A look into the beer glass

Gose and Geuze

On the one hand, an old German beer style that is now produced all over the world and, depending on the interpretation, also resembles a fruit smoothie. On the other hand, a beer that some call the "Champagne of Belgium". But if you take a closer look, you will find amazing similarities between the beer styles "Geuze" and "Gose".

There is a danger of confusion when ordering drinks. Especially if you are not yet familiar with the local drinking culture. A Cüpli can quickly become a "Hümpli. And instead of a glass of champagne, you suddenly find a large beer on the table. Oh well. It can happen.

There's also a danger of confusion with the two beer styles we're taking a closer look at today. At least if they are pronounced incorrectly. But a closer look reveals a certain similarity in aroma as well.

The peculiarity of the Gose is its salty note.

Gose (pronounced Gose) is a historic wheat beer with a sour note. It is a beer style that has long fallen into oblivion and has only been enjoying growing popularity again in recent years. In addition, the aroma of Gose beer, at least historically, is strongly influenced by the terroir.

"Foam beer" from Belgium

Exactly the same can be said about the Geuze (pronounced: Göös). But that's where the similarities end. So let's take a look at the differences. Geuze is one of several classic sour beers from Belgium. More precisely, a Geuze describes a blend of older and younger lambic beers.

What makes Lambics special is that no yeast is added to the beers. The beer ferments mostly in wooden tanks with the wild yeast strains and microorganisms that are prevalent in Brussels and upstream along the Senne River south of the Belgian capital.

Lambics are in and of themselves very dry, tart and - due to the often several years of fermentation and storage - without carbonic acid.

Because there are too many harmful microorganisms in the air during the warm months, lambics can only be brewed in the winter months. A time window that is getting smaller because of man-made climate change.

Lambics are in and of themselves very dry, tart and - due to the often several years of fermentation and storage - without carbonic acid. However, if older lambics are mixed with young, not yet completely fermented lambics (in this case, about one year old) and bottled, the second fermentation in the bottle produces a carbonated beer - a so-called Geuze. If sour cherries had been added to the lambic before bottling, it would have become a lambic kriek.

Other fruits (raspberries, for example) can also be used for so-called "fruit lambics". Whether Kriek or Geuze, the best of these beers are unsweetened, without added carbon dioxide, and if they are, they are made with real fruit.

Because of the bottle fermentation process, Geuze is usually bottled in thick-walled 3.75- or 7.5-dl bottles and sealed with a cork, as known from high-quality sparkling wine. Not surprisingly, this style of beer did not emerge until about a century after the development of the traditional Champagne method.

Gose: the new India Pale Ale?

No, it will probably be a while yet before sour beers achieve the popularity of IPA, NEIPA and the like. Nevertheless, it is by no means out of the blue to predict a rosy future for gose. The comeback of this style is quite impressive. Gose is a beer style whose origins go back several centuries further than Geuze.

Gose takes its name from the river Gose, from which the name of the Lower Saxon town of Goslar is also derived. Like Geuze, Gose used to be fermented mainly with wild yeasts. A practice that was maintained even after the advent of cultured yeast strains and what gives the beer its sour freshness.

The special feature of the Gose, however, is its salty note, which the beer historically had from the mineral-rich water of the river of the same name. In addition, coriander seeds are added to the beer, which does not comply with the purity law - but in 1516 the Lower Saxons were probably not interested in what rules the wine country of Bavaria issued for beer production.

With the advent of bottom-fermented lager in the 19th century, the popularity of gose dropped dramatically. The beer style survived longest in Leipzig, where it regained popularity even before the craft beer movement.

Since gose has long since moved away from its geographical roots, it is also not surprising that gose is now produced around the world.

Unlike the Geuze, whose brewing tradition Belgian breweries try to protect sometimes better sometimes worse, the Gose is a style that everyone can - and does - embrace.

More mango smoothie than Gose in the original sense. What breweries understand by the beer style Gose often differs diametrically.

The hairdresser salon among the beers

For this reason, today's gose beers are hardly limited exclusively to light beers with a subtle coriander and salt note, spontaneously fermented in open fermenting vats.

Today, it is much more common to find gose beers from young breweries that use "domesticated" wild yeast or bacteria strains. In some cases, however, the acidity simply comes from citrus or other fruits.

It's quite possible that if you order a Gose in today's hipster beer bar, you'll be served a beer that's more like a mango smoothie than a Gose in the original sense. The fact that Gose has become the new favorite style of many nerdy beer freaks is surely due on the one hand to the fact that it can be produced by microbreweries around the world.

A small aspect will certainly have been the word "Gose", which invites all kinds of wordplay in English: There She Gose, Here Gose Nothin', Gosebusters, La Vie en Gose, Goses are Red or Puns & Goses.

The playful approach to the beer style Gose - in terms of both the word and the wort - is in stark contrast to the centuries-old Geuze and Lambic tradition.

Still, it's worth giving both categories a chance - especially now, because these sour beers are absolutely brilliant, especially in hot temperatures.

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