Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Gose

Not long ago, I'd stopped by Jay's Brewing to pick up some items, and shortly after I got home, found an email in my inbox from the folks at Jay's, with a recipe for a gose (pronounced "GOES-uh").  The recipe didn't specify a volume, but based on the ingredients, I assume that it would be about 5 gal.  The recipe is as follows:

3 lbs. Pilsen DME
3 lbs. Wheat DME
2 lbs. Acid. Malt (20min @ 156°)
1 oz.  Tradition(60 min.)
.5 oz.  Tradition(10 min.)
.75 oz. Sea salt (10 min.)
.50 oz. Ground Coriander (10 min.)
Yeast - WLP029

Okay, looks simple enough.  I have no idea how it'll come out, but that's the joy of home brewing, isn't it?

Pg 148 of Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing has a similar recipe for a gose.  As far as goses go, I like Anderson Valley's Blood Orange Gose.  Also, I visited Crooked Run Brewing on 21 May, and had the simply wonderful La Resaca, which is a 0 IBU gose.

During the course of my research, I found a couple of other, similar recipes:
Breakin' the Law Gose
Salty Gose the Margarita
SourBrew Blog - uses kettle souring
BYO Recipe

During my "other" research, I've tried some really good goses, a couple from Anderson Valley, specifically the Blood Orange and Briney Melon goses.

So, here's my first attempt at a gose...

Brew Day: 8 June 2016

Partial Mash:
8 oz white wheat malt
8 oz acid malt

I followed my usual partial mash process.

Boil (60 min):
13 oz Pilsen DME (@ 60 min)
4 g Hallertau (@ 60 min)
4 g sea salt (@ 10 min)
3 g ground Coriander (@ 10 min)

Yeast: Safale US-05, 1/2 bottle of Clarity Firm

I cooled the wort and pitched the yeast using my usual process.  I did notice that the resulting wort was very light in color...I think that minus the acid malt, replacing with Vienna, and adding some flaked wheat might make a really good Belgian wit recipe.

Addendum, 23 Jun: Bottled today with 1 oz of priming sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water; got 9 good bottles out of it.  Tried a bit of the beer that was left after filling the bottles - was a little sweet and not even a hint of sour, but that might be due to the priming sugar.  We'll see how this turns out in a couple of weeks; I may give something like the NB Dawson's Kriek (uses WYeast 3278) a try if the acid malt doesn't really do much; either that or try WLP655, which my favorite home brew supply place has in stock.

Addendum, 12 Jul: Tried one of these tonight.  Light yellow color, very clear, pours with a full, persistent head.  No discernible aroma, not the slightest sour or tart taste, although there is a very mild sense that there is something there.  Came out as a clear wit beer.  Not bad, very light and refreshing...but not a gose at all.

Page 181 of The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide has an inset called "Full Wort Souring".  This inset describes how to sour the wort, simply by letting it set for 12 - 24 hrs.

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