Gose two ways: Cilantro & Lime, and Oaked, Lemon zested, Southern Cross dry-hopped

I've been homebrewing for over seven years now, and like most of those brewing for that amount of time, I pretty much brew beers that I know I'm going to like. By that, I don't mean that I know all of my beers are going to turn out well - they don't - but I try to brew styles that I enjoy the most. I used to experiment with plenty of styles, tackling recipe after recipe from Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles, which really is a great way to start brewing, especially when you haven't tried a lot of different types of beer. For someone in Atlantic Canada in late 2009, you didn't have a whole lot of options out there, and if you wanted to try a Belgian Golden Strong, for example, you either had to travel, or you had to brew your own.

While there are a few beer styles I don't really enjoy, most of them I'm good with... but that doesn't necessarily mean I want to have 5 gallons on hand. So now, I brew a lot of hoppy beers, some Belgian styles, and some sours, for the most part. And I usually like to keep them pretty simple, focusing on the hops and yeast, with maybe a bit of experimentation every once in a while. But lately, and I can't quite figure out why, I've been trying to experiment even more. I don't agree with throwing a bunch of weird crap into a beer just because, but as a lot of brewers out there have proven - pros and amateurs - sometimes you can make it work.

Last year, I brewed my first Gose. Aside from using Lactobacillus plantarum capsules to sour the wort, this brew involved a bit of experimentation, as I added lime zest to half of the beer, and dry-hopped the other half with Citra. Both beers were tasty, but the lime half was the better of the two; it was extremely refreshing, with the lime character working perfectly with the salt and tartness of the base Gose. I knew when I had it that I would brew it again, and I always meant to add more than just lime zest the second time around.

Once spring hit, I knew it was time to try this style again. It's great anytime of year, of course, but a nice Gose during spring and summer is really a beautiful thing. Is there a more-perfect beer style for this time of year? Salty, tart, refreshing,.. and low-alcohol. Luckily, I already knew what I wanted to do with it this time around. As mentioned, I really enjoyed how the lime zest worked in the first Gose I brewed; shortly after brewing that beer, I started thinking that I'd take it even a step further. The Margarita-like qualities of that beer made me think of Mexican food, which often features lime as well. And what else do you see in a lot of Mexican dishes? Cilantro!

That may seem a bit odd for a beer, but after a bit of Googling I could see that others have tried it before. And Fredericton's first cidery, Red Rover, has a one-off named White Witch that features fresh cilantro; they've been making this sporadically for more than 2 years, and it's really tasty. I was a little unsure of exactly how much cilantro to use in a Gose, so I contacted Red Rover's Adam Clawson for a bit of advice, which he was nice enough to give. However, I wasn't completely positive that a Gose with lime zest and cilantro would work well... and if it didn't, I'd be stuck with 5 gallons of it. So I decided to brew the beer, sour the wort, boil, and then split the batch. But what to do with the other half?

After a bit of thought, I decided to go with that OTHER zest, lemon. I've never worked with lemon zest in a beer before, and couldn't think of a reason why it wouldn't work well in a Gose. I went a bit further, wanting to dry-hop this half as well, so I looked through all the hop varieties I had in my freezer to see which ones also had notes of lemon. Southern Cross seemed like a good choice, as it also has descriptors of lime. But no, I didn't stop there! I continued crawling out further on the limb and made the odd choice of adding some oak.

Now, as I mentioned, I'm not usually the type to throw everything I've got into a beer. One of those breweries I mentioned above that really seems to make experimenting work is Grimm Artisanal Ales. I was lucky enough to try a couple of their beers a year or two ago, and I realized that when done properly, a bit of oak flavor in a Gose can work. IF DONE PROPERLY. I rarely brew with oak, and when I have, it's almost always been with oak cubes that I can safely let bob around in a Flanders Red for a year or so. This is the problem with oak... too much of it can completely ruin a beer (for me, at least).

I won't get into all the various forms of oak there are (French vs. American, medium-toast vs. light), but what is important to point out is that the smaller the form of oak, the more surface area will be in contact with the beer. More surface area means a faster extraction of oak flavors... but it can also mean a harsher oak experience. Make sense? When you're talking about a beer like I'm brewing here, though, you don't want to be using oak cubes that can require months for a gentle oak presence to enter the beer... freshness is key. We're using zest here, and hops, so don't want to age the beer. And this is how Grimm does it. How do I know? I asked them!

