The Northbridge Brewing Co starts its 2018 small batch program with the most interesting release of the four-year-old brewery’s life to date: an umeboshi gose.
The melding of umeboshi, a pickled Japanese salty plum that resembles a tiny apricot with the recently revived German specialty beer style has been an 18 month skunkworks project for brewer Andrew Dean. The long gestation period was due to achieving the right balance of sweet, salty and sour characters in test batches, which ultimately resulted in him using Chinese and Australian umeboshi over the Japanese variety due to better colour and flavour profiles.
Wheat aromas rise initially due to an even split of wheat and pilsner malt grist – typical for the style – that's tweaked with a 15 percent sushi rice inclusion to thin the body. Tasting shows a beer in two parts as the tongue adjusts through the gose base into the almost perfumed and fuller second act that comes courtesy of the pickled plum. Salt levels are restrained for style, primarily because the only salt addition was via the 6.3kg of hand de-seeded umeboshi used in the 1200 litre batch. Despite the seed removal, there remains an almond like character via the kernel that floats through Bento Box and is reminiscent of other beers that have been rested on fresh apricots or peaches.
A smattering of Saaz hops keep the bitterness low and contribute some floral characters to an intriguing beer that sits on the sweeter side of the gose style. With this kind of experimentation, 2018 looks to be a very interesting year for the Beerland breweries.
Guy Southern
Published February 1, 2018 2018-02-01 00:00:00