Jason Moore
Real Ale turned 18 this year and teamed up with Odell Brewing to make this beer to commemorate the occasion with nothing other than a beer. The style of gose has been very popular in 2014 and many breweries have taken their shot at creating this German style brew.
The Blanco, Texas-based brewery did things a little differently putting their own Texan twist on it by adding, “…a high percentage of malted wheat, acidulated malt to lower pH and impart a subtle sour character, with fresh ground coriander and crystal salt to finish the boil. As a twist on the original German brews, whole limes were pureed and added to the beer after fermentation.”
Real Ale first brewed the batch at Odell’s Fort Collins, Colo.-based brewery. it made 7 bbl barrels of the beer and then decided that it would become the beer for the brewery’s anniversary, which it celebrated this July. While it was originally released on draft only, it then made it to cans.
There’s no easy way to say this, but pouring Real Ale 18th Anniversary was the best part about this beer. It pours a beautiful golden orange with a decent amount of head and once the beer settles it appears very light and the frothy head almost completely disappears with almost no lacing left on the side of the glass.
The smell is extremely lime heavy mixed in with some wheat and a bit of spice, presumably from the coriander. There isn’t as much of a sour smell as it is just citrus. I also don’t really get salt on the nose either, the lime dominates and the other characteristics follow very lightly.
It’s very light on the tongue, but since it only clocks in at 4.4 percent ABV, it’s what’s to be expected. Just like the nose suggests the lime is very present in the flavor profile, it is honestly hard to glean anything else from the beer with the lime and yeasty sweetness that is in the profile as well. The coriander and salt are borderline non-existent, which is unfortunate because that would have help balance the sweet maltiness very well. It could have used some stronger showings form the other flavors to help balance this one out.
