A Taste of Summer in the Depths of Winter: Briney Melon Gose by Anderson Valley Brewing

This post will complete a trifecta of reviews of goses by Anderson Valley Brewing. It began with their traditional gose, continued with a blood orange version, and now we finish with their Briney Melon Gose, watermelon-infused take on the style. The Anderson Valley website has no page dedicated to the brew that I can find but I read earlier this month that the bier sold well since being introduced last summer and is going to be canned. Cans will be available in March.

Although it was introduced in bottles and on draft back in the summer of 2015, I don't recall ever having seen it available here in Madison. I bought my 22oz bottle in Chicagoland back in November and sampled it earlier this month. Like too many brews I review here (something I hope to correct soon), this was not the freshest bier when I bought it and got around to drinking it. But, being a gose, I was not expecting the passage of time to have degraded the bier very much. Tartness is the main component here so it wasn't like I was going to encounter a dull, drab hoppiness as if this were an antiquated IPA.

Briney Melon pours a brilliant yellow hue, even if this is no apparent from my photograph. The bier was just a touch turbid but you would be hard pressed to notice this if you weren't a dork holding his up to the light and staring at it intently. I got a big, white head that dissipated rather quickly. There was a modicum of bubbles inside going up. Some of those bubbles were on the side of my stange which likely means that I need to do a better job of dishwashing.

As I mentioned in my previous review of a gose, I probably like more of a saline character in a gose than is traditional. From my understanding a gose should have enough salt to accent flavors and not really be tasted. Personally, I like to be able to taste just a hint of the salt – enough to know it's there. With the word "briney" being in the name of this bier, I was not at all surprised to be able to catch salinity in the aroma. Not a lot, mind you, but it was there. Briney Melon is watermelon-flavored but the fruity smell was less watermelon specifically and more melon-y in general. I couldn’t pinpoint a specific fruit, just that it was melon. There was also some mild graininess – like cracker - to be had in the nose.

Anderson Valley were not shy about making this a tart brew. I can just imagine what my face looked like upon taking my first sip and getting a blast of tartness that was moderately lemony tasting. The watermelon flavor was slightly sweet and potent enough to make its way through the lip-puckering sour and establish itself as a prominent taste. And, unsurprisingly, Briney Melon was briney. It had just enough salt to aid and abet the other flavors and also to let you know it's there. A bit of light graininess hung in the background while a hint of carbonation nipped at my tongue.

The bier finished dry with the melon flavor fading to more tartness. I couldn't discern any hops. Alas and alack, there was not much Schaumhaftvermoegen to be had beyond an occasional small streak of foam.

Briney Melon had a lot to love including a heady tartness that is exhilarating yet not tiring. It has the perfect amount of salt, to my taste. It brought out the other flavors of the beer very well and I could taste the salinity, though only just. The problem was the melon flavor. Watermelon seems like a wonderful addition to a gose but the "natural flavors" here made the beer taste like a Jolly Rancher. I was reminded of Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss or Sunset Wheat in how the fruit flavors in these beers don't taste like real fruit.

This is a real shame because I really like this bier otherwise. It's got a nice, light body – it's 4.2% A.B.V. – and is easy drinking and quite refreshing. Yet there's a lot going on here with the fruit, salinity, and tartness.

Junk food pairing: I like to keep the Southern cooking motif going when pairing with Briney Melon. Try some Chicken in a Biskit crackers with mild cheddar Easy Cheese and/or some deep fried mac & cheese bites.

A Gose to Drive Scurvy and the Winter Blues Away: Blood Orange Gose by Anderson Valley Brewing Company

Here we are waiting on half a foot of snow to fall and I'm going to write about a gose. Stranger things have happened at sea, I guess.

The gose is an old German style. It is a top-fermented sour wheat bier that is flavored with salt and coriander in addition to hops. Gose originated in the town of Goslar and soon spread to Leipzig where it gained immense popularity. It's one of many northern German beers that fared poorly in the face of the 19th century lager trend and the application of the (in)famous Reinheitsgebot laws to breweries outside of Bavaria in the early 20th century. The style died a slow death in its homeland and was finally pushed into extinction in the aftermath of World War II. Since then it has been resurrected by a few breweries in Germany. However, gose is making a much greater comeback here in the United States where sour beers are en vogue and American microbrewers are happy to oblige.

Some American brewers stay true to tradition while others tweak it by adding flavors beyond salt, coriander, and hops. One example of the latter that comes to mind is the Marionberry Hibiscus Gose by Widmer Brothers that Dexter's had on tap a couple years ago. Another is the bier at hand: Anderson Valley's Blood Orange Gose.

My photo isn't too bad this time. Putting white paper behind the glass really helps with getting the true color of the beer across which, in this case, is a light gold. It was slightly hazy which is understandable given the wheat in the grain bill. My stange was graced with a nice frothy white head which was in no hurry to dissipate. There were a few bubbles going up the glass.