Owner Joe Grimm was kind enough to answer an email I sent about how they added oak to their beers. He admitted they have many methods, but for a beer like their Vacay (a delicious dry-hopped sour conditioned on white oak), they use lightly-toasted oak spirals. Unfortunately, I don't have access to oak spirals here, but oak chips are pretty close. Joe recommended a week at the most, but what it's really going to come to with adding oak is tasting it every day or two until it's where you want it, just to be safe.

This post is getting long-winded, so let's get on to the recipe. I basically brewed the exact same beer as in the past, with a simple grist of equal parts Pilsner and Wheat malt, and about 4% Acid malt thrown in to drop down that mash pH. Mash, sparge, vorlauf, all that, and bring to a very brief boil before chilling down to around 100 F. I then pitched my Lacto starter (which I made up days before with Lactobacillus plantarum capsules - for the full approach, check out my previous post) and let it sour for a couple of days till the pH got to around 3.4. Transfer back to the boil kettle, boil for 5 minutes (with a small hop addition to get a measly 7 IBUs or so), chill to the mid-60s F, and pitch a package of US-05 and hope to God that the pH isn't too low for it to start fermenting (if you want to be more sure, it's not a bad idea to ferment with a Saison or Brett strain, both of which can handle lower pH better than an American strain can).

Luckily, it did ferment out fine. Of course, I had split the wort in two and oxygenated each well, in order to be more confident that the US-05 would do its job. Once fermentation was complete, it was time to start adding the extra ingredients. I decided on kegging one half and bottling the other, so I racked one half to my dry-hop keg and added the freshly-zested lemon zest and the oak chips. I was torn on how much of the oak chips to add; I read a wide variety of recommendations online, and ultimately decided on 18 grams. I really was worried about overdoing it, so this seemed safe. After a week, I was starting to get a bit of oak flavour, so I pulled out the oak and lemon zest and threw in the Southern Cross for another 5 days, then racked to the serving keg and carbed it up.

The other half I added the lime zest and cilantro in a mesh bag directly in primary. So, how much cilantro? I was originally planning on 100 grams or so, but then came up short! I had asked my wife to pick up a bunch at the grocery store, but unfortunately it turned out to be a measly bunch. I also was growing some at home, but I still didn't have the 100 g, ultimately coming in at 62 g. I also wasn't sure what to do with the cilantro to make sure it didn't further infect the beer, so I chopped it up fairly fine, washed it and sprayed it lightly with Starsan. I didn't want to boil it or steam it, in case it took away some of the flavor. After I brewed the beer, I read that you can soak it in high-proof grain alcohol to sanitize it? Anyway, found out too late, but my approach seemed to do the trick (in hindsight). After a week, I racked it to the bottling bucket with table sugar to carbonate, and bottled it up.

So, how did these turn out? Let's start with the Cilantro Lime Gose, since I've had more feedback from friends (naturally, since it was bottled, it has been easier to give away). Personally, I really like it. The lime works as well as it did in the last beer, and the salt level is just where I like it. As for the cilantro, it could definitely stand to have some more... it IS there, in the taste anyway, but if I brewed it again I'd definitely try to get closer to the 100 g I initially aimed for. Other beer geeks seem to have enjoyed it, and the combination of flavors seems to be working well.

As for the lemon zested-oaked-dry-hopped half, that one is more of a conundrum. I wasn't sure how I liked it at first. I found the aroma kind of... weird; I got a very odd oak presence, but like I was smelling it through a barrier. Does that make sense? No, it probably doesn't, because I don't really get it either. The flavor, however, was much better - the lemon zest came out really nicely, with some extra citrus from the dry-hop (although you'd never know I used the equivalent of 6 oz for a 5 gallon batch). Just a touch of oak in the taste, which was perfect. As for others who have tried it, some have loved it and commented on wanting a keg for their house, while some have definitely not enjoyed it. One person found it too astringent, and one outright didn't like the oak. I understand that, but, if you try an oaked Gose, you kinda gotta know what you're getting into, no? Luckily, the oak presence in the aroma came down very quickly, and now I find it a refreshing, easy-drinking summer beer.

