Hertl Gurken Gose
Brewery: Braumaufaktur Hertl
Town: Schlüsselfeld
Style: Gose
Color: unfiltered amber
Head: effervescent, dissipating
Nose: strong pickle
Body: light, low carbonation
Palate: strong pickle, hint of coriander and sea salt
Finish: slight pickle but otherwise fairly clean
Served: from a bottle bought at the brewery
Impression: Stopped by the brewery on the way out of Schlüsselfeld, where we had spent the evening to visit Scheubel’s Stern-Bräu. So, this was a bit of an afterthought and didn’t have a lot of expectations. Well, I did go hoping for an IPA but the brewer was out of theirs and this Gose looked like the most interesting alternative. Sadly, the tasting room wasn’t open so had to be content with buying a bottle and was happy the brewer’s father opened up the beer store on a holiday morning for us. I’m a big fan of Gose and have had it a few times in Leipzig. It’s a bit of an acquired taste and is huge now at small breweries in the States. Must say, I haven’t been overly impressed with their efforts to combine the style with other flavors so was skeptical of this one. That said, my wife loves pickles so had to get a couple. It’s always a bit off-putting when a beer loses its head immediately but right from the first whiff of pickle, this Gose was a winner. It had quite a pickle flavor to boot but it was nonetheless refreshing and enjoyable. The addition of coriander and sea salt were unmistakable but in a nice way. It’s not something you could drink a lot of (despite it only being 3.5%), but as an aperitif, it really does the job.
Something tells me I’ll catch some flack for this review. It appears not many people like it and I must preface this with we love pickles and salty things so if that doesn’t sound good to you, by all means this might not be the best choice for your beer money.
Though I agree with you that many attempts to “marry” Gose with other ingredients usually don’t end well, I guess we’ll have to disagree on this particular beer, Rich. I found the salt to be a distraction and the cucumber to be over the top and not well integrated at all. Hertl does some decent beers, even as some of them (like this one) don’t quite come together. Hopfmeister’s beers aren’t bad either. Put the two together in this Gose, though, and I fear the result is a trainwreck. At least we know which beer we WON’T drink together if we ever manage to meet up for a hike and beer in Bavaria 😉 .
Fair enough, Franz. It was an interesting day for us. We’d stopped last minute at Weiher the day before and I was very surprised at how good it was. We then went to Stern-Bräu and had a great night there with some great typical Franconian beers. I found out about Hertl from Kevin and I wouldn’t have normally stopped but was feeling good about German craft beer after the Weiher stop. The brewer’s father did a nice little tour for us and I felt for him, trying to sell bottles of Kellerbier for 2€ when you can get really great stuff for less than half the price. I had hoped for a tasting room and saw an IPA on their website but neither was to be had. I had to buy something and the Kellerbier made sense and the Gose was the second cheapest one (at 4€!). We like Gose and, as I’ve said, my wife loves pickles. It would be interesting to try again but at that price, it’s not super likely and, I agree, when we meet for a beer, this shouldn’t be the one to drink together. haha