Recovery Beers
Discussed in this post:
Pisces, Rising Tide Brewing Co. Portland, ME. Sour - Gose 3.6% ABV No IBU
26.2 Brew, Marathon Brewing Co. USA. Golden Ale 4% ABV No IBU
Rec League, Harpoon Brewery, Boston, MA. Pale Ale 3.8% ABV 35 IBU
Glitter and Grit, Austin Street Brewery, Portland, ME. Sour - Gose 5.6% ABV No IBU
Epiphany, Foundation Brewing Co. Portland, ME. IPA - Imperial/Double 8% ABV 85 IBU
Surfcasting, Oxbow Brewing Co. Newcastle, ME. Grisette 4.5% ABV No IBU
Seaquench, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, DE. Sour - Gose - Fruited 4.9% ABV 10 IBU
After several busy weeks and a long, hot tour day, we got together for a beer. The original plan was to meet at Austin Street’s Bayside location, a high-ceilinged, glass-fronted, airy spot on Fox Street. Pete arrived there first and called Jeff to make a switch.
Pete: They don’t have any gose on tap, and I’m really feeling the gose.
Jeff: Let’s go down to Rising Tide.
Pete: Will they have a gose?
Jeff: I believe it’s goes-ah
Pete (heading off a pedantic pronunciation digression): Yes, that’s how the server at Austin Street pronounced it last time I was there; she subtlety and gently corrected me. I get it now.
Jeff (determined to go on some kind of pedantic digression): So gose comes from Goslar, in Germany, the water there is naturally salty. A gose requirement is 50% of the grain is malted wheat. There is typically no hop bitterness, and the flavors include a bit of lemon sour and coriander. They are low in alcohol content (4-5%, generally).
Pete: Do you have a go-to gose? And will they have a gose at Rising Tide?
Jeff: Still working on my “go-to”, but they have us covered at Rising Tide. A while back, one of their bartenders assured me they would always have it.
We met in the line at Rising Tide, on Fox Street at the other end of the building from Austin. The line was short, but they evidence of a busy summer Friday afternoon was all around: glasses on tables, the broken to-go beer cooler sporting a sign encouraging customers to ask at the bar for cold beer to go, a wedding reception winding down in the function space and spilling into the outdoor area, an atmosphere of happy fatigue. The bartender looked at Jeff’s name tag and said, “Jeff, punch out, man!”
Rising Tide’s gose is called Pisces. Pete got a four-pack to go, and we took glasses full outside.
Some beverages are savored with a sip, as we were recently reminded. We each quaffed a half-cup of tart, salty beer with our first swallow.
Jeff: You have a new enthusiasm for gose?
Pete: I’ve been trying “recovery beers.”
Jeff: We have friends in recovery; It doesn’t usually involve drinking beer.
Pete: This is different, a less extreme example of recovery.
Jeff: You’re talking about beer as an electrolyte replacement beverage? I once read a book that called gose the original.
Pete: Right now breweries are updating the idea, like the 26.2 beer from Marathon Brewing, the Boston Beer subsidiary. I saw it in the Hannaford and brought some home. Drank it after a long walk. It hit the spot! Refreshing, with more than a hint of salt to replace what I’d sweated out. It has a low alcohol content, like 4%. I have a memory of running a marathon once and being so sick afterwards that I couldn’t drink my beer. My buddy Allen dumped half a salt shaker into the beer, stirred it up, and made me drink it--instant recovery. Cathy drank some of the 26.2 also. She said, “reminds me of the beach.”
Jeff: That’s a great description. Cathy’s, not the half salt shaker. It makes me want to try it.
Another example, staying in New England, is the Rec League from Harpoon. Light in ABV, low in calories, supposedly made with healthy ingredients. It leans more towards a session pale than a gose, though.
Pete: Last time I was at Austin Street (he gestures toward it with his nearly-empty glass) the Glitter and Grit just looked so refreshing I had to try it, and I did. I bought a 4-pack to “try” at home, and I did.
Then I had an Epiphany.
Jeff: A sudden realization?
Pete: No, the American IPA brewed by Foundation. After my second Epiphany, I had a nap.
Jeff: Say good-bye to the electrolyte replacement beer drinking rationalization.
Pete: A terrific beer but well beyond the session criteria. Actually, at 5.6%, the Glitter and Grit is stronger than a typical gose, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The folks at Oxbow make a grisette called “Surfcasting.” Evidently that’s a vigorous enough activity to justify a recovery beer. It’s got salt and lime.
Jeff: It sounds worth a try. The description reminds me of a six-pack I bought recently: Dogfish Head Seaquench Ale. A session sour gose/kolsch/weiss mix, with black limes, sour lime juice, and sea salt. It has a real pucker factor.
Pete: I overheard some dude the other day saying he’d just signed up for his company’s 401K. Damn! That’s a long run! It’s a good thing we’ve got all these wonderful recovery beers--he’s going to need them!