Robin Shepard
Barrett Lione-Seaton and the fresh-cut oak staves inserted in the squarrel.
Delta Beer Lab’s There Gose the Sun is a kettle-soured gose with additions of orange juice and grenadine syrup. It’s then wood-aged using a new technique involving a square barrel.
What is it? There Goes the Sun from Delta Beer Lab of Madison.
Style: Gose (pronounced "gose-uh,") is a light-bodied, salty sour ale. Modern craft brewers commonly use a kettle souring process with Lactobacillus, a common bacteria found in yogurt. The gose is an old style of beer dating back centuries to the German cities of Goslar and Leipzig. It will commonly range in alcohol from 4 to 5 percent ABV.
Background: Delta Beer Lab opened in mid-February. Delta hopes it will appeal to craft beer drinkers who enjoy limited batch, experimental brews. There Gose the Sun speaks to that sense of beer exploration because of all that goes into making it. The process begins with kettle souring; Lactobacillus is added to the half finished wort to make it tart and acidic. Delta brewer Barrett Lione-Seaton added about 74 ounces of fresh yogurt per 10 barrels of beer to achieve the sourness he wanted. Once the right acidity (pH) was achieved, the brew kettle was heated back up to kill the bacteria. Then fermentation continued using a common ale yeast. Lione-Seaton also added coriander and sea salt, traditional spices in a gose. A fruity blend of orange juice and grenadine syrup balances the sourness.
The next step takes this beer to a whole other level. It’s oak-aged using a technique invented for craft distilling involving a square barrel called a squarrel. While it looks similar to a stainless steel beer keg, a squarrel is square, with slats that allow the brewer to insert wooden staves into its side walls. For There Gose the Sun, Lione-Seaton took fresh-cut American white oak staves and soaked them in tequila for 10 hours before inserting them into the squarrel. The beer remained in the squarrel for another 48 hours before it was kegged off. Lione-Seaton says he was looking to making a beer reminiscent of a Tequila Sunrise.
Squarrels are somewhat new to brewing, with a handful of western brewers using them over the past few years. Delta Beer Lab is among the first breweries in Wisconsin to use one although more are soon to follow suit. For small batches (10-60 gallons) they can increase the speed with which wood aroma and flavors are imparted to the beer. In this case, it reduced aging from weeks to just a few days. Lione-Seaton learned about squarrels from friends who are distillers in Colorado.
There Gose the Sun finishes at 4.6 percent ABV. The beer will be released May 3 beginning at 5 p.m. in the brewery’s taproom. It will be sold in 10-ounce snifters for $7. Also on tap now in the Delta Beer Lab taproom is a non-fruited gose (also not aged in the square barrels). That beer will make a nice side-by-side comparison with There Gose the Sun.
Tasting notes:
- Aroma: Light sour notes of the kettle-soured gose. Also a touch of orange and grenadine (and hints of pomegranate and cherry) with a light hint of fresh cut oak.
- Appearance: Slightly hazy. A reddish-orange color. Medium bubbly tan to light-pink head.
- Texture: Light- to medium-bodied and bubbly.
- Taste: A firm tartness throughout. The orange and grenadine blend nicely with the sourness of the gose. The oak lies in the background, along with some spicy warmth from coriander and tequila.
- Finish/Aftertaste: Tart, fruity and lingering oakiness.
Glassware: The snifter or a glass with an inward flare near the lip to focus the orange, grenadine and oakiness toward the nose.
Pairs well with: nothing. This is a beer to best enjoy on its own to allow the orange, grenadine, oak and tequila to slowly emerge in layers of flavor.
The Verdict: If you want to try it, better get to Delta Beer Lab for its release party on May 3. This beer is limited and the brewery is waiting to see how well it sells before committing to another batch. There’s firm sourness from the Lactobacillus, but there more to it than that. Its tartness blends well with the fruity orange and pomegranate flavors of grenadine. But what really stands out is the woodiness throughout, from its initial aroma, into the background and finish. There’s also the spirit character of a tequila, which becomes more noticeable as the beer warms. I like this beer for its layers of flavor but also because Delta Beer Lab is trying new things.