Ultimately, for me, both beers are winners, especially for a first go. The Cilantro Lime Gose is the winner, coming out as being slightly more refreshing, and just a better fit, overall. If I brewed it again I'd definitely add more cilantro; as I mentioned early, maybe up it to 100 g and go from there. I think the oaked Gose was an interesting experiment, and something I'd like to try again from a different angle.

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.033, FG ~1.009, IBU 7, SRM 2.9, ABV ~3.2%

Grains:
1.4 kg (47.9%) Bohemian Pilsner
1.4 kg (47.9%) Wheat malt
125 g (4.3%) Acid malt
+ 100 g Rice hulls

Hops:
Polaris - 14 g (17% AA) @ 5 min

Southern Cross - 88 g dry hop for 5 days for 1/2 of the batch

Misc:
14 g freshly-ground Coriander seed at 2 min
25 g Sea Salt at 2 min

Half #1:
Lime zest - 6.5 g in secondary after fermentation is complete, for 7 days
Cilantro - 62 g, washed, in secondary with the lime zest, for 7 days

Half #2:
Lemon zest - 7 g in secondary after fermentation is complete, for 7 days
Oak chips - 18 g in secondary with the lemon zest, for 7 days

Bacteria/Yeast: Lactobacillus plantarum capsules (5) in a 1 L starter; after souring, wort fermented with 1 pack rehydrated US-05

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 5 g calcium chloride added to mash

- Brewed on March 20th, 2017, by myself. 50-minute mash with 9.5 L of strike water; mash temp on target at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3.75 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~5.75 gallons.

- Pre-boil gravity at 1.033. Brought to a brief boil, then chilled to 95 F. Added 5 mL of phosphoric acid, then racked to carboy, pitched Lacto starter, attached heat belt and set carboy on heating pad. Four days later, the pH had dropped to 3.4 - this is with the temp never really getting about 75 F, even with the heat belt and pad.

- Transferred wort back into kettle, brought to a boil. Started 5 minute boil, added hops, coriander and salt at time above. Chilled down to 62 F and poured into two 3 gallon BBs. Aerated for 60 seconds and pitched yeast at 64 F. Fermentation visible by next day, continued for two days at about 70 F and then slowed quickly. Took a gravity reading on April 8th, sitting at 1.009.

- Racked one half to dry-hop keg and added oak and lemon zest in two separate, sanitized mesh bags. After about one week, removed both bags and added Southern Cross. Five days later, transferred via CO2 to serving keg and carbed.

- Added lime zest and cilantro to the other half, in primary, in a sanitized mesh bag. After one week, bottled with 62 g table sugar for approximately 10 L, aiming for 2.5 vol CO2 with a maz temp of 70 reached; also added 1/2 pack rehydrated champagne yeast.

I was going to show pictures of both, but they really do look exactly the same.

Appearance: Bright yellow body, with a lot of haze, for both beers. The white head is medium-sized, and doesn't fade TOO quickly (seems like the phosphoric acid added before fermentation is doing its thing).

Aroma: Cilantro Lime Gose (CLG) - Bright aroma of fresh lime takes the main stage; slightly sour. The presence of cilantro here is, at best, extremely light. Oaked Gose (OG) has an oddly-dull aroma - I get a bit of oak, but it's quite muted and blocking anything else. After a few weeks, this went away and the lemon zest came out much better.

Taste: CLG - Big hit of lime and tartness in the flavor; acidity works well with the lime, of course, and the cilantro comes through more than it did in the aroma (still, would rate it mild at the most). OG - Much stronger than the aroma, with the lemon zest combining well with the Southern Cross dry-hop... although I admit, I'm not quite sure how much of the dry-hop is coming through. Only slightly oaky. Both beers have a great level of salt in the flavor as well.

Mouthfeel: Both beers are light-bodied, with moderate carbonation. Smooth; not watery despite the low ABV.

Overall: I enjoy both beers, especially now that the OG has cleared up a bit. The oak kind of works, but I don't know how necessary it really is... a worthy experiment, we'll see if I do this again. CLG is a real winner, a great summer beer that I have to admit is - despite the overuse of the word these days - quite crushable.

