Gose Beer Recipe - Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (2024)

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5 from 3 votes

By Hank Shaw

July 08, 2016 | Updated June 17, 2020

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Gose Beer Recipe - Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (2)

Chances are you have never heard of a gose beer. Pronounced go-zuh, this is an obscure style of beer from Leipzig, Germany that just happens to be one of the greatest summer guzzlers ever.

Why? Because it is essentially a natural michelada: Instead of adding lime to the beer and serving it in a salt-rimmed glass, this beer is naturally a little salty and tart.

How you get there is up to you. Some brewers use acidulated malt, which is barley malt allowed to sour a little. Some sour their malt themselves, and some just add some food grade lactic acid to the finished beer. The salt goes into the boiling wort (sugary malted water that will ferment to become beer), as do any other spices.

My gose beer recipe hinges on where I live, in Northern California: I use salt I made by boiling away Pacific seawater, lemon rind from my backyard tree, and juniper berries from the Sierra Nevada.

The beer should be pretty well carbonated, light-ish, but not so light as a pilsener, and should have some wheat in it, which gives the beer a little bit of a softer edge.

To make it, you need to be set up for brewing. If you are, you’re good to go. If you’re not, there is substantial equipment you really do need to do this right. At a minimum, you will need:

  • A large pot, or several slightly smaller ones. I used a regular stockpot plus another soup pot before I got a proper brewing kettle.
  • A thermometer. I highly recommend a laser thermometer. I use this oneGose Beer Recipe - Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (3).
  • A gram scale. Yep, precision matters in beer making. This is the scaleGose Beer Recipe - Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (4) I use.
  • Something to ferment in. I prefer glass carboys, which are large jugs, but some people prefer buckets.
  • An airlock. You need to keep air off the fermenting beer at the same time you let CO2 escape. The airlock does the trick.
  • A strainer. A fine-meshed strainer removes debris, called trub, and the stray bits of seasoning and hops.
  • Sanitizer. Yes, you need it. There are any number of good ones out there, but I use either IodophorGose Beer Recipe - Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (5) or Star-San.
  • Bottles, caps and a capperGose Beer Recipe - Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (6), or a kegging system.

And, of course, you need malt and hops and yeast. Your nearest homebrew store will have all of this stuff, or you can buy it online. And for the beer, you might want to pick up some food grade lactic acidGose Beer Recipe - Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (7). In this recipe, you will get significant tartness from the acidulated malt, so taste the finished (albeit uncarbonated) beer before adding any lactic, OK?

This is not a hard beer to make, it is ready to drink in a month if you are using bottles, less if you are kegging, and it goes down real easy.

Gose Beer Recipe - Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (8)

Here are the estimated stats on this recipe:

  • Estimated Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.2%
  • IBUs: 10
  • SRM (a marker for color): 5, between golden and straw
  • Original Gravity and Final Gravity: 1.055, going down to 1.015

5 from 3 votes

NorCal Gose Beer

Typical gose beer recipes have coriander in them instead of juniper, so feel free to substitute. Another fun take is to switch out lemon rind for limes, and maybe add the juice of a couple limes in the secondary or at bottling to get a sort of "gin and tonic" effect. Bottom line when experimenting with this style of beer is that it should be light, slightly tart and a little salty -- this is a summer beer to pound down, so keep the alcohol level, IBUs and extra seasonings to a dull roar.

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Course: Drinks

Cuisine: German

Servings: 3 gallons

Author: Hank Shaw

Prep Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Ingredients

  • 29 ounces dry wheat malt extract (54%)
  • 12 ounces light dry malt extract (22%)
  • 13 ounces acidulated malt, crushed (24%)
  • 10 grams low alpha acid hops, like Saaz or Styrian Goldings (pellets)
  • 20 grams juniper berries, crushed
  • Peeled zest from 1 lemon
  • 14 grams sea salt
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet (optional)
  • White Labs German Ale/Kolsch WL029, at room temperature
  • 2 to 3 teaspoons 88% lactic acid (optional)

Instructions

  • Mash the acid malt. Put the acidulated malt into a grain bag or tie it up loosely in cheesecloth and cover it with 2 quarts of water. Bring this to 150°F to 155°F over medium heat and hold it at this temperature for 30 minutes. Remove the bag and set it over the pot in a strainer. Pour 2 quarts of water heated to 170°F over it to rinse the grain. Let the bag drain for 10 minutes, then remove. Discard the grain or feed it to animals.

  • Start the boil. Add 3 more gallons of water to the pot and bring this to a boil. As the water heats up, stir in both extracts, making sure there are no lumps. When you reach a boil, add the hops and set the timer for 1 hour.

  • Add the seasonings. With 10 minutes to go, add the juniper, salt and lemon rind, plus the Whirlfloc tablet if you are using it. If you have a wort chiller, now is the time to put it in the boiling wort so it can sanitize.

  • Crash chill the wort. Use your wort chiller to chill the wort back to 75°F or cooler, depending on how warm your tap water is. Or, put the pot in a cooler with lots of ice water in it. Use a clean metal spoon to create a whirlpool in the wort, which will help it chill faster. Hopefully you will see gnarly bits in the wort that look like egg drop soup, or separating miso in soup: That's cold crash trub, and seeing it means you will have a clearer beer.

  • Move the wort to the fermentor. Add the yeast to the fermentor; I use a glass carboy. Pour the contents of the pot through a sanitized strainer into the fermentor. If the strainer gets all gunked up with trub, remove it before continuing. Put a sanitized airlock on the fermentor and put the beer in a place where it can ferment cool, ideally 66°F to 69°F. Leave it there for 1 week.

