Why We Picked It: We love to try dramatically different beers from the same brewery. Also, we are mixing in the always controversial gose (pronounced Gowz, GOHZ-uh, GOHZ, GOH-sh, GOHS, or maybe its goose.). There will be a few more in the 24DOB.
What Key Brewing Company Says About It: "Enjoy this Gose made with blackberries and organic Atlantic kelp for the perfect combo of sweet and salt. Always drink cold."
ABV: 4.2%
IBU: No
Website: https://keybrewing.com/
Fun Facts: This beer apparently began as a collaboration between Key and Evolution Craft Brewing in Salisbury in 2016, before evolving into a Key only production.
I get by with a little kelp from my friends. I really enjoyed this, and I continue to be impressed with Key brewing. I am on the record of liking Goses and Sours, and this is a quality specimen, one with which I was unfamiliar. Blackberries + kelp: who knew? My wife didn't like it, and I gladly accepted her half. Yum. It is a really good balance of fruity flavors with a salty sour finish.
ReplyDelete- Greg
I drank this one on the beach, which gives it an automatic advantage. Like Greg, I've become a fan of goses and their cousin sours. However, this one didn't quite hit it for me. I liked the blackberries on the front end, but had a very dry finish that I didn't love or at least wasn't in the mood for. It was almost like a chardonnay finish. I could blame the kelp, but as kelp is mew to my beer pallet, I have no clue. 2.75 out of four ocean weeds (not sure how that translates to the McNary scale).
ReplyDeleteNote - It was after 3 when I drank this. I am slipping.
Before I get to my review I want to say I have very picky about my sours. About 15 years ago a very good college friend of mine who I also worked with, decided on a career change and wanted to go back to law school. The summer before he left was around the same time Victoria's first opened that in Howard County, we would stop 3-4 times a week after work as he lived just down the street. This was my first introduction to sours (Gose, Lambric, Fladers, Wild Ale, etc) and we would generally try any new sour that came along (it was way better then my banana beer and pumpkin beer phases when The Perfect Pour first opened in Columbia). Sours went from something that I thought I really enjoyed to slowly realizing the hard truth....most stink. After a summer of 248 beers, my friend went back to law school and I have not been back to VGP since. I feel a little bad since I am only 2 beers away from the 250 club and my name on the wall, just never seemed to happen.
ReplyDeleteAfter that I went through a phase of not drinking many sours as most felt very one note (just overly sour, like when microbreweries were gaining steam and a "good" American IPA meant the more hops the better and balance meant nothing). Flash forward about 10 years, I took a big leap and left my company of 12 years in Baltimore and starting working for a startup in DC. My first day I wanted to bring some of the managers/leads for my team out for lunch and they suggested a small Belgium Mussels place just around the corner. As everyone placed their food/soda orders I saw they had Cape May's The Keel (2) listed on the menu. I asked if it was still accurate and they said yes they had received 3 bottles and sold one a few years back, but the other 2 have been chilling in storage. I quickly ordered the other two and glasses for the team (even though they were by FAR the most I have ever paid for a single bottle of beer). As it came and the waitress poured tastes for all of us (they come in 500ml bottles, I think, larger bottles for sure) as I looked around and saw how excited everyone was I knew with 100% certainty I made the right choice in new companies. We still do team lunches every 2 weeks and since that point we rarely care about the type of food the restaurant serves but instead look for solid drinking experiences. Whether it is a Russian places with 20 house vodkas, a french place that makes their own house wine, or a place that is serving a special cocktail.
Jump forward to last August and we sold our company. While it was a very exciting time it also meant I would be jumping back to Norway and Copenhagen once every few weeks (my profile picture is a Carlsberg along the Nyhavn). We took off and they came around with the drink cart, I as I place a crazy large order of just about 1 of everything (its a very large flight, in business drinks are included, but they only do drink service once). I notice a large blue bottle. I ask what it is .... its an airline specific sour! I add one of those. I pop the cork and it pours a beautiful red and has a surprisingly sour taste with such a clean finish. I instantly was brought back to my time a VPG and my start at my current company and felt relaxed (that also could have the double whisky and soda I had drank first kicking in...who knows).
So for me a good sour of any type brings me back to a very comforting place and a bad sour almost offends me. This trended much closer to the latter. Scott said Chardonnay, but my first thought was a cheap Sauvignon Blanc. The sour berries were very once note and the finish was just....not correct.
