6
PACKAGING AND SERVICE
On the other hand, Gose should not mature too fast, otherwise something can happen that none of the tavern hosts is immune to: The sultriness before a summer storm can make a whole Gose supply turn into vinegar.
—Quoted by Axel Frey, Bernd Weinkauf, Dr. Hartmut Hennebach, Gose Häppchen: 12 Kapitel Bier- und Kneipengeschichte. (Translated by Adept Content Solutions)
Today, Gose can be packaged much like any other beer: in kegs, bottles, or cans. There is no need to worry about the acidity of the liquid affecting the crown of the bottle or the aluminum of the can, as Gose beers are less acidic than your average cola soft drink. There certainly are no longer the worries of packaging in traditional, slender-necked bottles and yeast plugs building up to contain the carbonation.
As any good brewer knows, oxygen is the enemy of any and all packaged beer. It will cause an unpleasant wet cardboard aroma and flavor. At Anderson Valley we do daily tasting of our beers and we incorporate aged beer (stored both warm and cold) into the tastings. We have found that Gose fares better during aging than all of our other non-sour beers. I do not know if it is the low hopping rate (highly hopped beers tend to pick up oxidized flavors faster), or if it is the lack of crystal malt (there is recent data supporting the anecdotal theory that crystal malt contributes to oxidation), or if it is the low pH; but, whatever the case, Gose tends to age better than IPA and other pale hoppy beers.
For those of you who are more traditional and would like to bottle condition your Gose, there are a few simple rules. For every gram of sugar fermented, 0.489 g of carbon dioxide will be created. So for a five-gallon batch of beer to go from 1 volume of CO2 to around 2.75 volumes, you will need to add 5.1 oz. (145 g) priming sugar. Make sure that you have sufficient yeast in the beer, and that the beer is stored warm enough after priming, for the yeast to be able to re-ferment. Be sure not to over-prime your bottles—some yeast can actually build up enough pressure during fermentation to explode bottles.
Some brewers choose to use a different yeast for bottle conditioning than for the main fermentation. In contrast, others prefer to bottle condition without sugar and instead add actively fermenting beer. This method has the advantage of adding a known amount of healthy, active yeast to the beer along with the malt sugar from the wort. It can be a little tricky getting the fermenting beer at the right stage so that it contains the correct amount of both yeast and sugar, but the results are worth the trouble. The up side of bottle conditioning is that there is yeast left in the bottle, and this yeast will scavenge oxygen from the beer and keep it fresher longer. The down side is, that yeast can make the beer cloudy and a bit yeasty tasting when the beer is poured.
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON GOSE PACKAGING
As Gose’s popularity grew, brewers started exporting it to other towns and then on to other regions. The beer was transported by horse cart to the taverns where it would be served. This trip sometimes took four to six hours from the Döllnitz brewery just north of Leipzig, and longer for breweries farther afield. Typically, fully fermented beer was sent from the breweries, but in the mid-1800s the Döllnitz brewery started filling the barrels and then adding the yeast. They would then quickly load the barrels onto the horse carts and ship them off to taverns. This was best done in the cooler months. In warmer weather the trip had to be a fast one or the barrels would start fermenting. The occasional exploding barrel was not a rare occurrence in the hottest days of summer.
When a cartload arrived at the tavern, the barrels were put into the cellar, where temperatures were a more consistent 50–60°F (10°C–16°C), and the bunghole was opened up. This vented the pressure and allowed the yeast to rise up and out of the barrel. As the beer fermented in the barrels, much of the excess yeast was expelled. After the most active part of the fermentation slowed, and the yeast stopped foaming out of the barrels, the Gose was drained into a large tub. This tub served to help homogenize the barrels of Gose. From there, the beer was hand-filled into the characteristic longneck bottles. Gose was then matured in the bottle, which took from 6 to 18 days. During this time, yeast would come to the top of the bottles, push its way up the long neck, and form a seal there in the top of the bottle neck. This plug was impermeable enough to retain any carbon dioxide remaining in the beer. A small amount of yeast settled at the bottom of the bottle as well.
