the carboy, straining out the grains. Top off with a splash of seltzer and top with an airlock.
2. Keep at 90-100F as much as possible. I use a big cooler but unfortunately this is not big enough to close over the entire carboy. So it cools off during the day, and I crank it back up after work. Not a big deal. I let it sour for 4-5 full days. If you like less sour, then let it go for 2-3 days. Note: some moderate funky notes start to appear after a day or two. Haven't had any problems in the final result, but I know how much brewers love sniffing airlocks and worrying about it. (been there, done that).
finally, brew day:
boil the entire 3 gallon starter in your typical brewpot and add the remaining 4# DME. Note: I don't know what proteins and crap are in that lacto carboy, but whatever is in there will foam like the dickens when the boil starts. You've been warned.
15 min boil with 1 oz. Hallertau and 2 tsp. yeast nutrient.
Add 0.5 oz crushed coriander seed and 1 oz. salt with 3 minutes left. I have been using Himalayan pink salt if you must know but I doubt it makes a big difference unless you're using road salt or some super smoky alderwood-planked salmon salt. Note: I learned the hard way that the oil from coriander seed can also cause a boil-over.
Ferment at 66F or so for 2 weeks with regular alt yeast. FG has ranged from 1.013-1.016 for me. Bottle condition at 2.5-3 volumes or so.
This goes well with fruit too! I wash fresh (ripe) fruit, cut up into chunks as appropriate, freeze, and then put the frozen chunks into a sanitized paint strainer bag. I rack the gose onto the fruit and let it go 3-4 weeks before bottling. Note: there may be some wild yeasts on the fruit, I don't pay much attention to them. Doesn't seem to affect the product but then again I don't have any bottles lying around long enough to tell if there may be bad flavors say 5 months later. So far I've used strawberries (4#) and raspberries (3#).
You will need:
3# Pilsen or extra light DME
3# Wheat DME
handful of fresh uncrushed 2-row (let's call it 4 oz)
2L flask with airlock
couple bottles of unflavored or lemon-lime seltzer
initial lacto starter:
1. Make a typical 2L starter. let cool and add your uncrushed grains. Open a bottle of seltzer, pour in 4-6 oz, and then cap with an airlock. I got this idea from the Bear Flavored homebrew blog. I hear the man is brewing at Kent Falls in CT and I think his stuff is pretty damn good, btw. The purpose of this is to knock out most of the oxygen to avoid growing crap you don't want (i.e. Acinetobacter).
2. Try to keep that starter at 90-100F. Again, this is to try to get Lactobacillus species to grow and not that other crap (i.e. Clostridium). I put it in a giant cooler in the bathtub and use hot water as needed to maintain the temp as close as possible.
3. Hopefully within 24 hours you will get activity and when you smell that activity it will smell nice, with tart, citrusy, bready notes. (I have done this 4 times in the past year with no problems). Give it a couple days and then you are ready to proceed to the next step. If you're not sure, pour yourself a sample. Should be nice, sour, and clean.
3 gallons of sour:
1. Make 2.5 gallons of wort using 1# Pilsen DME and 1# Wheat DME. Cool and add to a carboy; I use a 3 gallon carboy for this. Dump the entire 2L starter into the carboy, straining out the grains. Top off with a splash of seltzer and top with an airlock.
2. Keep at 90-100F as much as possible. I use a big cooler but unfortunately this is not big enough to close over the entire carboy. So it cools off during the day, and I crank it back up after work. Not a big deal. I let it sour for 4-5 full days. If you like less sour, then let it go for 2-3 days. Note: some moderate funky notes start to appear after a day or two. Haven't had any problems in the final result, but I know how much brewers love sniffing airlocks and worrying about it. (been there, done that).
finally, brew day:
boil the entire 3 gallon starter in your typical brewpot and add the remaining 4# DME. Note: I don't know what proteins and crap are in that lacto carboy, but whatever is in there will foam like the dickens when the boil starts. You've been warned.
15 min boil with 1 oz. Hallertau and 2 tsp. yeast nutrient.
Add 0.5 oz crushed coriander seed and 1 oz. salt with 3 minutes left. I have been using Himalayan pink salt if you must know but I doubt it makes a big difference unless you're using road salt or some super smoky alderwood-planked salmon salt. Note: I learned the hard way that the oil from coriander seed can also cause a boil-over.
Ferment at 66F or so for 2 weeks with regular alt yeast. FG has ranged from 1.013-1.016 for me. Bottle condition at 2.5-3 volumes or so.
This goes well with fruit too! I wash fresh (ripe) fruit, cut up into chunks as appropriate, freeze, and then put the frozen chunks into a sanitized paint strainer bag. I rack the gose onto the fruit and let it go 3-4 weeks before bottling. Note: there may be some wild yeasts on the fruit, I don't pay much attention to them. Doesn't seem to affect the product but then again I don't have any bottles lying around long enough to tell if there may be bad flavors say 5 months later. So far I've used strawberries (4#) and raspberries (3#).