Gose dry-hopped with Chinook and Grapefruit Zest

November, 2016 featured the 4th Annual Big Spruce Home Brew Challenge, a homebrewing competition in the Maritimes held by Big Spruce, a craft brewery out of Nyanza, Nova Scotia. Last year I had entered a beer, Inherit the Red, in the Red IPA category; surprisingly, it won gold, and owner/brewer Jeremy White invited me to Big Spruce to assist in brewing the recipe in February. That beer was launched at the Fredericton Craft Beer Festival that March, under the name Meek Thy Maker (his idea!).

I decided to enter two beers in this year's competition, one in the Experimental Sour category, and one in the Imperial IPA category (the third and final category was Mild). Both beers were brewed back to back over a two day period, with the Sour brewed first. I always have a lot of ideas of different beers to brew (and not enough time... don't we all?), especially in the sour category, but I was particularly interested in brewing a Gose again. The last Gose I brewed, I split the batch and dry-hopped half with Citra, and added lime zest to the other half; both came out quite nice. I had kettle-soured the wort using a starter made from Lactobacillus plantarum capsules, and the method worked out well for me. For more details on the whole process I used, check out that post.

With this new beer, I wanted to take the same approach to kettle-souring the wort - I had plenty of L. plantarum capsules on hand, and the ability of L. plantarum to work at warm room temperatures (not to mention not having to pay strict attention to oxygen ruining your beer, causing aromas of vomit and such) makes it a no-brainer for me to use. I have a heating pad and a heat belt, but no really effective way of keeping wort in the 100 F range, especially this time of year.

In terms of what to do with this Gose, I had quite a few ideas, some of which I regretted not doing soon after I finally settled on one (this is a pretty typical problem with me in homebrewing). As I mentioned, I was happy with both the lime zest and Citra-dry-hopped Gose versions I did before, and started thinking that maybe combining these two approaches would work well. I finally settled on brewing a Gose dry-hopped with both Chinook and grapefruit zest - I usually get grapefruit character when I use Chinook in hoppy beers, and figured that some additional zest would bring this out even more.

For the recipe, I used the exact same as the lime and Citra Gose. A very straight-forward grist (close to 50/50 Pilsner and Wheat malt, with ~4% Acid malt), mash at 150 F, and you've got your wort all ready to be soured! Hopefully. Bring that to a very brief boil to kill off whatever bugs are there already (or even bring it close to 200 F or so and hold it for a few minutes), then cool to 100 F and transfer into your fermentor. At this point, I actually added 5 mL of phosphoric acid (80%) to bring the wort pH down to ~4.6. Aside from giving the Lacto a bit of a head start, this has been shown to help improve head retention, which can often be an issue in sour beers. I tried this with my last kettle-soured beer, a Sour Session IPA, and it definitely made a difference.

I did my best to keep the wort warm, which actually wasn't too difficult, as the heat pad and belt managed to keep the temp at about 90 F. After a couple of days the pH had dropped to 3.23, so I transferred back to the kettle and started a very short, 5 minute boil. A bit of Polaris for a small bittering charge was added, along with the coriander seed and sea salt. I then chilled down to the low 60s F, pitched a full pack of rehydrated yeast, and let it ferment out. The gravity only got down to 1.010, with a pH of 3.48; neither budged after another week, so I racked the beer to my dry-hop keg and threw in the Chinook (loose) and grapefruit zest (in a mesh bag with marbles to weigh it down, dangled in with dental floss). Eight days later, I did an oxygen-free transfer to the serving keg and carbed it up.

Well, I knew when I drank this beer for the first time that while the idea was sound, the resulting product probably wasn't going to win any competitions. It's lightly tart, fruity, with - yes - some nice grapefruit presence... but, the grapefruit isn't where I wanted it to be (despite the dry-hop keg, after empty of beer, absolutely reeking of grapefruit), and the beer isn't sour enough. I'm starting to think that with kettle-soured beers, if the only hops going in are in the dry-hop, you have to be really aggressive to get a lot of hop character. If I brewed this again, I'd go up to 5 oz of Chinook, and maybe even a bit more grapefruit zest.

As for the competition, nope, it didn't win, or place. Both judges thought it should be more sour (for an Experimental Sour beer, anyway; apparently they thought the sourness was ok for a straight Gose), and both also said it was too salty. Personally, I like the salt level in this beer - I definitely don't find it a kick-in-the-head for saltiness.