Some people have questioned whether a plug of top-fermenting yeast would have been strong enough to seal the bottle neck and hold in any real amount of carbonation. In the February 17th, 1882 edition of the Goslarsche Zeitung, the article titled “Lokales aus der Provinz und aus den Nachbarstaaten: Goslarsche Gose” found by Benedikt Rausch states, “There is no yeast pitched into the beer. Due to that fact, a thick layer of mold builds on top of it. The thicker this leather-like layer gets, the better the stability of the beer. The reason for that is that the mold layer blocks oxygen from getting into the beer. Only when the beer is given away is yeast pitched.”1 To me, this thick, leather-like layer sounds a lot like the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) used to ferment kombucha. In experiments at home, I was able to grow up a fairly thick SCOBY layer in about three to four weeks for a high-alcohol Kombucha. This SCOBY was indeed leather-like, and it would certainly have been thick enough to exclude oxygen during aging and to plug the long neck of the traditional Gose bottle, and by doing so, retain some carbonation.
A normal pellicle would not be tough enough to plug the neck of a bottle. Possibly, if this pellicle were combined with some yeast, it might form a plug, but it seems unlikely to me that it would hold much carbonation. But, if Gose beers were in fact fermented by a SCOBY-like combination of bacteria and yeast, the resulting pellicle could certainly have formed a plug sufficient to hold carbonation. And if Gose beers of the day were fermented with a SCOBY-like group of microorganisms, it would have had a noticeable flavor impact on the final beer, almost certainly making it more acetic (Henneberg 1897, 223).
This would fit with some of the descriptions of more mature bottles of Gose being very sour, while other descriptions said that Gose beers (younger bottles that had not yet developed as much acetic acid) were not that sour at all. In my experiments with mixed-culture fermentations, Lactobacillus creates lactic acid fairly early on prior to Acetobacter creating acetic acid, which often happens two to four weeks after the main yeast fermentation is finished. This has been most notably true in mixed fermentations where there was a lot of good, strong yeast present. As yeast creates carbon dioxide, it blankets the surface of the beer and excludes oxygen from it and Acetobacter requires oxygen to create acetic acid.
When it came time to serve the beer, the yeast plug would be quickly “swashed away,” and the beer gently poured from the bottle. To achieve the best flavors, the bottled Gose is best kept at moderate temperatures around 60°F (15°C).
The cellar temperature had a significant effect on the duration of the maturation process. The maturation would be much shorter at higher temperatures during the summer, and slower in the cool of winter. Once the Gose was bottled, it wouldn’t have been kept any more than three weeks in the summer. It is said that in the heat of summer, Gose would be considered undrinkable after three weeks, suggesting that Acetobacter had done its work turning the lemony Gose into something akin to malt vinegar. For other seasons, Gose would have lasted four to five weeks in the bottle during spring or fall, and up to six weeks in the cold winter months. After those maturation periods, the Gose was said to be suitable only for real Gose lovers—those who really liked sour beers. It is written that caution had to be used to prevent the Gose from maturing too fast, otherwise “the sultriness before a summer storm” could make it turn to pure vinegar (i.e., be overly infected with Acetobacter). The spring and fall were the best times to mature the beer. For the tavern owner, the trick was to have the beer ready and serve it all at the right time. Some tavern owners went to the trouble of stocking several differing degrees of maturity, serving the fresher, less sour beers to those not accustomed to Gose, and saving the more mature sour bottles for Gose aficionados. So the final taste and sourness of Gose was as much a part of the tavern manager’s guardianship of the beer as it was the brewer’s art.
Figure 6.2. Gose bottles are cleaned for reuse. Photo courtesy of Shelton Brothers Inc.
There were names for the stages of the maturation of bottled Gose. Birnbruhe (loosely translated as “hangover drink”) was too early, and Gose drank at this yeasty stage was notorious for giving one fairly explosive gas and sometimes possibly more. Limonade mit Geist (lemonade with spirit) or Mittelgose (middle Gose) was the sweet spot, where the beer was tangy, tart, and effervescent—delicious to most people and akin to champagne. And the Essig (vinegar) was the stage where the Gose was old enough and had taken up enough air to start producing acetic acid. It was very much up to the tavern manager to properly maintain a stock of Gose with some bottles in each of these stages. The manager would then know what stage was best to serve to customers to give them the best Gose drinking experience. Some taverns (mostly in Halle, the town just north of Leipzig) added an extra step to the process: once the beer reached the Birnbruhe stage, they would transfer the beer to champagne bottles and then cork them. They were then called Stöpselgose, or corked Gose. This process helped exclude oxygen, thus diminishing the production of acetic acid, and resulted in more effervescence in the beer. This type of Gose was very highly praised for its closeness to French sparkling wine.
