A German wheat ale brewed with coriander and salt. Perfect for a hot summer day.
This post is part of a series on “All-Day Beer“. Designed to let you enjoy your favorite beverage throughout the day while still remaining an upright and functional human. You can check out the full set here.
Last time, we were talking about what makes a beer refreshing. So here’s an example of a beer with those qualities.
I have a thing for obscure beer styles and I haven’t been able to find a commercial version of this one locally. Gose (not to be confused with Gueuze) is a German wheat ale brewed with coriander and salt. It’s somewhere between a Wit and a BerlinerWeiss.
Coriander gives it a bit of citrusey-ness even without the orange peel. Salt adds more of a background flavor – this version doesn’t taste “salty”.
It finishes fairly dry – under 1.010 – and has a light sourness or tartness. A little like a lemonade but not nearly as sour as a Berliner Weiss. And then a high level of carbonation to play up the dry and tart components.
This recipe is a modified version of one that appears in Radical Brewing. It calls for Acid malt – which is malt that has been allowed to sour before drying – to achieve the sour flavors.
I didn’t think it was quite strong enough so I added another 15 ml of Lactic Acid to the keg. To figure how much Lactic Acid to add, get a measured glass of beer and add the acid a few drops at a time until you get the flavor you want. Then multiply by ~50 glasses in a keg.
You could also use a Lactobacillus culture (Wyeast 5335 or White Labs WLP677) after primary fermentation is complete. I was kind of worried that might over-do it but I’ll probably try it at some point.
In reading up on the style, there’s not much consistency in how the few commercial examples are brewed – so feel free to adjust it to your liking.
There’s no extract version because the high amount of Acid Malt needs enzymes to convert. If you want to brew an extract version, drop the Acid malt and use a 50% Wheat/50% Pilsner malt blend then sour with either Lactic Acid or Lactobacillus culture.
Gose |
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Type: All Grain |
Date: 7/19/2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Batch Size: 6.00 gal |
Brewer: Jimmy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boil Size: 8.17 gal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boil Time: 45 min | Equipment: Brew Pot (10 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ingredients |
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Beer Profile |
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Est Original |
Measured Original Gravity: 1.041 SG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG | Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.08 % | Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.03 % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bitterness: 12.4 IBU | Calories: 180 cal/pint | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Est Color: 3.5 SRM | Color:
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Mash Profile |
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| Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge |
Total Grain Weight: 9.00 lb | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sparge Water: 6.69 gal | Grain Temperature: 72.0 F | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F | TunTemperature: 72.0 F | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE |
Mash PH: 5.4 PH | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Carbonation and |
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| Carbonation Type: Kegged (Forced CO2) |
Volumes of CO2: 3.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pressure/Weight: 20.7 PSI | Carbonation Used: - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Keg/Bottling Temperature: 45.0 F |
Age for: 28.0 days | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Storage Temperature: 45.0 F | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes |
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| Adjust sourness to taste with Lactic Acid, or Lacto-bacillus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hi there! My name is Jimmy VerVaecke and I’m a brewer. I discovered brewing in 2004 and have been hooked ever since.
My beer has won numerous awards, including one at the National level. 
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Jimmy,
When you brewed this Gose, what dide you use as a point of reference to know if you got it right? Were you able to find a commercial example?
-Old Nick
Hi Nick,
Good question. I haven’t found a commercial version in any of the local stores yet.
From the information I was able to find there appears to be a fair bit of variation even between the commercial versions.
This isn’t a style where there must be exactly x level of sourness or y level of saltiness or z amount of spices. As long as you have the basic parameters, it’s definitely adjustable to your liking.
The 30 or so people that I’ve served the last batch to really enjoyed it so I’m calling it good!
Jimmy
Jimmy –
Sams Quik Shop has a pretty big bottle of Gose. Its not a big turnover item so I’m not sure about quality but its in an awesome bottle.