Short & Shoddy | Gose

Author: Alex Shanks-Abel

Like most homebrewers, the beers I make are shaped by my environment. I spent my first few years brewing in Iowa and Wisconsin where most of the craft beers were primarily described by their color – red, brown, amber, etc. As such, my homebrew reflected my consumption – my Blonde Ales were typically more orange, and my Pale Ales were not so pale.

In 2016, I moved to Houston, Texas where the beers available at the bottle shop were completely different than those in the Midwest. While I spent the first few months mourning the dearth of dark styles, my attitude quickly changed during my first summer in the oppressive Texas heat. After trying many light styles, the one that stood out to me as the most refreshing was Gose, which the BJCP describes as:

A tart, lightly-bittered historical central European wheat beer with a distinctive but restrained salt and coriander character. Very refreshing, with a dry finish, high carbonation, and bright flavors.

In recent years, simple session sour beers have become less abundant on store shelves, so I’ve taken to brewing my own, and I’ve made Gose in particular many times. Perhaps as a function of the generally odd nature of this style, I’ve typically employed some less-than-traditional methods when brewing it, though I recently decided to throw all caution to the wind by making a Gose where I cut as many corners as possible.

| BREWING THE BEER |

I went with a simple Gose recipe that was inspired by previous batches I thought turned out well.

Short & Shoddy Gose

The night before my scheduled brew day, I prepared by weighing out and milling the grain.

At 2:47 PM the following day, I flipped the switch on my BrewZilla 120V controller to get the water heating up then added salts to achieve my desired mineral profile.

When the water was my target temperature, I stirred in the grist then checked to make sure it was at my target mash temperature.

Rather than setting the controller to maintain this temperature, I left it on full power throughout the mash step until it reached 205°F/96°C, which took a total of 41 minutes.

At this point, I cut the heat, transferred the hot hop-free wort to a fermentation keg, and placed it in a water bath for a modified no-chill. The time was 4:16 PM for a total brew day duration of just 1 hour 29 minutes.

A refractometer reading showed the wort was at 1.038 OG, for a brewhouse efficiency of 73%.

When the wort was reasonably cool a few hours later, I direct pitched a pouch of LalBrew Sourvisiae into it, opting for this convenient option over lactic acid bacteria (LAB). It was left to ferment at a fairly warm 76°F/24°C.

At 13 days into fermentation, I made a tincture of a 50/50 blend of Indian and Moroccan coriander seeds that I crushed with a mortar and pestle then covered with vodka.

The following day, I took a hydrometer measurement indicating an expectedly high FG.

At this point, I cold crashed the beer overnight then added the liquid from the coriander tincture along with a dose of gelatin fining, all to the same keg the beer was fermented in. I hit the keg with CO2 and let it condition for a week before it was ready to serve to tasters.

| RESULTS |

A total of 23 people of various levels of experience participated in this Short & Shoddy evaluation. Participants were informed of the specific beer style and provided the BJCP description prior to completing the survey. Tasters were then instructed to rate how hoppy, malty, and dry they perceived the beer to be on a 0-5 scale where a rating of 0 indicated “not at all” and 5 indicated “extremely.”

Tasters were provided a list of common hop, malt, and yeast characteristics then instructed to select from each the one they perceived as being most prominent in the beer.

Hop Characteristics

Malt Characteristics

Yeast Characteristics

Next, participants were asked to indicate whether or not they detected any off-flavors in the beer; those who did were provided a list of common off-flavors and instructed to select the one they perceived as being strongest. A total of 7 tasters felt they perceived off-flavors, with 3 endorsing sour/acidic, 2 noting sulfur, and astringent, oxidized, grassy, and yeasty each being identified by 1 taster.

Tasters were then asked to rate how well the beer represented the intended style, based on the provided BJCP description, on a 0-5 scale where 0 meant “not at all” and 5 meant “exactly.”

Finally, tasters were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the beer on a 0-5 scale where 0 indicated not at all and 5 indicated extremely.

My Impressions: I perceived this Short & Shoddy Gose as being delightfully bright, dry, tart, and lemony, though with a mostly absent malt character. While less beer-y than some commercial examples, it was a fantastic and refreshing summer beer that appealed to my friends who enjoy hard seltzer!

| CONCLUSION |

Purportedly originating in Germany over 1,000 years ago, Gose is a unique beer that would likely have gone extinct if it weren’t for modern brewers reviving this tart and salty style. While commercial examples often rely on a dose of sodium chloride to impart the savory quality Gose is known for, it was originally brewed with water that was naturally high in minerals including salt before being allowed to spontaneously ferment with wild yeast and bacteria.

Given its funky nature, Gose seemed an ideal candidate for Short & Shoddy, especially considering the options that currently exist for fermenting sour beers sans bugs. Interestingly, tasters of the version I made with no actual mash rest or boil, not to mention the absence of hops, not only seemed to think it was a decent representation of the style, but also enjoyed drinking it. While a minority of tasters fell they perceived off-flavors, the most commonly endorsed was sour/acidic, which is expected for this style. Ratings on the various perceptible aspects of this Short & Shoddy Gose more or less aligned with the BJCP description – dry with crackery malt and a wild yeast character. Funnily, a majority of tasters reported perceiving a fruity hop note despite there being no hops added to this beer; it should be noted this is a required rating.

Personally, I love how this Gose turned out! At sub-2% ABV, it was a fantastic guilt-free beer to drink during the work week, and despite the corners I cut when brewing it, I didn’t perceive any off-flavors. While I thoroughly enjoyed this beer on its own, it made for a delicious, clean base for fruit additions, in fact I most enjoyed it with some lime juice mixed in. Anyone looking for a low ABV margarita alternative that you can knock out in 90 minutes, this is definitely worth a shot!

If you have thoughts about this Short & Shoddy brew, please feel free to share it in the comments section below!

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