Döllnitzer Ritterguts Gose

Brewed by Brauhaus Hartmannsdorf GmbH
Germany

The Döllnitzer Ritterguts Gose is an old-style beer specialty of Leipzig, brewed to the authentic recipe by traditional methods. Ritterguts Gose has won several accolades, including, in 2013, a gold medal at the World Beer Awards as the Worlds Best Gose! Well it is the oldest existing Gose brand in the World, so no surprise there!

First thing you will notice when you get a bottle of Döllnitzer Ritterguts Gose, is how cool the bottles and logo look. A really authentic look, and shows that this is a brewery that has a long history. The next thing you might do is ask “what the hell is a Gose beer?”

Well it is an unfiltered wheat beer made with 50-60% malted wheat, which creates a cloudy amber colour and provides a refreshing crispness. The beers typically are sour and salty. They 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 salt. They usually have a moderate alcohol content of 4 to 5% ABV. (Thanks to BeerAdvocate for this!).

The beer style is a long time around, first brewed in the early 16th century in the town of Goslar, from which its name derives. But its popularity travelled over to the city of Leipzig where local breweries copied the style. By the end of the 1800’s, it was considered to be a local Leipzig beer and was sold throughout the city.

In 1824, Johann Philipp Ledermann, a master brewer, started to brew using the recipe he had brought with him from Goslar. And so the Ritterguts Gose Brewery was born. In no time, owing to its popularity, it became a market leader in Gose, and he was already supplying most of the Gose bars in Leipzig-Halle (Central Germany). At one time in the early 20th century, there were about 80 Gose bars in Leipzig alone and Gose was the most consumed beer in the town.

Unfortunately with the advent of World War Two, and the increasing prevalence for Pilsners, the popularity of Gose took a bit of a nosedive, with nearly all the Gose brewery’s shutting down. It wasn’t until Armin Brandt from the Leipzig micro-brewery “Zum Kaiser Napoleon”, on September 9th, 1999, had a trial run with the old Gose recipes from the Ritterguts Gose Brewery. Starting small, in a handful of restaurants, but expanding to 20 in time, he showed that there was a market again for this old classic.

But Brandt’s production was too small an operation in its current capacity so with the help of Hans Bauer from the Leipzig family brewery, Ernst Bauer, a bigger more stable brewery was able to help shift more units and expand its output. Nowadays the Ritterguts Gose can be found in 120 restaurants, a 100 pubs, 60 retailers and 15 wholesalers in the region of Leipzig-Halle and has started to export to select countries on a small initial scale. Part of the reason for this success is that Gose beers are back in vogue again, largely thanks to the craft beer revolution where sour ales are popular and anything with a traditional bent will do well amongst the beer aficionados, aka the beer geeks!

So when drinking from a Ritterguts Gose it is important to realise that this is the real thing, the beer that has the Gose lineage, still made to the traditional recipes of yesteryear.

Review: 0,5l bottle of Original Ritterguts Gose, Gose style: 4.7% ABV

The Original Ritterguts Gose, “Das Original Seit 1824”, has won several accolades, including a gold medal at the World Beer Awards in 2013.

Comes in a lovely brown bottle with an interesting old style logo of some old fella messing around with some flasks and beer in a lab, the creative genius behind this beer no doubt.

On pour get a very frothy white headed beer with a lovely looking golden orange colour.
Head does die and the beer goes all a bit hazy after a while.

A piercing, very fruity smell, very citrusy and I can definitely get the salt aroma. Also got a strong smell of grapes and/or cherries.

Taste is very sweet, wow.
Like a very sweet pop drink with a lot of hops. An interesting style alright.
Very sweet tastes, malty, citrusy, the salt and it is also quite yeasty. But it is quite well balanced considering all the different tastes and flavours contained within the brew.

Not a bad style, could get into it.
Kind of like it, for a new style I tried, interesting, would like to try some more to get more of a feel to it. Would never have guessed that salt and coriander would be a suitable mix for a beer.

The salt taste is very prominent, basically just jumps out at ya and gives you a big slap in the face!

Quite strong too, kind of like an energy drink. I say that as I was buzzing, but that could be the football, Korea just knocked Germany out of the World Cup!!

Will definitely try this beer and style again. Gose beers have a new fan!

Review: 0,5l bottle of Ritterguts Urgose Märzen, a Märzen Gose style: 5.5% ABV

From the bottle we get this tit bit of information, “our German beer brewed with salt and spice”, and has the following ingredients “barely, wheat and oat malt, yeast, coriander, cooking salt”. So we have the Gose style and the Märzen style married together, coupled with oat malts.

Head is flat, none to speak of, but the colour looks great, a nice clear orange coloured beer, which looks tops.

The smell is interesting, get the salty aroma no problem, but also get the pine cone easily enough, amongst the usual range of odors……..citrus, malts, coriander.

Like the smell, has an earthly feel to it.

As to be expected, in the taste I also get the salty flavours, and the spices, the malts and coriander. Very well balanced all things considering!

It is a high energy drink, I feel lifted and relaxed when drinking it, actually felt it was a bit similar to a cold lucozade! Not bad I guess, can slowly sip it, the bitterness is light, and easy to manage.

It basically is a regular Märzen with the unique Gose style added. And that in itself is something to try. I liked it, it takes a while to warm your cockles, to overcome the initial surprise of all the sweet tastes, but then afterwards you can drink it slowly and relax into the Gose style.

Will definitely buy again, loving this new Gose style of beer on my taste buds!

Review: 0,5l bottle of Ritterguts Barentoter, a German Sour Gose Bock: 6.6% ABV

The “beer brewed with spices” as it says on the bottle. This one is the Gose Bock version of the classic Gose style.

Barentoter, as far as my German goes, means “bear killer” auf Deutsch.

One thing about these Gose beers is that you cant get a head from them. There is a good bit of carbonation for sure, all bubbling away but it just wont settle down to form a head at all. No real problem as the colour of the beer is nice. A lovely deep and dark amber colour, which I love.

On the nose I get the Gose trademark smell, the salt and the coriander.

Loving the taste, is like a fruit juice, very sweet and tasty, love it. Getting the orange flavours which are very prominent. Very nice mouthfuls. Can also get the salt and the coriander. Spices too.

More sweet than sour me thinks, and not the most typical of bocks I have tasted. Perhaps the salt has a calming effect on it?

Very smooth. And all the complex flavours are very well balanced, and so easy to drink, with the alcohol very well hidden and no bitterness in the beer.

Liking these Gose’s a lot, will definitely pick some more up in time. So easy to drink and I can appreciate the new style.