Here’s a Summer Beer Week curve ball you may not have thought of: a German Gose style of beer. Gose is a light, tart wheat ale spiced with coriander and salt, and is enjoying a small revival with some American craft brewers lately. I didn’t get a hold of any of those, but I was thrilled to find Leipziger Gose at my local Whole Foods, imported from Germany—the first Gose I’ve seen in Bend and it is in fact my first-ever sampling of the style.

This is a perfect summer style of beer, and inasmuch as there can be an “official” Gose beer from Germany, Leipziger appears to be it. It’s 4.6% alcohol by volume, and if you can find this near you (or any Gose beer), you should definitely seek it out to try it.

Appearance: Lively and bubbly, pale gold and very clear. Pure white head, like beaten egg white.

Smell: Tart wheat and coriander, clean and a touch creamy.

Taste: Tart and sharp with a hint of salt, very crisp. The coriander imparts an almost peppery character. Very clean on the tongue, with a dry wheat bite.

Mouthfeel: Crisp, light, lively on the tongue, and a nice “cleansing” finish.

Overall: Super drinkable, nicely tart (which makes it refreshing along with the touch of salt), quite a nice beer. There’s a creaminess from the wheat too, I think.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.34 out of 5, and is in their 88th overall percentile.

As I mentioned, Gose is undergoing a mini-revival among American brewers, but there aren’t many yet: BeerAdvocate only has 22 Gose entries currently. If I can get my hands on some more, perhaps I’ll be doing a Gose Week at some point.