All this being said, I still enjoy the beer, and at only 3% ABV it's by far the most sessionable thing I have on tap right now! While far from perfect, it doesn't really have any really glaring flaws (to me), and I like the mouthfeel - light, yet creamy. More Chinook character (and a little more grapefruit) would likely improve this beer.

Note: The majority of my readers are in the United States; I don't like to enter political territory on this blog, but I have to note that both of these competition beers were kegged on November 8th (Election Day), which helped with the naming of both. This one? There Gose America.

Recipe Targets: (5.8 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.033, FG ~1.008, IBU ~7, SRM 2.9, ABV ~3.3%

Grains:
1.4 kg (47.9%) Bohemian Pilsner
1.4 kg (47.9%) Wheat malt
125 g (4.2%) Acid malt
+ 100 g rice hulls

Hops:
Polaris - 14 g (17.7% AA) @ 5 min

Chinook - 84 g dry-hop for 8 days (in dry-hop keg)

Misc:
Irish Moss - 1/2 tab @ 5 min
Coriander seed (ground) - 14 g @ 2 min
Sea salt - 25 g @ 2 min
Grapefruit zest - 12 g in dry-hop keg for 8 days

Bacteria/Yeast: Lactobacillus plantarum capsules (6) in a 1 L starter; after souring, wort fermented with 1 pack rehydrated US-05

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 5 g calcium chloride added to mash

- Brewed on October 17th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 9.5 L of strike water; mash temp on target at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3.75 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~5.75 gallons.

- Pre-boil gravity at 1.032. Heated to a simmer, then chilled to 100 F. Added 5 mL phosphoric acid to bring wort pH to 4.61. Racked to carboy, pitched Lacto starter, attached heat belt and set carboy on heating pad. Two days later, the pH had dropped to 3.23 with the wort temperature in the range of  80-90 F.

- 19/10/16 - Transferred wort back into kettle, brought to a boil. Started 5 minute boil, added hops, coriander and salt at time above. Chilled down to 62 F and poured into BB. Aerated for 60 seconds and pitched yeast at 64 F.

- 31/10/16 - FG high at 1.010, pH reading 3.48. Racked beer to the dry-hop keg, added Chinook (loose) and grapefruit zest (in sanitized mesh bag with marbles to weigh down, floss to hold in beer).

- 8/11/16 - Pushed via CO2 into serving keg, carbed at 30 PSI for 36 hours, then set at 10 PSI.

Appearance: Very light-golden coloured beer, with a fair amount of haziness. The head is surprisingly moderate-sized (or even a bit larger), white and fluffy, with respectable staying-power; slowly settles to about 1/4-finger size.

Aroma: Fruity and slightly sour; yes, the grapefruit is there, but the hops are not as prevalent as expected from the size of the dry-hop.

Taste: The tartness from the Lacto and fruitiness from the Chinook are there, but I'd like to see more of each. The hop flavours do blend very nicely with the grapefruit zest; bumping it up would only help this beer, I think. Finishes dry on the palate, low bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, moderate carbonation. Could stand to be a bit lighter.

Overall: Tasty, but next time I'd add more Chinook, and bring the pH lower to accentuate the sourness. I'm satisfied with the combination of grapefruit zest and Chinook, however, and would encourage others to try the same.

Brewing a Gose (using Lactobacillus plantarum capsules)

I've been promising myself over and over that I would start brewing more sour beer styles; I really love drinking them, and have only attempted a few different ones in the course of my homebrewing career: a Flanders Red that turned out pretty great (1/2 the batch aged on cherries), a Berliner Weisse that wasn't nearly sour enough, and an Oud Bruin that I've finally been drinking the past six months, that I'm pretty happy with. When you're brewing sours by pitching a mixture of bugs and yeasts, you can end up with some truly wonderful beers... the problem, however, is that it can take one hell of a long time till the beer is where you want it. Both the Flanders Red and Oud Bruin were a good 16-20 months before I bottled them.

