Margarita Gose

[Andrew Hodgson]

Tried another one of these last night, about 9 days of bottle condition/carbing. I will stop being a lazy POS and get the ph meter going to test the pH. I will say is it sour, that bracing type of sour where the first sip really hits the back of your tongue and the subsequent ones allow the beer to shine once your palette adjusts. I enjoy it a lot however I would say at this point the sourness overwhelms the other characteristics, as the yeast settles it seems the fruitiness of the WLP644 and the tincture is becoming more and more muted. Interested to see how she ages. I will be making a saison and then I think jumping right back into this recipe. May mute the sourness by dry-hopping 3 days after lacto pitch. Or maybe I will just up the tequila tincture volume and add more peels, who knows. I am now very interested to see what this reads on the ph meter.

 

[RPh_Guy]

May mute the sourness by dry-hopping 3 days after lacto pitch.

It doesn't take much. 0.5oz /5gal would do it.

How much alkalinity in your water profile?

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

It doesn't take much. 0.5oz /5gal would do it.

How much alkalinity in your water profile?

Last report from May 2018 shows 143mg/L (128-166 range)

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Well I finally calibrated my sexy ph meter. This beer came out at a 3.08 pH so I would say below the threshold for most “casual” sour drinkers. I like it quite a bit.

 

[isomerization]

Well I finally calibrated my sexy ph meter. This beer came out at a 3.08 pH so I would say below the threshold for most “casual” sour drinkers. I like it quite a bit.

That’s pretty sour! I do find the increase salinity in Gose to allow for more acidity (maybe increased mouthfeel?) without becoming overwhelming.

What’s your verdict on this batch? Did you feel like you retained some Yeast profile? I have a split batch of Gose and “Berliner” going right now with HotHead kveik yeast. Gose just got raspberries and blueberries (pic) and “Berliner” got blackberries and mango. Haven’t tasted yet, but pH was below 3.0 post Lacto souring

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

That’s pretty sour! I do find the increase salinity in Gose to allow for more acidity (maybe increased mouthfeel?) without becoming overwhelming.

What’s your verdict on this batch? Did you feel like you retained some Yeast profile? I have a split batch of Gose and “Berliner” going right now with HotHead kveik yeast. Gose just got raspberries and blueberries (pic) and “Berliner” got blackberries and mango. Haven’t tasted yet, but pH was below 3.0 post Lacto souring

I think I agree about the salinity working with the acidity. When I tried my first of these beers I thought I could not detect the salinity but I can definitely put my finger on it now.

I enjoy this beer, I think I was able to retain just enough of the WLP644 to accentuate the lime/tangerine peel in the tincture. However the fruity element is something I think I'd like to play with next time around to maybe pull back on some of the peels and allow it to be more balanced. It is hard to say what part of the fruity notes are the tincture and what part might be from the yeast flavor. I think using the tangerine peel was a good move as there is some nuance and it isn't just one-note lime (maybe the yeast fruit notes helped with this?).

I love this recipe and initially I was going to remake this with a few minor adjustments again however I brought a bottle to my homebrew club Wednesday and another member also had a Gose. His was the simple approach. He used lacto from grain to kettle sour then killed it and proceeded as normal, with the salt addition to fit the style. I enjoyed my beer better however seeing the dichotomy between a Gose like mine that really had a lot of different things going on versus a simple, no-frills version really made me want to just brew a straight-forward Gose but use the approach I took with the Sach then 2 days then lacto approach to really judge the flavor contribution of WLP644 in a more standard recipe. I think having a better handle on how this yeast works with a simple recipe of the style would allow me to better assess the margarita version next time I brew it.

Those sound and look wonderful, I will have to start messing with fruit additions for these styles.

 

[isomerization]

Both beers finished at 1.010 (about 75ish % AA), with a pH at 2.8, so I think it was a blessing that the beers didn’t dry out anymore. Just tasted today and very tasty!

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I have found while people have been trying this beer that it really is more crowd-pleasing than I thought. Initially I thought it was kind of bracingly sour on the palette and that most people would "thanks but no thanks" a second one. It turns out that either my friends enjoy sours more than I thought or there is balance in the recipe to make a complex tasty beer. I will have to take a stab at this again sooner rather than later and maybe make a few tweaks. I did submit to a competition so that will be interesting to see the feedback from that.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

So I cracked one of these tonight. It was brewed on 1/12. The sourness has evolved to be a bit more carbonic (sharper sour edge?) but to my palate it has aged really well. Less margarita character but more balanced, strong, lacto sourness. Tasty. I love opening a beer I haven’t had in awhile and being so pleasantly surprised. Cheers boys.

 

[tennesseean_87]

Man, I'm absent minded sometimes. I just boiled after souring for 2 days and forgot to add the salt and coriander! I'll add at kegging. Next step is buying some tequila and oak for tinctures. Any recommendations on a good cheap tequila I could use for this and margaritas (I just bought a house on Margarita Dr., so I guess I have to drink those now).

 

[bkboiler]

Milagro is good as a silver to mix...that's what I plan to use when I finally brew this...

 

[tennesseean_87]

Milagro is good as a silver to mix...that's what I plan to use when I finally brew this...

Thanks. Also, I have some dark toast oak chips. I’m guessing that’s not the character we’re going for here, though. Medium toast is the one?

