Festival season is in full swing once again here at Polly’s HQ and we’re hitting the events with gusto after a year off in 2020 and a compacted 2021 season. One of the biggest things we’ve learned this year is that midst all the hype juice and pastry stouts, there’s nothing that seems to pique people’s interest better than a bright red, stupidly fruited sour beer. A branch of the brewery we feel is becoming one of our strongest offerings with each iteration, our brewers have duly obliged the brief, and have gone all out on Soma Centre. Bringing 50kg of blackcurrants to the party and buffing it up with a further 25kg of lemon before rounding everything off with a hearty 1kg addition of sea salt, the result is a gose that is equal parts puckeringly tart and sweet. Perfect for a festival!
Arviot
Simon P
@ The Lyric - London8 months ago
3.9
Jamie K
@ The Internet11 months ago
3.8
Nice tart taste
Very summery flavours
Very refreshing in the warm weather
Couldn’t stomach more than one as it’s very sour
Paul G
@ Bottle and Jug Department2 years ago
2.9
Opaque ruby colour and lively carbonation. Aromas of Shiraz and ribena via the blackcurrant with a citrus lift via the lemon.
Pleasingly sour first sip with a light body and a long tart finish with salt struggling to poke through on the first few sips.
This gose is new ground for Polly's and you can tell. The balance isn't quite there, really it's a bit too sour for a gose and the salt starts of subtle then ends up being too explicit. Blackcurrant is a good choice for a sour proper but for gose I'm not sure. It's like drinking ribena concentrate having just come up from the bottom of the sea!
Not the best gose but also not bad overall, it's summut a bit different. I feel plenty of people would dislike this beer and put them off the gose style which would be a shame.
EDIT: this brew improves after a bit of time to breathe...the sourness softens and the salt dissolves a bit more (or its perceived to anyway).