The solution? Kettle souring. I'm sure most if not all of you have heard of this method by now; it's quickly gained a lot of momentum in the commercial and homebrewing communities. In a nutshell, you mash and sparge as usual, bring the wort to 190 F or so to pasteurize, chill down to a warm temp to pitch your Lactobacillus (the ideal temp will depend on the strain), pitch the Lacto and keep the wort warm until the pH drops to where you want it (3.3-3.5, roughly), transfer back to your kettle and boil the wort briefly to kill off the Lacto, then chill as usual and pitch a neutral yeast strain or Brettanomyces to ferment out the beer. I couldn't explain it any better than many who already have; check out the Milk the Funk wiki on Sour Worting, as well as their Lacto wiki - highly informative and extremely-well researched. Mike Tonsmeire's American Sour Beers is also an excellent resource, one of those books that I keep going back to again and again.

The idea behind all this is that you can sour the wort within several days, and if you then boil it, you don't have to worry about bacteria coming in contact with your kegerator, post-fermentation equipment, etc. Of course, if you don't care, you don't have to boil the wort; just pitch your regular yeast and be done with it. If your wort pH gets down quite low, say, below 3.4, using a Brett strain is a good idea since it ferments better in the presence of acidic wort than a lot of Saccharomyces strains do.

Will this method give you as complex a sour beer as the standard, "old-fashioned" way? Probably not. But if you're looking to brew a hoppy sour, a sour with fruit, or something similar, it's a great way to give you a tasty sour beer without the months of waiting. Or so I've heard; I'm certainly no expert. But I have had several commercial version of kettle-soured beers that were great; I really do love the hoppy sour beers that are coming out now, and more and more breweries are coming up with their own twists on the "style".

But what about a Gose? A lot of brewers have brewed this German style - sessionable, tart, salty - via the kettle sour method, with great results. I've had several commercial Gose beers and have really enjoyed many of them; it's something I've always wanted to brew, so I thought it would be a great one to try with a faster-souring method. I was initially going to order another pack of Lactobacillus from Wyeast (or maybe White Labs), but I had been reading more and more about people sourcing Lactobacillus from Swanson Probiotic capsules. Unlike a lot of probiotics that you see, these ones only contain one type of Lacto, Lactobacillus plantarum, a species that is surprisingly quite effective at lower-than-usual temperatures, between 80-90 F. For someone like me, who doesn't have a lot of options for keeping wort hot (above 100 F), this is a great option. I quickly ordered the capsules on Amazon, and then kind of forgot about them until recently.

I finally got around to making a Lacto starter in April. Of course, there are different thoughts on the approach you should take; the Milk the Funk wiki mentioned above has a very detailed one that I did not see in time. Ultimately, I ended up taking the approach that Ed documented in his attempt: four Lacto plantarum capsules in 1 L of wort. No need to set it on a stir plate of course; I simply set the flask on a heating pad for a few days, where the temp stayed at about 90 F. After 48 hours or so, the pH was down to 3.53. I was hoping to go lower, say 3.3 or so, but even after adding another capsule, it didn't budge. 3.53 isn't horrible, so I decided to press on and brew the beer.

NOTE: Just to make clear, depending on your Lacto source, you sometimes have to be very careful about keeping as much oxygen as possible out of your wort, starter or otherwise. Apparently with the L. plantarum capsules, this isn't an issue. Just keep in mind that if you're sourcing Lacto from grains, it's very important to purge with CO2 whenever possible, so you don't end up with the vomit, cheese, or fecal aromas/flavours from other organisms popping up due to exposure to oxygen.

Putting together a recipe was pretty easy; the grist is just a 50:50 blend of Pilsner malt and Wheat malt, with some Acid malt added in to bring the mash pH down to ~5.4. Goses are usually pretty low-ABV; most seem to be < 5%, so I aimed for an OG of only 1.033, and mashed pretty cool at 150 F. Once the vorlauf, sparge, etc. was complete, I brought the wort up to 190 F or so for a few minutes, then immediately chilled it down to 100 F. Racked into a Better Bottle, I pitched the entire 1 L of Lacto starter and set the whole thing on a heating pad, with a heat belt attached, and let 'er go. I was able to hold to the wort temperature in the high 80s F with this method. After a few days, the pH was 3.69, and it didn't get any lower than that. Again, not 100% ideal, but it did taste slightly tart, so I transferred the wort back to the boil kettle and continued.