 

[bkboiler]

Many margaritas are made with silver which isn't aged on oak at all. Some margaritas are made with Reposado which has some age and even fewer are made with Anejo which is the most aged. Theres a couple other types to mention but you get the point...
OP called for medium toast tho...I think to balance the lime... Too dark and you get some bitterness which will clash with the acidity badly.

 

[tennesseean_87]

Mine's almost done carbing now, but I've been having some anyway. I forgot salt and coriander in the boil, so boiled a cup or two of water for 5 minutes with those in it. This was added while racking to keg, right before the tequila tinctures were added.

My first impression was that it was too salty (I used pickling salt--was unaware I was out of pink Himalayan salt). Last night this didn't seem to be the case, though. Maybe that's because I was eating salty tortilla chips at the time. The tequila/agave and lime are there in the nose and on the finish, but are definitely subtle.

------------------------------------------------------------

Well, I forgot to post for a few days, and it's pretty much carbed up and I've been drinking it a few days. I got good feedback from a lunch I brought a growler to. It no longer seems too salty as it did at the beginning.

To my taste, I'd like a little more agave and lime character. Perhaps this is because I found this recipe after having Founders' Mas Agave--an imperial gose that smacked you in the face with the intense flavors of Margarita. This seems a little more like a gose with a hint of that flavor. While I generally like my beer to taste like beer, with a hint of flavoring, this sort of beer is an exception for me. I've done Berliner Weiss with an obscene amount of citrus zest and loved it.

If/when I brew again, I'll probably try at least 6 lime's worth of zest. I'd also like to bump up the agave flavor, too, but not exactly sure how to accomplish that. I'll have to do some research on that front.

All that said, it is a great beer, and I'm definitely enjoying my keg of it! Thanks to OP and all the contributors in the thread. I don't want my personal tweaks to take away from a great beer.

 

[DaveTF]

Resurrecting an old thread. Sorry.
Anyone have the recipe from the person that started this thread? I would like to find it. He hasn't been online since 2019 so I think he may have left the forum.

 

[cactusgarrett]

I've done a margarita gose a number of times, with great success. I think it's my most requested brew, and it's a surprisingly simple recipe/process:

47% pils or pale 2-row (I like pils, as i like goses to be a little more grainy)
35% white wheat malt
18% torrified wheat
(1 lb rice hulls)

3-4 IBU of something neutral like Spalter
1oz coriander seed (per 5gal batch, cracked, in boil with 10min left)
14g sea salt (per 5gal batch, in boil with 10min left)

Co-pitch or stagger pitch lacto plantarum and US-05, and ferment 65-70F until stable FG.
You could also do a more traditional kettle sour process if you want to keep your cold side equipment clean of lacto

Margarita flavor is two tinctures, added at packaging:
- zest 3 limes, soak in 3/4c tequila for 2 weeks
- 2oz oak cubes, soak in 3/4c tequila for 2 weeks
- strain and combine tinctures to taste at packaging (I add full amounts of both)

 

[DaveTF]

Thanks Cactusgarrett. Not sure if you've had Founders Mas Agave. I'm trying to get to that style and taste. Is your recipe based off the original posters? It sounds like it may be really close from reading the posts in this thread.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Is your recipe based off the original posters?

I believe so - i worked with him on the side about it. The base is a fairly standard gose base (2-row & wheat, then coriander & salt). The sourness and tinctures are really where this one is at, and you just add them to taste, so the strength of those flavors is fairly subjective and adjustable. So you are barely adding any hops, and the yeast just needs to be neutral to get out of the way of everything else.

 

[DaveTF]

I believe so - i worked with him on the side about it. The base is a fairly standard gose base (2-row & wheat, then coriander & salt). The sourness and tinctures are really where this one is at, and you just add them to taste, so the strength of those flavors is fairly subjective and adjustable. So you are barely adding any hops, and the yeast just needs to be neutral to get out of the way of everything else.

Thank you very much for providing this. I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

 

[isomerization]

As a man of science, I always assumed the freeze concentration of juice approach I use for my Watermelon Gose worked. Tested out the first round of concentration today with a digital refractometer. The concentrated juice (went from 4000 mL to 2000 mL) registered as 14.0 Brix while the “ice” in the jug was at 1.7 Brix. Pretty remarkable!

Another observation, the “ice” in the jug is very dark because of red fibrous material. It also strongly smells of cucumber. I wonder if this method helps eliminate that aromatic profile from the final beer? I always let my juice addition ferment out and have never had that issue.

 

[evolutionary]

Used the original recipe but did 4 limes. Used traditional kettle sour method and didn’t co-pitch. Came out awesome and a friends wife just stole a 6 pack even. Will be rebrewing for the summer.

 

[tennesseean_87]

I've brewed this a few times over the years. I prefer more lime, and will be increasing to something like 8 limes, and maybe 1 orange for my next batch. I also plan to cut back the coriander to .75 oz to see if that lets the citrus shine through more.

 

[evolutionary]

For everyone interested in a great summer brew, this is it. Already drank the head here but it’s about perfect. Tweak as you like (I like more oak) but be ready to go buy grain again. Thx to op for sure here. We’ve done several batches of this and keg or bottle, it comes out great.

 

[tennesseean_87]

I need to brew this again. I've upped the lime, and I'm going to cut the coriander by 25% on my next batch. I may do a little orange zest as well. Maybe do some more oak to have it come through a bit more.

Really great recipe!