This beer came about as a challenge to make a beer for one of the owner’s wives who hates beer. The bet was we could make something that she would happily drink that was still a beer. Being full of bravado and with an infallible confidence, we called this one Job Done before Elisha even tasted it, but we wouldn’t be men in a brewery if we weren’t over embellishing every great story for the ages that we tell.

Let’s dive into the zesty world of Gose (pronounced Go-sah)—a German brew that’s basically a flavor fiesta in a schooner. Picture this: a light-bodied, fruity elixir with a crisp, lemony kick, thanks to a cheeky combo of sea salt, coriander, and a dash of lactic acid magic.

Gose’s story starts a millennium ago in Goslar, Germany, where brewers snagged some river water saltiness for their creation. Fast forward to Leipzig, where this brew became the cool kid in town, defying beer laws with its rebel spirit—no Reinheitsgebot rules for Gose! After a brief hiatus in the ’60s (blame politics), Gose made a comeback in the ’80s, and now it’s hitting international beer scenes like a rockstar. American microbreweries have embraced the Gose game, so we thought this was the place to start.

It’s fitting that our recipe was inspired by Clawhammer Supply, an American home brewing system manufacturer and YouTube channel. The method for producing gose has definitely changed over time, with today’s gear making things much simpler, but here is a basic approach that is going to be common to many a gose:

1. Wheat: This is a wheat beer, with around 60:40, wheat to pilsner
   malt.
2. Water: The brew water is dosed up with sodium chloride to reach levels that are similar to those used in Germany, giving gose its characteristic soft and slightly salty drinkability.
3. Bitterness: Wheat provides a delicate fruitiness to the finish, so the bitterness is low with hops being minimal often just as a bittering addition at the start of the boil.
4. Boil: In the final 5 minutes we add in a bunch of ground coriander seed, which is typical for a gose, enhancing the lemony flavour. We also add white pepper to Job Done to compliment the saltier brew water.
5. Lacto-fermentation: Wild ferment, or spontaneous ferment, is how these beers were originally fermented, but these days culture lacto-acid-bacteria (LAB) is used to add notes of sourness. These bacteria are everywhere, but repeatability is key. Fermentation is then finished with regular top-fermenting, brewer’s yeast.
6. Fruiting: These days adding fruit into the fermentation period is all the rage, and we are no different here. We add in lime zest early on, letting the yeast consume the oxygen added and replace this with alcohol and carbon dioxide.

So there it is—the deep dive into gose. In the end our egotistical attitude to Job Done was exactly that and Elisha does drink it. To this day it is the only beer she will drink and a favourite with our regulars.