The aroma was rather simple to my nose but it was a citrusy extravaganza of the titular blood orange and that lemony scent of the lactobacillus bacteria which gives the bier its sour taste as well. And it was the lactobacillus which I tasted first upon taking a sip. My tongue got a decent dose of that piquant lemon tartness. The blood orange, which was so prominent on the nose came through in a more moderate way on the back end of my sip. I could also taste the wheat with some breadiness coming through but it was in the background as was a modicum of carbonation.

At the finish that lemony lacto tartness lingered and there was also a little bite from the carbonation. Sadly, no Schaumhaftvermoegen was left on my stange.

For reasons only known to Anderson Valley, they make Blood Orange Gose available in October through April. Why they would foist a wonderfully light-bodied and fairly low alcohol (4.2% A.B.V.) brew on us in the colder months is beyond me. I guess you'll want to buy some in the spring and hold onto it for the summer months because this is a great beer. And I say this despite not being able to taste any salinity nor coriander. Perhaps these flavors would have been more apparent if the bier had been warmer. As it was, I thoroughly enjoyed the blood orange-lemon combo. While tart, it was moderately so. This is not like a Destihl wild sour which should come with a warning label saying consumption could damage your tongue.

I was not impressed with Anderson Valley's regular gose, The Kimmie, The Yink, and the Holy Gose Ale but the addition of citrus really helps. This is simply a great, refreshing bier.

Junk food pairing: This is a light-bodied brew with flavors that are not overly intense so pairing something counter risks overwhelming it. Instead find something complementary like lime chili tortilla chips.

The Kimmie, The Yink, and the Holy Gose: Anderson Valley's Take on the Gose

Now is the time for all good Wisconsin beer drinkers to consume brews leftover from the warmer months in preparation for what the Farmer's Almanac is predicting to be a really goddamn cold winter. And so to make room for stouter fair in my refrigerator, I have begun to drink the lighter fare therein.

First up is Anderson Valley's The Kimmie, The Yink, and the Holy Gose Ale. I have no idea what the name is supposed to mean. I suppose that it's an in-joke for the brewmaster or some goofy northern California punage. Regardless of the name, I was keen on trying a domestic take on the German brew.

The gose (go-suh) dates back to the 16th century and gets its name from its hometown – Goslar. The brew spread and folks in Leipzig really took a shine to it and breweries there began to brew it. Eventually the beer became associated with Leipzig. Gose went on the decline around World War I presumably because, well, there was a war on plus the Reinheitsgebot had escaped Bavaria only to spread northward and lagers were the hip and cool (pun intended) beer trend. World War II seems to have killed it but the style was resurrected every now and again during the bad old days of the Cold War. Today I believe there are two or three breweries in Germany that brew Gose with the most common one to my eyes on this side of the Atlantic being Leipziger Gose.

Provenance aside, the style is that of a sour wheat beer. 50%+ of the grain bill is wheat with the rest being barley. It is spiced with coriander, salt, and hops while lactic bacteria provide the sourness. Until this brew, I had never had a brew by Anderson Valley and was really looking forward to it.

The Kimmie, The Yink, and the Holy Gose Ale pours a nice foamy head despite what my photograph shows. By the time I took a picture that was lit well enough and in focus, the head had dissipated. The bier itself is clear and of a very light straw color. There were a few stray bubbles making their way up. A lemony tartness dominated the aroma.

On the tongue The Kimmie... has a light body and you get the effervescence. You may not see the bubbles in your glass but you can taste them. As with the aroma, the lactic tartness stands out along with its attendant lemony/citrus flavor. Further along the tongue you catch a bit of grain along with a stone fruit flavor. There was just the barest hint of salinity. The hops only seem discernible in the finish which is tart, slightly bitter, and dry. It was disappointing to me that the salt was barely noticeable but even worse was that I could not taste any coriander. None. Zip. Keiner. Anderson Valley's webpage says it's in there but you could have fooled me. Perhaps their brewmaster is into homeopathy and really diluted it while counting on the wort to have a memory of the coriander.

As I drank I found that the bier yielded no Schaumhaftvermoegen. The sides of my glass were clean. But I did feel refreshed. Despite the near absence of hops, salt, and coriander, this beer goes down easily with its rather light body, lemony flavor, and dry finish. Anderson Valley reports that it is 4.2% A.B.V. which is sessionable and quite appropriate for hotter weather.

Junk Food Pairing: I would definitely pair this beer with Chinese shrimp chips – the ones that look like Shrinky Dinks before you fry them up.

Folks here in Madison should try Egon's Revenge from Next Door Brewing, although you'll probably have to wait until next summer to do so. It is a wonderful beer and probably more in line with the gose style as it has traditionally been made with a fuller body than The Kimmie... Best of all, the salt and coriander are not hidden, though not overwhelming either. It's a bit stronger at 4.6% but within the range for the style. Personally, I think it's one of the best beers you can find in Madison.