  • Rack the beer to a secondary. If there is a lot of gunk in the fermentor, rack the beer from the primary fermentor to a sanitized secondary fermentor -- this one needs to be a glass carboy. I do this only if there is a lot of crud in the fermentor. Either way, let the beer finish fermenting for 1 more week.

  • Bottle or keg the beer. If you are bottling, you want to add enough priming sugar to the batch to get about 3.4 volumes of CO2. If you are using the lactic acid, add it to the beer with the priming sugar before bottling. Bottle condition 2 weeks before drinking.

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe? Tag me today!Mention @huntgathercook or tag #hankshaw!

Categorized as:
Featured, Foraging, Recipe

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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Gose Beer Recipe - Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (2024)

FAQs

How much sea salt per barrel is in a gose beer? ›

Salt in beer is almost exclusively associated with the “rediscovered” German beer style, gose. In this tart, spicy, wheat style, the salt adds a nice, crisp, briny note to contrast the tart flavors. Typical gose recipes call for only about one-half to a full ounce of salt for a five-gallon batch.

How is gose beer made? ›

Gose is an ancient, sour and saline tasting ale, made from more than half malted wheat and the rest malted barley. The brew is fermented with both yeast and lactic bacteria and is spiced with both coriander and hops. It is brewed with slightly salted water.

What is the alcohol content of Gose beer? ›

Gose beers typically do not have prominent hop bitterness, flavours, or aroma. The beers typically have a moderate alcohol content of 4 to 5% ABV.

How much coriander is in a gose? ›

To obtain the appropriate level of coriander flavor and aroma, I would use 0.5–1.0 oz. (14–28 g). When tasting the beer, it's inclusion in the recipe should be self-evident, but never overpowering. Both the salt and coriander should be added with 10–15 minutes remaining in the boil.

When to add salt to Gose beer? ›

Once the wort is boiling, add the bittering hops. The total wort boil time is 1 hour after adding the first hops. Add the sea salt and coriander at the end of the boil.

How much sea salt per 8 oz water? ›

If you'd like to try adding salt to your water, stick to one-sixteenth of a teaspoon and add it to a 8- to 12-ounce glass of water or bottle. Many people say they add a “pinch” of salt to a glass of water, but because this isn't a precise measurement, doing so may risk adding too much.

What is the difference between a gose and a sour beer? ›

A gose is a beer specifically brewed with salt and coriander, while a sour is a wide range of beers, brewed with a variety of different ingredients, that have sour flavor notes. So while a gose can be sour, not all sours are goses.

What is the difference between Gose and Gueuze? ›

Key Differences Between Gueuze and Gose

A gueuze is truly spontaneously fermented vs. gose, which is intentionally inoculated with an ale yeast and some form of Lactobacillus bacteria. A gose is traditionally brewed with coriander and salt. Not so with gueuze, which does not have any spices added.

Is Gose beer a lager or ale? ›

The fact that gose (pronounced GO-zuh), a sour, unfiltered, wheat-beer style originating from Lower Saxony, in Germany, near the Gose River, evolved into its own category from its previously—and equally obscure—German-style Sour Ale category was both surprising and exciting for fans of the beer style.

What does the name gose mean? ›

German: topographic name for someone living by the Gose river near Goslar in the Harz Mountains. from an ancient Germanic personal name based on the element god, got 'god' or gōd 'good'.

Is gose beer served cold? ›

You'll want to check with the brewery for recommended temperature suggestions for each individual sour you wish to serve. However, you'll generally want to keep lambics, framboises, krieks, peches, and other fruited sours within 40° to 50° F, while a gose will fare better on the lower end of that range.

What is the best yeast for gose? ›

For Gose, the choice of yeast is not as dramatic as for other beers. Goses are traditionally top-fermented ales, so although lager yeast could be used, it is not the best choice. I would recommend a German ale strain — perhaps a Kölsch or altbier yeast.

When to add coriander to beer? ›

Typically, coriander is added at a dose of 2.11–8.3 ounces per barrel during the last 5 to 20 minutes of boiling in the brewkettle. A short boiling time is required to ensure that the majority of aromatic compounds are not volatilized away.

How do I substitute cilantro for coriander? ›

Although coriander and cilantro come from the same plant -- Coriandrum sativum -- they actually have two totally different flavors. Coriander is great in recipes that use cilantro, but if you're looking for a replacement for the cilantro flavor, you're better off using parsley or basil.

How many ppm of salt are in a Gose? ›

The maximum sodium level that should be used in Gose is about 250 ppm.

Why is Gose salty? ›

Its name comes from the river Gose and the town of Goslar where it was originally brewed. Though salt is now added to the beer to give the style its distinct salinity, that salty character probably originally stems from the natural saltiness in Goslar's mineral-rich aquifers.

Do sour beers have salt? ›

As a result, brewers use cultured yeasts to impart sour flavors. Gose: Goses are from Goslar, Germany, and usually incorporate coriander and salt during the brewing process. These beers are made sour from brewers inoculating the wort with lactic acid before primary fermentation.

How much sea salt do I add? ›

So how much sea salt should you consume each day? Most experts agree that adding ¼ teaspoon of Celtic or Himalayan Pink Sea Salt per quart of water (4-5 glasses) is best. These salts are readily available in health food stores as well as grocery stores.

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