No.011a ・ Summer & Salt Gose 🌟
With Nelson Sauvin
Verdict: I thoroughly enjoyed drinking this beer and will definitely brew it again. Next time I may adjust the salt qty to 3/4 the amount to see how it pans out and even attempt no boil. Added bonus: Without a full boil, and being staged over multiple days made this feel really quick to brew!
This is a refreshing summertime brew perfect for an afternoon spent on the beach. Light, salty, sour with a big hoppy nose. Spiked full of white wine and tropical fruit flavours - kiwifruit, pineapple, lime zest and lemonades. Best enjoyed fresh before the aroma fades!
Recipe
Vol: 10L (Half batch)
Mash: 45 min @ 50°C | 45 min @ 65°C
Yeast:
Sour- Lactobacillus Plantarum (100 billion cells)
Ferment- Safale S04 English Ale
Targets:
| OG | FG | ABV | IBU |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.043 | 1.011 | 4.2% | - |
1. Mash
| Malt | Weight | |
|---|---|---|
| Pilsner Malt | 870 g | (39.7%) |
| Wheat Malt | 870 g | (39.7%) |
| CaraPils | 300 g | (13.7%) |
| Acidulated Malt | 150 g | (6.8%) |
| Salt | 1 tsp |
2. Pasteurise Boil for 15 min.
3. Kettle Sour Pitch Lactobacillus Plantarum
4. Boil Optional 60 min boil.
5. Ferment & Dry Hop
| Hop | Time | Weight | AA% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nelson Sauvin | Dry hop | 70g | 11.5% |
Method
This was my first attempt at brewing a sour. When I came across the original recipe for this gose, I was immediately taken to the challenge of figuring out the easiest, cheapest and most surefire way to achieve a kettle soured beer.
I hedged away from using a commercial liquid lactobacillus culture, mainly due to cost. I was cottoned on to the fact that probiotics can be used as an alternative source of lacto for kettle sours by my brewing bro-from-another-mo beardybrew. The process on kettle souring using probiotics is well covered by Sour Beer Blog.
I landed upon using a probiotic capsules containing Lactobacillus Plantarum; the product being Ethical Nutrients “IBS Support”. This strain of Lacto prefers to ferment at room temperature, which works well for me as I don’t have the gear to keep my wort warm for extended periods of time. Required pitching rate is 10 billion cells : 1 L of wort. For this product, this converts to 1 capsule : 2 L of wort as each capsule contains 20 billion cells.
My process for kettle souring:
(Based upon Sour Beer Blogs flowchart)
- Mash grains
- Boil for 15 minutes to pasturise the wort.
(I added salt at this point.) - Cool to room temperature and pitch lactobacillus plantarum directly into the wort.
- Purge air. I did this by pushing glad wrap down onto the surface of the wort to form a seal. Cover kettle with a lid.
- Leave for 48 hours.
Then continue as per usual:
- Boil 60 min (optional).
- Ferment, dry hop, cold crash with gelatin, etc.
Result
011b - Passionfruit Gose
I ended up brewing this one as a split batch. The other half was fermented with Saison yeast, no hops and passionfruit pulp to the fermenter added after primary fermentation. Apart from the fact that passionfruit completely dominated the flavour on that batch, the passionfruit Gose turned out a lot drier, making the saltiness more pronounced. It was drinkable but would have been far better had there been some residual sweetness.
My mate who works for a craft brewery in Brisbane tells me that the Gose style has oft been misinterpreted as being straight up salty and actually is supposed to have a balance between sweet and salt. That confirms to me what this split batch proved; use a yeast that will let your Gose finish sweet, not dry.
The Summer & Salt Gose has an ever so slight Galaxy hop / passionfruit tinge to it already. This beer would be great dry hopped with Galaxy, which would be a far more nuanced way to achieve notes of passionfruit rather than using fruit pulp.
011a - Summer & Salt Gose
The Summer & Salt Gose turned out fantastic! I am an absolute sucker for Nelson Sauvin hops and the sparkling wine character it imparts. This was a little hop bomb when fresh! It had fairly good head retention (possibly in part to the CaraPils) and was delicate but not at all lacking in body. This was both the best tasting and most enjoyable beer I have brewed thus far. I will definately attempt it again and can see plenty of scope to play with the recipe.
Other ways you could take this recipe include; dropping the salt and doing a Berliner Weisse version, substituting in alternate hops (Kohatu and Motueka spring to mind), and using Brett - staying true to Bear Flavoured’s original recipe.