Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/837759
J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 1 7 M A C O N M A G A Z I N E | 25 105-A Gateway Drive • Macon, GA 31210 (478) 812-8000 • www.ald-ga.com 105-A Gateway Drive • Macon, GA 31210 (478) 812-8000 • www.ald-ga.com 105-A Gateway Drive • Macon, GA 31210 (478) 812-8000 • www.ald-ga.com You dream ... We design! ABOUT BEER You're sitting by the ocean and, despite the slight breeze, it is hot as a firecracker and you are breaking a sweat. You reach into your cooler and pull out a nice cold … Westbrook Key Lime Pie Gose? Yeah, you heard me right, a beer that literally tastes like key lime pie. But what the heck is a Gose you ask. Well, according to BeerAdvocate.com, Gose (pronounced goes- uh) is an old German beer style from Leipzig. It's an unfiltered wheat beer made with 50-60 percent malted wheat, which creates a cloudy yellow color and provides a refreshing crispness and twang. A Gose will have a low hop bitterness and a complementary dryness and spice from the use of ground coriander seeds and a sharpness from the addition of sea salt. Like Berliner Weisse beers (another popular tart, German-style wheat beer), a Gose will sometimes be laced with various flavored and colored syrups. This is to balance out the addition of lactic acid that is added to the boil. So, Westbrook (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.,) took a very traditional style and made it their own, and man, is it a refreshing twist. The beer, which came to me in a 12-ounce can, pours a pale/straw yellow color with a large fluffy white head that quickly dissipates. The aroma on the beer is strong lime and salt. Some slight tones of cracker-like malt complement the lime and salt. Perhaps this is the "crust" of the key lime pie beer. Finally, there are other faint aromas of general citrus. The beer is literally teasing me to take a sip! So I take a sip and, BOOM, an immediate punch of tart sourness and sea salt on the front palate. Now, when I say tart sourness I mean this in a very pleasant way, like a margarita almost. Don't be scared of the tart sourness. Just beyond the tartness I find what I am desperately looking for, key lime! Big key lime/other citrus flavors abound in this beer, particularly mid-palate. The beer finishes with heavy sea salt and pleasant, lingering tartness. It is an extremely refreshing beer to be sure. And at only 4 percent ABV, I can have several without falling out of my beach chair! Gose-style beers are becoming increasingly popular and are enjoyed by both the craft beer nerds (like me) as well as those not as versed in craft beer. I consider the Gose style to be an entry-level sour beer that is delicious. Everyone should give this Key Lime Pie Gose by Westbrook a shot, especially given the warmer months ahead. I'll gladly relieve you of your other 5 cans if you find that you don't like it! - Brian Whitley is the co-owner and head brewer at Piedmont Brewery & Kitchen located at 450 Third Street in downtown Macon. He is a craft beer lover and a BJCP-certified beer judge, which pretty much just makes him a craft beer nerd.