I give this a 1.5 out of 5 found memories.
I really needed to grammar and spell check. Or maybe not type like 1000 words on my phone ....
DeleteExcellent backgrounder. Also, as previously stated, if you are hiring a US marketer...
DeleteGood call on the Sauv Blanc. Something a touch fruity then needlessly dry.
For the 10 crazy seconds where I was thinking that kelp was a fish, I was really dreading this beer. Happily realized I was mistaken but then poured it and the bouquet was also not making me excited to drink it. But! I actually like the sour subtle- fruitiness of it. It goes down nicely, would be a great beach beer, I think. And bonus of no fish.
ReplyDeleteI like to think my sour/gose skills have increased/advanced significantly since my brother-in-law first tried to force me to like them by giving me 5 of the most sour of all sours in one sitting. I've become a pretty big fan, especially of the fruitier ones (like the four pack of Maple Lawn Super Sour that we were gifted). This is a bridge too far. I don't get any blackberries at all. None. I get salt. And more salt. Maybe that's the kelp? And the aftertaste is like sweatsocks. Now, admittedly the off the charts salt content and my curiosity to identify that sweatsock flavor resulted in me drinking this very fast. Which just got me to my next Super Sour that much quicker. I give this 1 out of 5 spongebob kelp shakes.
ReplyDeleteUpdate. I had the empty can sitting on the counter. Squeezed it to take it out to the recycling. Good god man! Kelp plus sweatsocks amplified! Barely suppressed the gag reflex.
Delete+1 for the SpongeBob scale. Wish I had thought of that.
Delete"it's not you, it's me. You can do better with someone that can appreciate your complex and worldly personality".
ReplyDeleteSorry guys, I don't get it. I never got past the lip puckering sourness. Kelp? Berries? Never tasted them.
1 out of 5 warheads.
While the hazy beers and NE IPAs make me feel like the beer equivalent of the person who stopped seeking out new music in high school or college - "Boston and Rush are the best" or in my case it would have been "Smashing Pumpkins and the Bosstones are the two greatest bands ever," Gose, Flemish Reds, Saisons, and all manner of tart and sour beers are my jam.
ReplyDeleteGiven the option, I'll go for a funky saison or a wood-aged sour, but this was the perfect beer for a nooner on the deck with a BLT. Tart, refreshing, slightly salty - goes great with bacon.
3 out of 4 for me.
It is pretty sour but there are far more sourer beers. I always thought of sours as good quenching thirst post activity but this one might make you more thirsty. It's average but makes me want to go the beach for some reason so I guess that gives it an extra .25. 3.25 out of 5.
ReplyDeleteWhen I drank this, I was thinking about an old SNL commercial parody, where a bunch of people stranded on an island are running campaign ads against one another, and they debate merits of drinking seawater. If I recall, Will Ferrell plays a leading candidate and he argues in favor of drinking the seawater. He explains since he has been drinking, he feels really good.
ReplyDeleteI really liked Undertow, and I thought to myself, I wonder if you drink enough seawater, maybe your brain tricks you into thinking it tastes really good - like it tastes like Undertow.
I liked the salty/sour combo - a good deal on the salty side, but I liked that. Very easy drinking, and nice flavor. 3.00/4.00 very, very safe Delaware beaches.
Ugh, I'm already 3 days behind in commenting, and it won't work on an iPad so my comment got eated. Long story short - yay session IPAs, boo sours, Atlantic kelp is a plant but I think Pacific kelp might be a fish?
ReplyDeleteI gotta give a big nope to this one. I find it rare to find a Gose that I really enjoy anyways, but this one had such a bad after taste (that I could also pick up in the aroma). Maybe from the kelp or dirty sock water they put in it, it just wasn't enjoyable for me at all. And I don't think very consistent with what the style should be.
ReplyDeleteWould you call that smell "barnyard" or "horse blanket?" Because I totally smelled those.
Deletenot unpleasant - in fact I had lower expectations when I think it came from Dundalk. Having low expectations at outset probably helped. But sours are really not my kind of thing. Finished it, but I wouldnt want another one. The fact I finished it rather than dump it [though I admit on first taste I wasnt sure], means I spose I'd give it 2/5.
ReplyDelete