Out Of Key Brewing

Ive really interested in the Gose (Goes-A) since I had the chance to try it this past summer at the Great Taste of the Midwest.  It really stood out as excellent on a day of excellent beers.

Before you try to produce a new recipe it is best to consult with those with experience. First off I am extremely fortunate to have access to some excellent brewers.  Russ Chibe is a member of my homebrew club and is quite accomplished at brewing styles that originate in Germany.  His series on brewing Gose is a must for anyone looking to reproduce the style.  Additionally I reached out to Kevin from GB for his process and he was extremely helpful in pointing me in the right direction.

 

 

The general recipe / process is as follows:
50/50 german pils  / wheat malt ~ 11-12 plato
Mash Low 150s
Run off and let cool to 100f (no boil)
Pitch Lacto – Hold at 100f until PH reaches 3.7
Boil
30 minute boil
6-10 ibu (Hallertau or noble hop)
10 minute  -.96 oz Coriander in 6 gallons.  Scaling back 10% gets me to .84 oz.
Kosher Salt (15g is a good starting point)
My process and recipe fell somewhere between what Kevin and Russ recommended.  For the recipes I used the following:
There Gose The Neighborhood

Recipe Specifics
—————-

Batch Size (Gal):         5.50    Wort Size (Gal):    5.50
Total Grain (Lbs):        8.94
Anticipated OG:          1.047    Plato:             11.67
Anticipated SRM:           3.0
Anticipated IBU:           7.8
Brewhouse Efficiency:       76 %
Wort Boil Time:             75    Minutes
Grain/Extract/Sugar

%     Amount     Name                          Origin        Potential SRM
—————————————————————————–
48.2     4.31 lbs. Wheat Malt                    Germany        1.039      2
44.4     3.97 lbs. Pilsener                      Germany        1.038      2
7.4      0.66 lbs. Flaked Barley                 America        1.032      2

Hops

Amount     Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time
—————————————————————————–
0.80 oz.    Hallertau Hersbrucker             Whole    4.75   7.8  30 min.

I added the Flaked barley because, well, nearly everything I brew has flaked barley in it.  I like what it brings to the table, and have found that when brewing with wheat a little flaked barley produces amazing foam and head retention, which I really wanted to emphasize with this beer.
My process shakes out like this, On day one mash as usual.  Run off, your full volume and bring to a boil.  Boil for 10 minutes.  This will kill off any lacto that exists in the grain and carried through from the mash.  It should be noted that if you chose to not boil you could add a handful of cracked grain to the wort and it would sour.  I decided to boil because I wanted to sour with a pure strain of lacto from White Labs.

 

Chill the beer to 115-120f and run off into a carboy (I’d recommend using glass/steel for this).  For the next two to three days you will need to keep this wort at 120 degrees to allow the lacto to work optimally.  Personally I use a large Rubbermaid tub filled with water, a ranco temp controller, and a heatstick (from amazon).
Standard disclaimer here.  Electricity and water do not mix and will kill you.  Do not attempt without the appropriate safety precautions.

I cannot emphasize enough how important this warm step is.  If you fail to keep your wort warm the lacto will not get it nearly sour enough.  You will need to keep an eye on your water bath because the elevated temperatures will increase the evaporation rate.
After two to three days the lacto will drive the pH of the solution down to around 3.7.  At 3.7 lacto has a really hard time producing additional acid and the acid production will slow.  Feel free to give it a few more days, but it is a fools battle.  Try the beer at this point.  The smell will be funky but tasting will gives you a totally different viewpoint. Personally I was ready to drink it without fermenting it further.  The sugar left in solution and the acid made it really quite nice.

 

If you wish to preserve your lacto culture you should harvest some of your wort now.

 

Next up is the boil and ferment phase.  This is fairly standard stuff.  I personally chose to go with a 75 minute boil due the heavy pils malt bill and the extended time in the 100’s.  I only wanted to ensure that I fully drove off any DMS and DMS precursors.  Was it necessary?  I can’t say for sure but it made for a cheap insurance policy.  It should be noted that this will also nuke all the lacto in the wort.

 

At the 10 minute mark I made my coriander and salt additions.  I went with:
•    20 g of Indian Coriander
•    22 g of Kosher Salt

 

This is about 10% less than what Kevin used in his batch last summer.  I made the change because he felt that it was a bit too orange forward.   The salt is kind of a wild card and can be adjusted in the keg if desired.  A salt addition of 22g will put it in the salty range.  If you like it a bit less assertive, I’d start at 15g and tweak from there.

 

Then chill and ferment.  I used Wyeast 1007 German Ale because I had it laying around and it was semi traditional.  More traditional would be to use one of the weizen yeasts, however many people just use Cal Ale for the clean profile.  This beer is not about the yeast, so whatever yeast you go with ensure that it gives you a clean fermentation.

 

Up next Keg / Bottle to 2.5 – 2.6 vols and enjoy.

The end result came out quite nice.  My version came out nicely sour but not puckeringly so.  The salt was quite forward but in my opinion it did not overwhelm the beer.  I would perhaps boost the coriander 2-3% but at that point it is really splitting hairs. I served this beer at my St. Partrick’s Day party and I think that the people that liked it most were “non-beer” people.   My sister in law has liked it enough to inquire if I would brew a keg for her.  For me  this is high praise.   The beer itself is quite quaffable at 5.5% and is amazingly refreshing.   It would be an amazing summer beer.   Ive submitted it to the BOSS Brewoff and once I have the results back Ill post the scoresheets.