Serve in a stange at 4-7 °C
What it tastes like
Gose began in Goslar and became the everyday beer of Leipzig: a wheat ale soured with lactic bacteria, seasoned with coriander and brewed with water that was naturally a little salty. It almost vanished in the twentieth century. The version most brewers make today comes from the craft revival, and it is quicker and cleaner than the old one. Most breweries kettle sour, holding the wort warm with Lactobacillus for a day or two until the pH drops to around 3.3 to 3.5, then boiling it to stop the bacteria before a normal ale fermentation.
The result is tart and bright, never vinegary. You should feel the salt as roundness and a slight thirst rather than taste it outright like sea water. Coriander adds a citrus, slightly floral lift. Hops sit very low so they do not clash with the acid. Many modern goses add fruit, and that is where the style gets most of its variety.
Style profile
- Look
- Pale straw to light gold, often hazy from the wheat, with a white head that does not stay long.
- Aroma and flavour
- Clean lactic sourness, lemon, a little bread from the wheat, the orange-peel spice of coriander and a faint mineral saltiness. Hop aroma is close to absent.
- Mouthfeel
- Light to medium-light body, high carbonation and a dry, tart finish. The salt gives a rounder feel than the gravity suggests.
- Ingredients
- Pilsner and wheat malt in roughly equal parts, Lactobacillus for souring, a clean ale yeast, coriander seed and a small dose of salt. Fruit, including kokum, is a common addition.
In India
Gose may be the most natural sour beer for India. We already drink salted, sour things in the heat: nimbu pani, jaljeera, sol kadhi. Brewers on the west coast have taken to kokum, the purple Konkan fruit behind sol kadhi, which turns the beer pink and gives it a sharp, fruity edge. Look for it on tap at brewpubs in Goa, Pune and Bengaluru, often as a seasonal. Serve it very cold. At around 5 per cent it makes a good afternoon beer, and it holds its own next to fried, salty snacks.
At the Indian table
Food pairings contributed by Anuradha Rao
- Malvani surmai rava fryKokum is a Malvani kitchen staple, so the beer feels at home, and the salt and acid cut straight through the crisp rava crust.
- Chole bhatureThe tart, salty beer does what the sliced onion and lemon on the side do, cutting the fried bhature and keeping the chole bright.
- RasgullaThe beer's salt and sourness cut the syrup the way a pinch of salt sharpens any dessert, and its light body never smothers the soft chhena.
Brewed in India
Want the long read? Gose