A traditional Gose features the addition of both salt and coriander in the boil. The typical approach appears to be 1/2 an ounce (14 g) of each, but I've had many homebrewed Goses that didn't strike me as salty enough. You don't want to be drinking beer that tastes like sea water, but you DO want to notice it. A friend had recently brewed a Gose using 3/4 oz (21 g) of salt, which brought it closer, but not quite there (in both our opinions). I finally settled on a bit more - 25 g - along with 14 g of freshly-ground coriander seed, added during the last 2 minutes of the boil. For the hops, I wasn't looking for much bitterness for this style; since I was only planning on boiling the wort (after soured) for 5 minutes, I added 14 g of Polaris at 5 min, giving 8 IBUs. The wort was then chilled to the low 60s F, and I pitched a full package of rehydrated US-05. I didn't feel fermenting with Brett was necessary; with a pH of only 3.69, US-05 could easily handle the job. However, it's best to still err on the side of caution and pitch more yeast than is necessary in this case, hence the full pack of US-05 for a 1.033 beer.

It didn't take very long, of course, for fermentation to be complete (FG was 1.006). Now, I had to decide where I wanted to go with this beer. I had originally planned on splitting the batch - dry-hopping half with Citra, and keeping the other half plain. However, I knew it wasn't going to be as tart as I had hoped, so I figured it best to add something else to the plain portion. Lots of options, naturally, but I settled on fresh lime zest. I figured it would work well with a Gose, giving the beer an almost Margarita-like quality to it, thanks to the salt (no, do not start thinking about Bud Light Lime-a-Rita!).

Another question... how much lime zest to add? You don't need a lot; lime zest is pretty potent stuff. Mike Tonsmeire mentions in his book to start with 0.5 g/L when adding citrus zest. I was looking at about 10 L of beer, so I went with just a touch more, 6.5 grams (0.65 g/L), to make sure I noticed the lime (hopefully without it tasting like pure lime juice). I racked the beer like so: half into a 3 gallon Better Bottle, and the other half into my dry hop keg, where I added the Citra. I added the zest to a mesh bag and dunked it in Star San for a couple of minutes, before dangling in the BB with dental floss. A smarter way, I now know, is to simply dunk the limes and your zester in Star San before zesting. Oops!

After about 5 days, I kegged the Citra dry-hopped portion and bottled the lime zest portion. Now that I'm drinking both, I have to say that my preference may be for the lime Gose, which surprises me. Both are refreshing, palate-cleansing beers; light and easy-drinking, the salt level is spot-on. I don't get much coriander from either beer; admittedly, the coriander seeds weren't the freshest, but they smelled great when I was grinding them. Maybe going to 0.75 oz next time would be a better amount? As for the sourness level, the beer is definitely tart, but I'd like to see it with more tartness. Not a lot - you don't want Lambic-level sourness - but a bit more would be just the ticket.

The Citra Gose is enjoyable enough, but despite a dry-hop of 2.5 oz (the equivalent of about 5 oz for a 5 gallon batch), I'm not getting near as much Citra in the aroma or flavour as I would expect. Meanwhile, I think I lucked out in my lime zest addition for the other half - there's definitely a really nice, obvious lime presence, but it didn't come out on the heavy side, which I started worrying was going to happen. I ended up naming that one "Margarita Gose", as it comes about as close to a Margarita beer as you would want.

So, I'm happy with the amount of salt used (I don't think I'd change it at all), and the amount of lime zest. I'm still torn on the Citra addition; maybe one can only expect so much hop presence to come through in a beer like this? The equivalent of a 5-oz dry hop for a 5 gallon batch seems like plenty to me. If I tried again, I think I'd experiment with adding some Citra at flameout for a 15-20 minute hop steep; yes, you'd give the beer more IBUs this way, but maybe it would work.

