Gelbe Birken (Yellow Birch) Gose

The salt used in this Gose comes from this ocean

Welcome back to Off The Hinge Brewing!  The Watermelon Mint Super Saison is kegged, and turned out great.  The watermelon flavor was fairly subtle, so I juiced a watermelon and added about a 1/2 gallon of watermelon juice to the keg and racked the beer over it.  Now, I feel it is just right!  This was suppose to be my refreshing summer ale, and it is, however it is 8.5%.  That being said, I need something a bit on the light side.

Gose, is an ancient German beer from the Saxony region.  It is a sour and salty concoction, which is quite different from the standard German beer.  The Reinheitsgebot (German purity law), which states the brewer can only use malt, hops, water, and yeast does not allow for other ingredients.  The gose being a rare exception.

How can Gose use ingredients such as, Coriander and salt?  The purity law originated in the 15th Century in Bavaria.  Germany at that time had not been Unified.  Gose originated in the town of Goslar, which is located within the North Eastern state of Saxony outside the rules of Bavaria.  This strange brew battled for its life and disappeared for awhile due to war and communism.  During the communist rule in East Germany, food became scarce and the cereals that make up the grist for the beer went to making bread instead.  For more info on gose check out this site, http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/Gose.html.

Taking some notes

American craft brewers are getting into the German Funk and giving it the respect it deserves!  I have yet to make a sour beer and did not care for sours.  Then, I tried the 'Geisterzug Gose.'  It is one of my favorite beers, sour, salty, citrusy, piney, and refreshing.  It also uses spruce tips.  Thinking about this beer I have been wanting to make a gose for the past 2 years.  My friend Shadow had an idea to brew a cedar tip gose and wanted to brew with me.  Finally, a good reason to brew this sour libation.

The cedar sounded delicious, but time was of the essence and the cedar was too difficult to find. The local brew shop had Yellow Birch wood.  Smelling this honey comb wooden stave, I was reminded of wintergreen and it had a sort of tartness to it, which I thought would play nice with the sour profile.

Finally, Shadow and I brewed this wheat based sour!  It took some time to match up our schedules.  Here is the skinny on the beer.  Traditionally, Gose uses a 60/40 ratio of Wheat to Pilsner malt.  Unfortunately, I did not have my recipe with me when I went to get my grains.  My ratio was roughly, 40/30 with the remainder being Acidulated malt.  I am not too worried about it.

Acid Malt is a sprayed with lactic acid, which will give the beer its sour edge.  We were going to use just one pound of the sour grain, however as we were mashing out we thought it could use more sourness.  We then added another pound.  After we stirred it up the grist and let it sit for awhile we continued the mash out.

Before I forget, when using this lactic grain you want to added it after the conversion of the wheat and Pilsner malt.  We mashed the Wheat and Pilsner for 60 minutes.  After that time, we added the Acid Malt for another 45 minutes.  The Acid malt lowers the ph in the water, which can negatively effect the enzymes if added too early.

If we were using Coriander seeds, we would have used more than the salt addition.  Instead, we used powdered Coriander, which made me think it would be bolder in flavor, although the essential oils may be compromised?  We used a quarter of an ounce of the Coriander and a half ounce of Salt.  I wanted a good balanced mineral to salinity salt.  I had no problem selecting this salt, because I use it frequently.  This is also a local product from the Oregon Coast, which is hand harvested.  The company that produces this product is called, Jacobsen's Salt.  I recommend it to any salt lover.

As far as Yeast goes, we decided on a kolsch strain.  I feel it has a nice profile that offers some fruity esters and is clean too, like a lager.  It is sometimes used in Berlinerweiss, which is almost the same beer as a Gose minus the salt and a bit more sour.  That is about all I have for today,  I just checked the reading and at the moment we are looking at about a 3.2% summer beer.  Remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry!  Prost!