Beer and Wine Weekly Update, July 13, 2015

By Brian Wendt, Beer and Wine Department

What’s a Gose?

Hey all, this week I wanted to talk about an interesting style popping up throughout craft breweries in the US recently: the Gose. 

Gose (pronounced GOH-zuh) is a traditional, unfiltered German wheat beer.  Sea salt and coriander are added, along with lactic bacteria during fermentation, to give it a tart and slightly sour taste.  Ever wanted to try a sour beer? Try a Gose! It’s a great introduction to sour beers.  My favorite is the Lost Nation Gose, which is available in 4 pack cans.  They tend to sell fast though, so if we’re out, we also have Six Point’s Jammer (6 pack cans) and Gose the Destructor from Simple Roots (in 22oz. bottles).

Session Beers

Now on to session beers. What’s a session beer? Usually session beers are under 5% ABV, though sometimes you’ll see beers as high as 5.5% or even 6% described as “sessionable.”  Another name for a session beer is a “lawnmower beer,” a beer that you can drink a few of and still mow the lawn straight (mostly…)!

If you’re looking for a good session beer, I recommend 21st Amendment’s Down to Earth, a session IPA.  Session IPA’s can be tricky to make right, since you have fewer malts (and less alcohol) to balance out those hoppy flavors so often session IPA’s can taste rather thin.  Down to Earth though has that great hop bitterness and flavor you would expect from an IPA but is backed by Golden Promise, a Scottish base malt that has a pleasantly sweet, malty flavor. Down to Earth comes in 6 pack cans, so it’s perfect for carrying to the beach or on a hike.

Summer Picks

Finally, summer is here and we’re all looking for some tasty, thirst-quenching beers.  Here are some of my favorite summer beers that we carry:

1. Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin – a fantastic IPA that is well balanced and citrusy.

2. Sierra Nevada Summerfest – A solid Czech-style Pilsner, and at 5% stays sessionable.

3. 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon – A light, refreshing wheat beer with watermelon added…it’s hard not to like!

Cheers!