I would also like both beers to be more sour. Again, NOT a Flanders Red or Lambic sourness, but just a hair above where they are now. Now that I've been reading more on the subject, I think a couple of things would need to change for next time on this front:

1. Use phosphoric or lactic acid to lower the wort pH - There's a couple of reasons why this is a good idea; one is because for someone with water like mine, the wort pH comes out higher than ideal, especially in lighter-coloured beers. Lowering the pH, at least slightly, kind of gives the Lacto a head start, if that makes any sense (this applies to the starter and final wort). On top of that, it's been shown that lowering the wort pH to ~4.5 before pitching the Lacto can help aid in reducing foam degradation (see the Milk the Funk Wiki link for more details). If you can get it, I'd use phosphoric acid, as it won't affect the taste like lactic acid can.
2. I think it's possible that the Lacto starter was too warm for the L. plantarum to lower the pH where I wanted it. I'm not positive here; the evidence would indicate that L. plantarum is still fine up to 90 F, and probably up to 100 F; but I can tell you that I've brewed a hoppy sour since this beer, and accidentally had the heat pad unplugged for the starter, where the pH jumped from a seemingly-stalled reading of 3.9 to 3.3 in a short matter of time. More on that in a future post.

Overall, though, I'm enjoying both of these beers, and for my first foray into kettle souring, I'm quite happy. The capsules worked well enough for me to warrant using them again, especially now that I know to try a slightly different approach next time.

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.033, FG ~1.009, IBU 8, SRM 2.9, ABV ~3.2%

Grains:
1.4 kg (47.9%) Bohemian Pilsner
1.4 kg (47.9%) Wheat malt
125 g (4.3%) Acid malt
+ 100 g Rice hulls

Hops:
Polaris - 14 g (20% AA) @ 5 min

Citra - 70 g dry hop for 5 days (in dry hop keg) for 1/2 of the batch

Misc:
1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min
14 g freshly-ground Coriander seed at 2 min
25 g Sea Salt at 2 min

Lime zest - ~6.5 g in secondary after fermentation is complete, for 5 days for 1/2 of the batch

Bacteria/Yeast: Lactobacillus plantarum capsules (4) in a 1 L starter; after souring, wort fermented with 1 pack rehydrated US-05

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 5 g calcium chloride added to mash

- Brewed on April 19th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 9.5 L of strike water; mash temp on target at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3.75 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~5.75 gallons.

- Pre-boil gravity at 1.033 (target 1.032). Heated to ~195 F, then chilled to 100 F. Racked to carboy, pitched Lacto starter, attached heat belt and set carboy on heating pad. Four days later, the pH had dropped to 3.65 - with the heat belt and pad, the temp was about 80 F, so I had panicked and turned on a space heater in the room, which brought it up to around 90 F or so.

- 26/4/16 - Transferred wort back into kettle, brought to a boil. Started 5 minute boil, added hops, coriander and salt at time above. Chilled down to 62 F and poured into BB. Aerated for 60 seconds and pitched yeast at 64 F. Fermentation visible by next day, continued for two days and then petered off.

- 4/5/16 - pH reading 3.69. Split the batch by racking half into dry-hop keg and added 70 g Citra, other half racked into 3 gallon carboy (~10 L) and added 6.5 g lime zest (sanitized by dunking mesh bag, marbles and zest in sanitizer before adding to carboy).

- 10/5/16 - Bottled lime half with 60 g table sugar, aiming for 2.5 vol CO2 for 2.5 gal, max temp 70 F reached. Racked Citra half into serving keg and set carb to PSI 30 for 24 hours.

Lime zest on the left, Citra on the right

Appearance: As you can see from the picture, they look pretty identical. Both pour with a moderate-sized, white head that fades fairly quickly, as expected. The Citra head lasts longer, however... due to being force-carbed, or is the lime zest causing that head to fade a bit quicker? Lime body is just slightly darker, but both beers are pretty pale. Touch of haziness.

Aroma: Moderately salty, touch of coriander; the Citra portion has a light fruitiness and a little dank character. The lime beer definitely has the lime zest coming through in the aroma, more prominent than the salt; works very well.

Taste: Citra half: the Citra hits first, pleasant low fruitiness, followed by a moderate-low tartness on the tongue. Finishes lightly salty, with low to no bitterness. Dry and refreshing. Lime half: great amount of lime character in the flavour, followed by the saltiness to make it seem that much more maragarita-like. Same tartness as the Citra half... pleasant, but not quite enough. Great summer beer.

Mouthfeel: Both are light-bodied, with moderate carbonation.

Overall: Refreshing, easy-drinking; I enjoy both, but give the edge to the lime zest portion. I think the salt level is perfect, could use a bit more coriander. Expected and wanted more Citra presence in the dry-hopped version. And, of course, both could benefit from some more tartness.