Gose
Encyclopedia
Beer style
Beer style is a term used to differentiate and categorize beers by various factors such as colour, flavour, strength, ingredients, production method, recipe, history, or origin....
of Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, Germany.
Gose beers are brewed with at least 50% of the grain bill being malted wheat. Because of the use of coriander
Coriander
Coriander is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae. Coriander is native to southern Europe and North Africa to southwestern Asia. It is a soft, hairless plant growing to tall. The leaves are variable in shape, broadly lobed at the base of the plant, and slender and feathery higher on the...
and salt, Gose does not comply to the Reinheitsgebot
Reinheitsgebot
The Reinheitsgebot , sometimes called the "German Beer Purity Law" or the "Bavarian Purity Law" in English, was a regulation concerning the production of beer in Germany. In the original text, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley and hops...
. It is allowed an exemption from the rules on the grounds of being a regional speciality. It acquires its characteristic sourness through inoculation with lactic acid bacteria after the boil.
The beers typically have a moderate alcohol content of 4 to 5% ABV. Dominant flavours in Gose include a lemon tartness, a herbal characteristic, and a strong saltiness (the result of either local water sources or added salt). Gose beers typically do not have prominent hop bitterness, flavours, or aroma.
Gose belongs to the same family of sour wheat beers which were once brewed across Northern Germany and the Low Countries. Other beers of this family are Belgian Witbier, Berliner Weisse
Berliner Weisse
Berliner Weisse is a cloudy, sour wheat beer of around 3% abv. It is a regional beer from Northern Germany, mainly Berlin, dating back to the 16th century. By the 19th century, Berliner Weisse was the most popular alcoholic drink in Berlin, and 700 breweries produced it...
, Broyhan, Grätzer and Gueze
Gueuze
Gueuze is a type of lambic, a Belgian beer. It is made by blending young and old lambics into a new beer, which is then bottled for a second fermentation. Because the young lambic is not fully fermented, it contains fermentable sugars, which allow the second fermentation to occur...
.
The History of Gose
Gose was first brewed in the early 18th century in the town of GoslarGoslar
Goslar is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines of Rammelsberg are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.-Geography:Goslar is situated at the...
, from which its name derives. It became so popular in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, that local breweries started to make it themselves. By the end of the 1800s it was considered to be the local style of Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and there were countless Gosenschänke in the city.
Originally, Gose was spontaneously-fermented. A description in 1740 stated "Die Gose stellt sich selber ohne Zutuung Hefe oder Gest" ("Gose ferments itself without the addition of yeast"). Sometime in the 1880s brewers worked out how to achieve the same effect by using a combination of top-fermenting yeast and lactic acid bacteria.
Gose was delivered, still fermenting quite vigorously, in barrels to the Schänke. It was stored in the cellar with the tap bung closed but the shive hole left open, so that the still-active yeast could escape. Only when the fermentation had slowed to a point where no yeast was emerging from the shive hole, was the Gose ready to bottle. The barrel was emptied into a tank, from whence it was filled into the characteristic long-necked bottles. These were not closed with a cap or cork, but with a plug of yeast (Flor
Flor
Flor is a winemaking term referring to a film of yeast on the surface of wine and which is important in the manufacture of certain styles of sherry. The flor is formed naturally under certain winemaking conditions, from indigenous yeasts found in the region of Andalucía in southern Spain...
) which naturally rose up the neck as the secondary fermentation continued.
By the outbreak of WWII, Rittergutsbrauerei Döllnitz, between Merseburg
Merseburg
Merseburg is a town in the south of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt on the river Saale, approx. 14 km south of Halle . It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese founded by Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg....
and Halle
Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
, was the last brewery producing Gose. When it was nationalised and closed in 1945, Gose disappeared. But only until 1949, when the tiny Friedrich Wurzler Brauerei opened at Arthur-Hoffmann-Straße 94 in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. Friedrich Wurzler had worked at the Döllnitzer Rittergutsbrauerei and was the only person who knew the secret of brewing Gose.
Before his death in the late 1950s, Wurzler handed on the secret to his stepson, Guido Pfnister. Brewing of Gose continued in the small private brewery, though there appears to have been little demand. By the 1960s there were no more than a couple of pubs in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and possibly one in Halle
Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
that were still selling it. When Pfnister died in 1966 the brewery closed and Gose disappeared again, this time seemingly forever.
In the 1980s Lothar Goldhahn, who was restoring a former Gosenschenke, Ohne Bedenken, decided that it was only fitting that the revived pub should sell Gose. After quizzing drinkers to ascertain its precise characteristics, Goldhahn began to search for a brewery to produce his Gose. None of the local breweries were keen on making such an odd beer, so eventually he chose the Schultheiss Berliner-Weisse-Brauerei on Schönhauser Allee in East Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. The first test brews were made in 1985 and production started in 1986.
After briefly disappearing again in 1988, Gose is today in better health than it's been for half a century. No less than three German breweries currently brew it: Gasthaus & Gosebrauerei Bayerischer Bahnhof and Familienbrauerei Ernst Bauer in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and Brauhaus Goslar in Goslar
Goslar
Goslar is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines of Rammelsberg are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.-Geography:Goslar is situated at the...
.