Bier: Leipziger Gose

Since I ranted about German beers and said that American beer drinkers ought to look at styles other than the pils, I thought I'd do so myself.





This is Leipziger Gose. It is a sour wheat beer that originated 1000+ years ago in Goslar which is in north-central Germany. In the 18th century the beer made a name for itself in Leipzig a hundred some odd miles to the east and it's most closely associated with that city today. The style died out in the 1950s but was revived after German reunification. Gose is brewed with coriander and salt(?!) and would seem to make it a cousin of the Belgian wit. Lactic bacteria make the beer sour taking it very far away from the stereotypical German lagers.

I've never been to Leipzig but pictures always show the brew served in a tall cylindrical glass – a larger version of the Kölsch glass. I don't have any Kölsch glasses yet so I used a wine glass. The beer came in a bottle with a very long neck and a swing top. Uncorking yielded a nice pop because this stuff was highly carbonated. It poured a big head and had a dark straw color which was very cloudy. With the caveat that my nose was a bit stuffy I will say that it had a biscuity smell with hints of hops, coriander, and orange.

I served it cold and the first thing my tongue registered was the effervescence. This gave way to a citrusy sour with the coriander in the background along with the barest hint of salinity. The finish was dry and sour and it left a more prominent salt taste after I'd swallowed. As the beer warmed everything moved to the fore. It became a lot more sour and the coriander and salt were more obvious. The Dulcinea said the salt was always up front for her tastebuds than it was for mine. This could very well be due to my sniffles.

This is not exactly a beer for the depths of winter but I could certainly see myself quaffing this stuff in the spring and summer. I've read that, like the Berliner Weiss, it often has raspberry or woodruff syrup added to it. For a heartier take a cherry liqueur or caraway flavored akavit is added. I have some of the latter but haven't tried it in the beer.

Gose is good stuff. It's light and refreshing and I enjoy sour beers. I do wish the coriander was more prominent but that could merely have been because of the sinuses. Still,I really enjoyed it. I hope to find some this summer and would love to try a dark version of this beer. Let me also note that I enjoyed this stuff more than Gordon Biersch's take on it last summer at The Great Taste. Leipziger was more flavorful and had a bit more balance making it much more drinkable. I see that some other American breweries make or have made gose but, to the best of my knowledge, no Wisconsin brewery has. Dan Carey of New Glarus has a way with sours so perhaps he'll brew one in the future.