Gose Malt Bill

My Goal is to recreate a somewhat historic acurate version of Goslarsche or Dölnitzer Gose for Carnival Brettanomyces and I will post my progress here. Malt is where every beer starts. Let’s see what different sources say about the Malt in historical Gose from Goslar:

Heinrich Steckhahn writes 1869 in a Newspaper from Goslar:

The Wheat was bough from the production director (Gose was brewed solely from pure wheat malt).  This wheat was delivered to the active brewing houses for malting …

So this source says Gose was only brewed with wheat. (Full Source available here)

The next recipe source from 1762 does not mention anything about the malt in particular. It just says it is a “Weizenbier” and that in Goslar they also brew a brown beer from barley.

Gose is a wheat beer that is famous in Niedersachsen and is drunk by many because of its sweet taste and its lightness.

the part about barley brown beer

I also want to remark that a brown beer is also brewed in Goslar. It has a weak brown color and is made up of barley. There is no “Darr-Maß” added. It is not brewed often since the Gose is the common beverage.

Source for it is here.

 

In “Rudolf August Behrens – Untersuchung der mineralischen Wasser zu Fürstenau“ from 1725 they say it is brewed also from 100% wheat.

The clear beer from Goslar, is easily digestet, is nutricious, opens up and leaves in a good fashion. Reasons for that are that you brew it with all wheat and that the used water is mineralic.

Another source is Die Natur Halle fom 1871:

The Broihan is created with air dried barley malt the Gose in opposite with air dried wheat malt, which is boiled out with table salt.

In Katechismus des Braumeisters they talk about the Dölnitzer Gose which is closely related and they also say it is brewed with 100% wheat malt.

The „Döllnitzer Gose“ is produced out of air dried wheat malt, which you boil out with the addition of table salt. After that you add the yeast and let it ferment.

The only source I could find that was not saying it is 100% wheat is “Vollständige Braukunde” which is written 1831 in Nürnberg ant it mentions a mixture between Barley and Wheat Malt (55% Barley 45% Wheat).

You can brew it with 12 Scheffel pale barley malt and 10 Scheffel pale wheat malt for hops you use 5 pound best quality hops.

So I would dismiss the source from Nürnberg and would say I’m pretty sure that the old style Gose was a 100% wheat beer just as Grätzer.

This only applies to Gose from Döllnitz and Goslar more modern Gose from Leipzig or other parts of the country will certainly be different.

In order to brew a beer with 100% wheat malt, I would have to use a brew in a bag system or use Rice hulls to aid lautering.

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