Discover Gose in Goslar

Gose is a loved beer style, especially by those following the hype. Gose is indeed a traditional style which dates back to Middle Age, long before Reinheitsgebot and is not a style that requires lime, gooseberries, blackcurrant, black salt and other strange ingredients.

Outside German borders, not everyone knows that Gose is not originally from Lepizig, even thought the renaissance of the style in the 80’s comes from Gosenschenke “Ohne Bedenken”.

Gose is the namesgiver of the city of Goslar, in Lower Saxony. Gose + lar = Warehouse at the Gose. Gose is the name of a small stream of just 7,5 km, that flows into the Abzucht, another small stream flowing under the Imperial Palace of the city of Goslar. The water of the Gose was deviated already in Middle Age to supply the inhabitants of Goslar with fresh, healthy tap water. The same water was used by the almost 100 breweries in town back at the time to brew this top fermented special beer. Actually, in the past the beer was produced with the spontaneous fermentation method. Still today, the water of Gose is used to produce the local beer. The stream flows hidden in the underground and only a small street reminds us of the presence of this “divine” source of water: An der Gose .

The town itself is worth a visit for sure, being listed under UNESCO World Heritage, but for us beerhunters could be a nice destination to discover how the style is and how different it is from the Gose we drink everyday. Actually, there is not only Gose in Goslar, I managed to try different styles during my 3 days stay.

I started my tour at the Altstadt Cafè with some traditional Pils and Dunkel from Alternauer Brauerei.

The second day I discovered by chance a vegan bistro which serves
Neunspringer Whisky Ale
and Neunspringer Whisky Stout from a local brewery.

The evening I went to Die Worthmühle, a traditional restaurant which serves its own Gose. This one resembles to the one “exported” in Leipzig, but without the salty touch that we all know.

The day after I paid a visit to Brauhaus Goslar, the local brewery which opened in 2004. I already had their Gose Hell in Berlin, so I tried the
Goslarer Gose Dunkel
, the Rammelsberger Pils and the saisonal beer of the period: the tasty Brauhaus Goslar Altbier.

On my last day, before leaving, I had lunch at Wirtshaus Die Butterhanne, which is a famous restaurant which serves 3 homebeers: Butterhanne Gose Gold, Butterhanne Gose Dunkel and Butterhanne Barbarossa, brewed by Alternauer Brauerei just for them. This one overcame my expectations (previous reviews were not so enthusiastic). The Gose Hell is the best beer I had during this trip. It tastes like a witbier actually, but as far as I understood, this is how the traditional Gose from Goslar should taste.

In case that was not enough, the local Rewe had a nice selection of macrocraft available in the types of Brewdog, Mikkeller, Duvel and German breweries like Propeller, Ratsherrn, Insel Brauerei, Riedenburger.

To make a long story short, shall you plan to visit Germany and want to make a stop on the way from Düsseldorf to Berlin, you can consider Goslar and enjoy some fresh and good traditional Gose.

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Very nice, thanks for the travel-log! Looks like I need to make a extensive stop next time i’m traversing the country.

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Yes, thanks a lot for this review! More people need to do this.

Maybe open a subsection in the Travel forum where everyone can write extensive reviews on cities with some more pictures and experiences than on the places section. This is especially well worth it for less travelled cities.

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Thanks for your kind words! Goslar is worth a trip anyway for its treasures. But in one day and a half you can easily make 8 new rates :wink:

Thanks! I have been inspired by the posts of @BlackHaddock last summer and I promised I would have done something like this as soon as I had the chance.

I completely agree with you, if more people do this, we will improve the quality of the Forum. I try my best to give back something after almost ten years of taking important information from here. Useful info that help me beer-hunting during my trips

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@rauchbierlover, In 10 days I travel to Southern California for five weeks. I hope to write a mini-travel log of my drinking (like last time) A Californian Odyssey although it will be mostly Grandpa duties with my granddaughter rather than beer sampling on this trip.

<*))))))><

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Nice write up, thank you.

<*))))))><

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You’re welcome l. Can’t wait to read your report from California :beers:

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This is a fantastic post! I wish I could get over there. I visited Europe in high school, but only France and Spain, and I was too young to drink and not into beer yet. Someday I hope to be able to get over there and explore Germany and Belgium, and lesser known off the beaten path stuff like this is what my wife and I love to find! Cheers!

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That was a good read. Thanks for putting such a great post together.

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A very good read, thank you.

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Thank you all for the kind words.

Cannot tell for Belgium, but the beauty of small/mid-sized towns was the reason why I decided to move to Germany. From here it is easier to organize such quick and interesting excursions. Shall you need any advice in the future, feel free to drop me a line :wink:

Great post! How many examples are there in Leipzig?

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In Leipzig there are actually more (and the quality is in average better than in Goslar).

The most famous are those:

Original Ritterguts Gose
Ritterguts Bärentöter - German Sour Gose Bock
Bayerischer Bahnhof Original Leipziger Gose

Ritterguts and BB brew also some special/seasonal/one-off

The latest addition in town is this one: Lotteraner Gose