SERVICE
In Gose service, “The yeast plug should be quickly swashed away right before serving the beer. While emptying the bottle, one should be careful to pour slowly; the cloudy sediment, originating from the fermentation process, has to remain in the bottle. Best taste is achieved at moderate temperatures around 15°C.”
—Otto Kröber, Die Geschichte der Gose und die Chronik der Gosenschänke Leipzig-Eutritzsch. (Translated by Adept Content Solutions.)
Through the Middle Ages, Gose was served from the cask or sometimes from earthenware jugs in which the beer remained softly carbonated (Frey et al. 1999). During this period, Gose was served in containers made from wood, horn, leather, metal, or ceramics. Although glass bottles had been around since at least 1,000 BC they were not in common use until the mid-1600s. This is mainly because the nature of glass at that time did not allow for bottle walls to be thick enough to hold much pressure (Brückmann and Kohl 1735). It was not until the invention of the coal-burning furnace in the seventeenth century that glass bottles with thick enough walls could be regularly produced.4 The early accounts of bottle use are from that time. Writing in 1615, Gervaise Markham advises that when bottling their beer, house brewers “should put it into round bottles with narrow mouths, and then, stopping them close with corks, set them in a cold cellar up to the waist in sand, and be sure that the corks be fast tied with strong pack thread, for fear of rising out and taking vent, which is the utter spoil of the ale.”5
By the time Gose became famous in Leipzig in the mid-eighteenth century, glass bottles were readily available and able to withstand pressures of three to four volumes of CO2. Leipzig Gose was traditionally served from bottles in which it built up carbonation. It was drunk from a long, cylindrical glass resembling a large Stange used to serve Kölsch beer.
To properly serve a Gose, pour the beer slowly into a tall cylindrical glass or other similar aroma-promoting glass. Gose-style beers are often unfiltered, and thus may contain sediment in the bottom of the bottle or keg. For kegs, this can often be dealt with by letting the keg sit a few day before dispensing. Often sediment will fall out and the first very cloudy pint can be decanted off. If serving from the bottle, there may also be some accumulated sediment on the bottom. Some drinkers may prefer to swirl the sediment and add it to the beer. I would suggest against this practice, as Gose sediment is mostly dead yeast cells and precipitated proteinaceous matter. It can taste chalky and bitter, and tends to blur the other flavors of the beer rather than enhance them.
Figure 6.3. A Gose beer postcard from the early 1900s. Note the tall cylindrical glass and the long-necked bottles.
PUB MIX-UPS
Gose, Like Berliner Weisse, the beer is available with Raspberry syrup or essence of woodruff or even fortified with sherry. I especially enjoyed it laced with the local version of the caraway liqueur, Kümmel.
—Michael Jackson, “Salty trail of Germany’s link with wild beer”
In the past, Gose was often served with an addition of flavoring. Often this was caraway liqueur, or Kümmel. The Kümmel was served in small octagonal-shaped glasses that look like little folded umbrellas. Caraway liqueur was once one of the most popular drinks in Germany, leading to the phrase “Einen kümmeln gehn”, meaning “to go out drinking caraway drinks,” became a synonym for a pub visit in Leipzig.
Many recipes were invented to further improve and refine the taste of Gose. One of the most popular practices is to add caraway liqueur.… Since caraway and Gose are blended together in the stomach anyway, one can also try this in the glass. This experiment was clearly a success. Caraway was served in small octagonal thick-walled glasses that looked just like folded umbrellas. If the customer wanted to have Gose laced with caraway, they had to order “Gose with an umbrella.” One Gose Brother mentioned that you should order a “heavy cloudburst” if you preferred a stronger drink.
—Frey et al., Gose Häppchen: 100 Jahre Gosenschenke Ohne Bedenken, Leipzig. (Translated by Adept Content Solutions)
“Even though it was quite desirable that the youth would be aware of this patriotic drink very early on, its taste and effects were kept away from infants.”
—ibid.
Figure 6.4. Advertisement for the Gosenshänke. Note the octagonal Kümmel glass at the lower right side.
