9 replies to this topic

[Genesee Ted]

Gose is pretty popular so I’ve been doing some looking into how much salt to use. The best answer I have found was from Martin B. He says about 2.5 grams per gallon. Have any of you experimented with this?

[shaggaroo]

I have not, but it is my favorite style. I tend to prefer the salt on the lower end of the spectrum. I tried one at the Open Gate Brewery (Guinness's experimental brewery) in Dublin that was just way too salty. Fal Allen talks about salt levels in his book, Gose. I'll look at home a little later.

[neddles]

IIRC 150ppm is the lower threshold for tasting it in a beer and Martin was recommending 250ppm as a starting point for Gose.

[Genesee Ted]

Full disclosure, I’m not making a gose, but a saison which is modeled after a margarita. A little wheat, a little corn, the rest is Briess Brewer’s malt. Agave nectar in the whirlpool and the salt is Himalayan pink salt. Wyeast 3711. I used 14 oz in 9 bbl. Also adding a whole bunch of key lime purée and blood orange puree

[shaggaroo]

So in the book Gose by Fal Allen, he says they taste-tested using the public and admittedly by him not very scientific, that the public thought 3.4 g salt per gallon tasted the best. That's 888 ppm of salt, so about 346 ppm sodium and 542 ppm chloride. He goes on to say that most Gose from the early 20th century had between 130–260 ppm salt.

 

The 22 recipes at the end of the book average 14.8 g salt per 5-gal batch (right around what the public thought tasted best), with a range of 1.7–34 with a German Brewery outlier at 63 g.

[Genesee Ted]

That’s a lot more than I used, but I’m not shooting for a gose. Definitely a style I’d like to tackle tho, so I’ll have to get that book. Tasting the wort, I detected the slightest bit of salinity. It will be interesting to see how it turns out with the added fruit, acidity, and dryness.

[Big Nake]

Doob, please keep us posted on how it comes out.  While I would probably not attempt to make a beer like that, I always like to know how someone did something, got a certain flavor, etc.  I was at a homebrew gathering years ago and a guy had a lemon wheat beer that was really nice.  I asked him if he zested lemons and made a tincture with vodka, how did he add the flavoring and at what point, etc. and he laughed.  He said "two little tubs of Crystal Light into the keg and then rack on top".    You never know.  

[Genesee Ted]

Heh.... I was at a brewery somewhat recently at which I saw a full pallet of Mrs. T’s Strawberry Daiquiri mix

[Big Nake]

Heh.... I was at a brewery somewhat recently at which I saw a full pallet of Mrs. T’s Strawberry Daiquiri mix

Right.  You always hear brewers talking about getting the best vanilla beans from Zimbabwe or something, cutting them, scraping them, mixing them with vodka, etc. and meanwhile the local brewery is using vanilla extract they picked up at the Safeway.    I have always been about getting the flavor you want regardless of how you do it.  I know that some brewers would wince at putting Crystal Light into a beer but if the end result is "pleasant lemon flavor" and a refreshing beer, I would not turn my nose up at it.  But your margarita beer is very interesting to me (except the 3711 but I digress) so I'd love to hear how it came out and maybe even a picture of it.  Cheers and happy brewing.  

[Genesee Ted]

Don’t worry Ken, I’m transferring a red lager today that I did with Czech lager yeast