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Kyle Brown

Owner of Clawhammer Supply

We've got a weird beer for you here, but if you're into sour beers this one will not disappoint. It's a melon Gose. If you're not familiar with the style, you should know that, Gose (pronounced go-zah) is a sour beer brewed with salt and coriander additions, which originated in Germany. Our goal was to create a unique and complex beer by adding flavors that paired well with the traditional ingredients. What we landed on was the inclusion of fresh melon, lime, and white pepper. This beer turned out amazing. We give it a 10 of 10 and highly recommend brewing it if you're into this style of beers.

How to Brew Gose Beer

Brewing a gose is very similar to brewing a traditional ale, with one additional step. The wort must be soured with bacteria after the mash, but before the boil. Here's the video which outlines the gose recipe, step by step. However, additional details are below.

Ingredients

• 8 gallons (30.3 liters) water
• 6lbs (2kg 721.6g) malted wheat
• 4 lbs (1kg 814.4g) malted pilsner (2-row)
• 0.5 ounces (14.17g) Huell hops
• 0.5 (14.17g) ounces salt
• 1.0 ounce (28.35g) coriander seed
• 1.25 ounces (35.44g) lime peel
• 0.25 ounces (7.1g) white pepper
• 3 melons (cantaloupe, muskmelon, or honeydew)
• 1 package Dusseldorf yeast
• half container of lactobacillus probiotic drink
• lactic acid

Procedure

1. Heat the water to 122F (50C) and add wheat and pilsner malt. Rest for 20 minutes.

Mashing in - make sure to stir to avoid clumping

2. Heat water to 148F (64.4C) and rest for 60 minutes.

3. Remove grain basket and let grains drain for 10 minutes

4. Heat to a boil (for 15 minutes total).

Boiling wort

5. Cool wort to 95F (35C) and adjust ph down to 4.5.

Use lactic acid and a pipet to carefully lower your PH 

Check your PH using a PH meter - our PH dropped too low, that's why it's important to gradually add lactic acid

Add Goodbelly Probiotic drink to add Lactobacillus - a good bacteria which will sour the wort - We added about half of the container

6. Allow to sit 24-48 hours (or until desired level of sourness is achieved) at 95F (35C). 

Cover the opening in the top of the lid to prevent any contaminants from entering while the wort is souring

7. Once your wort has reached the desired level of sourness, heat to a boil (for 60 minutes total). Start peeling the limes while your kettle is heating up.

When peeling the limes, try to leave as much pith as possible (the white part)

8. Add Huell hops with 45 minutes left in the boil.

9. Add salt, coriander, lime, and white pepper with 10 minutes left in the boil.

Add all of these to the hop basket

10. Cool to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21.1C) and add yeast.

Chilling wort by recirculating through a plate chiller

Aerate your wort by shaking it in order to incorporate more oxygen for a better fermentation

Use one pack of Dusseldorf Alt Ale Yeast from White Labs

11. Ferment for 5 days
12. On the 6th day, dice, blend, and pasteurize melons (170F) / (76.7C) - (we accidentally bought cantaloupes in our brewing video).

Remove the cantaloupe peel 

Remove all the seeds from inside of it using a spoon

Dice it into small chunks

Blend everything

Heat the blended solution up to 170F (76.7C) in order to kill any bacteria - you can use the temp probe that comes with our brewing system to monitor temperature

Once the puree reaches 170F (76.7C), cool it down to room temp. We did this by placing the pot containing our puree into a sink filled with cold water

13. Add melon to beer and allow to sit for 3-5 days.

We put our cantaloupe puree into a mesh bag so it could be easily removed from the beer after 3-5 days

14. Keg or bottle, carbonate, and drink!

Results

This beer is phenomenal. It's certainly the best summer sour we've brewed. Though, if you're looking for a fall sour, we recommend our sour pumpkin beer. The melon gose is light and refreshing and has an awesome balance between sweet and salty. The pepper really spices things up as well. We give this recipe a 10 of 10 and highly recommend brewing it.

"It's exactly what you would expect out of a Gose"