Gose was considered a good “marital beer,” or Ehestandsbier, meaning that it was a beer that mixed well with other beverages. For example, a cocktail known as Frauenfreundliche, or “friendly to women,” was invented specifically for the ladies. It was a Gose laced with a little cherry liqueur or cherry fruit syrup. If the cherry liqueur was replaced with one made from blackcurrants, the Gose drink was known as schwarze Johanna, or “black Johanna,” or it was sometimes called the “wicked black soul.” So the modern day impulse to mix fruits and flavors into Gose is one that has had a long tradition, and even today in Germany one can find both Gose-style beers fruited at the brewery and straight Gose blended at the point of service in the pubs.
Like Berliner Weisse, Gose is not only drunk straight, but also mixed with various kinds of fruit syrups, etc. [In December of 2005] The Ohne Bedenken offers Gose with mashed banana, strawberry juice, sweet white wine, and so on. I didn’t try any of those alternatives, but Frederic Andres did, and thought highly of the banana alternative.
—Lars Marius Garshol, Larsblog
The Gose is an interesting style of beer more in the different ways in which it is consumed. Most locals to the Saxony state will drink a Gose from a bar or restaurant split with fruit-infused syrups and brandy. Splitting the sour puckering Gose with a sweeter syrup or brandy helps balance out the drinking experience for the consumer.
—Schuyler Ward, “Gasthaus & Gosebrauerei Bayerischer Bahnhof–Leipzig Germany”
FOOD PAIRING
Goses are acidic beers no doubt, but usually no more acidic than white wines. A white wine’s pH is usually in the area of 3.0–3.4. Red wines are somewhat higher, at 3.3–3.7. So, generally speaking, Gose pairs well with many of the foods that go with white wine. They are a great complement to seafood, cheeses, and green salads. Gose’s bright acidity allows it to counter or cut through oily or heavy flavors like salmon, salted mackerel, or a strong cheese such as buratta. Its salinity brings out the richness in both the beer flavors and the food you pair it with. On the seafood front, one of my favorite pairings is Gose with mussels. If you like, you can even steam your mussels in the Gose, much like the Belgians steam their mussels in gueuze. I also enjoy Gose pairings with mahi-mahi in butter with garlic, spicy ceviche, oysters on the half shell, or oysters lightly barbequed with garlic butter—all good choices.
Figure 6.5. Brewer carrying Gose bottles. Photo courtesy of Shelton Brothers Inc.
Other good matches are fried petrale sole, shrimp, crab, or lobster (in my book pretty much everything goes well with lobster). Gose is also big enough in flavor to stand up to spices. Try a Gose with Thai papaya salad or a spicy noodle dish. You can also match Gose’s coriander with Indian curries.
Of course, the fruited Goses will pair well with things that echo or hookup with the fruits in them, for example, an orange sauce over fish paired with an orange Gose. And I know it may seem like sacrilege, but you have to go with what tastes good—fruited Gose beers can also be used as mixers in beer cocktails. Substitute Gose for champagne in a mimosa (would that be a gomosa or a migose?), or substitute ginger Gose for ginger ale in a slightly sour Moscow mule. Gose really is a marital beer.
1 Quoted by Benedikt Rausch [nacron, pseud.], “Gosslarsche Gose,” Wilder Wald (blog), February 15, 2017, http://wilder-wald.com/2017/02/15/gosslarsche-gose.
2 Matthew Humbard, “Beer Microbiology–What is a pellicle?,” A Ph.D in Beer (blog), January 30, 2015, https://phdinbeer.com/2015/01/30/beer-microbiology-what-is-a-pellicle/; Wikipedia, s.v. “Kombucha,” last modified June 7, 2018, 02:39, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha.
3 “What is a Kombucha Scoby,” Happy Kombucha (website), copyright 2018, https://happykombucha.co.uk/pages/what-is-a-kombucha-scoby.
4 “A History of the Glass Wine Bottle,” by Robyn, September 26, 2013, http://www.wallafaces.com/a-history-of-the-glass-wine-bottle/.
5 Quoted in Martyn Cornell, “A Short History of Bottled Beer,” Zythophile (blog), January 15, 2010, http://zythophile.co.uk/2010/01/15/a-short-history-of-bottled-beer/.