As spring rolls on, there are tons of seasonally appropriate beer styles available for your drinking pleasure. You can’t go wrong with a spiced, cloudy white ale, a hazy pale ale, a bold bock, vibrant hefeweizen, a classic pale ale, a lager, a pilsner, or a juicy IPA. But if you’re really going to put winter in the rearview, you’ll sip on a subtly sour, tart, salty gose (pronounce goz-uh).
While it’s only become popular in the US over the past ten years, gose is a classic, northern German-style that’s been made for centuries. The first reference to the brew comes from the year 1000, but it truly gained in popularity (like many well-known beer styles) in the 1700s. That’s some serious history.
To put it into the simplest terms, a gose is an unfiltered wheat beer. But it’s also so much more than that, because it’s brewed with lactic acid, spices (like coriander), and sea salt. These beers are also often made with fruit like raspberry, grapefruit, or blood oranges — adding to the spring-y-ness of it all.
These mouth-puckering, refreshing, dry, and crushable beers are such a natural fit for early April that we asked a handful of our favorite bartenders to name their favorites. Check them out below!
Atlas Works Blood Orange Gose
Dennis Shea, beverage director at Fish & Fire Food Group in Washington, DC
My favorite Gose is Atlas Brew Works Blood Orange. Its slight saline taste along with its light-bodied and effervescence makes for a great choice.
The 4.4% ABV helps to make it a warmer weather winner.
Average Price: $13 for a six-pack
Sierra Nevada Otra Vez
Eoghain Clavin, brewery ambassador for Guinness
Sierra Nevada Otra Vez. I first got to try this beer up in Chico, California, home of the Sierra Nevada brewery, a couple of years ago. I love citrus flavors in the spring. Otra Vez has the citrus grapefruit and lime I’m looking for while being balanced by the sweet agave notes.
Average Price: $9.99 for a six-pack
Lough Gill Wild Irish Gose
Chris Hennessy, bartender at Dylan Whisky Bar in Kilkenny, Ireland
For gose beer, I always aim for bright and refreshing — with a good dollop of salted citrus tang. This is nailed down by the folks at Lough Gill with their Wild Irish Gose. Your lips will pucker, and the saline dryness will go on and on into infinity.
Average Price: $5.99 for a 4-pack of 16-ounce cans
Destihl Here Gose Nothin’
Tom Garvin, beverage manager at Tribeca’s Kitchen in New York City
Destihl Brewery’s Here Gose Nothin’ tastes amazing. The name is great in itself and the beer truly does have a lot of fantastic flavors. It’s fermented from wild yeasts but also goes through lactic fermentation, giving it a good texture. There is a little salinity to the beer which balances the tart citrus flavors that exist in traditional goses.
Average Price: $10.99 for a 4-pack
Boulevard Hibiscus Gose
Austin Zimmer, bartender at Le Privé in New York City
The Hibiscus Gose from Boulevard due to the crisps and dry flavors along with a slightly lingering sourness, tempered by the sea salt. Also the slight salty character adds a refreshing balance to the residual sweetness and lemony taste.
Average Price: $11.29 for a six-pack
Dogfish Head SuperEIGHT
Maren Nazera Erickson, bartender in San Antonio, Texas
Dogfish Head SuperEIGHT or Sea Quench are my two go-to’s when looking for a gose beer.
SuperEIGHT is made with prickly pear, mango, boysenberry, blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, kiwi juices, toasted quinoa, and Hawaiian red salt — giving it a distinctive red color and a palate that’s perfect for spring sipping.
Sea Quench is a little lighter and less fruity, for those who don’t want a full gose. It’s a mix of Kölsch, gose, and Berlinerweiss brewed using blackened limes, sea salt, and sour lime juice — for a very margarita-like feel. Refreshing and crushable.
Average Price: $13 for a six-pack
Transmitter W4
Johnny Swet, bartender and owner at Jimmy at the James Hotel in New York City
For a sour, gose beer, I recommend W4 from Transmitter Brewery. It’s bright and full of citrus flavor, especially from the lime. It’s also dry and tart.
This is awesome with oysters and seafood. Plus, there’s a super cool label on the can.
Average Price: $15 for a 750ml bottle
Kent Falls Alternate World
Frederic Yarm, USBG bartender in Boston
Kent Falls’ Alternate World takes the classic style and dry hops it to add subtle grapefruit, honeysuckle, passion fruit, and pine accents to the expected grassy, lemony, funky, and briny flavors. The result is a great beer for the springtime months.
Average Price: $10 for a 500ml bottle
Anderson Valley Blood Orange Gose
Joseph Fredrickson, bartender at Society Lounge in Cleveland
Goses are a great warm-weather go-to. I love the Anderson Valley Blood Orange Gose. This gose is tart but approachable, with notes of saline, citrus, and baking spices. The acidity and saline make it great with refreshing foods and, surprisingly, with many desserts.
Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack
Writer’s Pick:
Left Hand Wheels Gose ‘Round
This 4.4% gose is tart, salty, thirst-quenching. It’s brewed with raspberries, lemon, and sea salt. The result is a tangy, sweet, citrus, and berry-filled sipper that ends with a subtle, pleasing salinity.
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
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