Description
The original pomme-tastic drop went on to win Champion Cider of NZ 2013 and was liberally dry-hopped with a combination of NZ, US and Australian hops.
“The Australian hop used back then was Galaxy, which was literally bursting with super-oily goodness, making the heavy aromatics of papaya and ripe pineapple perfect in a slightly tart cider,” says Kelly.
“I actually prefer Galaxy as a dry hop to a kettle hop, so I had a pretty cool idea to brew a style of German Sour Wheat beer called a Gose and give it a huge dry-hop with loads of Galaxy, around 8 grams per litre.”
This beer undergoes Kelly’s usual souring process, using a combination of Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Streptococcus thermophilus; both bacteria are usually used on cheese and yoghurt production. The bacteria work hard over 40 hours to convert sugars to lactic acid, dropping the pH to around 3.60 and attributing that wonderful tartness.
A Gose also has a pretty liberal addition of salt (sodium chloride) and this is used at multiple stages throughout the process.
“Being my third Gose in our tap line up (amazingly, this will bring our sour taps up to 7 along with Puns NĀ Goses, Cherry 2000, The Upside Down, Yoghurt & Bruesli 2017, Sourbet and Tainted Love), I’ve decided to push the salt addition a little more and even though only 50 grams extra was added to 1100 litres, it’s cool to see how this works with our sensory threshold and how these fantastic sodium and chloride ions work with our tastebuds and modify the perception of both sweetness and sourness.”
Kelly’s challenge for you is to figure out how the visual reference of the Galactic Gose artwork. Clue: it may link to a movie…
Something to ponder over your pint of Galactic Gose.
