Beer Review – Cigar City Margarita Gose
Contributed by on Oct 03, 2019
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As I write this intro, temperatures in Philly are soaring to new heights! The predicted high for today (10/2/2019) is 93 degrees. If this were July or August, it wouldn’t be noteworthy, but for the second week of Autumn, that’s just nutso! We’re all going to hell in a handbasket, I tell ya! And from what I’ve heard, hell is hot. Literally.
Hot days call for a refreshing beer, so today’s episode of A Tasting at The Murder Table features a Margarita Gose from our friends at Cigar City Brewing of Tampa, Florida. Cigar City wrote the words “Refreshingly Tart” beneath the words Margarita Gose, so this beer might be the perfect antidote for an unseasonably warm Autumn day in the City of Brotherly Love.
Before we find out what I thought of the Margarita Gose and its thirst-quenching ability, here are more than a few words about this beer taken directly from the Cigar City press release that landed in our inbox several weeks ago:
Originally released in 2014 to celebrate CCB’s 5th anniversary, Margarita Gose has developed a strong cult following through several limited draft and package releases. Using a traditional kettle souring method of pitching lactobacillus to produce the beer’s characteristic acidity, early batches of Margarita Gose took upwards of three days longer to produce than most other CCB brands, restricting the ability of CCB’s brewers to brew large batches.
In early 2019, the CCB team began experimenting with a newly-developed yeast to replace lactobacillus and produce the beer’s acidity without the time-and-resource-intensive kettle souring process. After an extensive research and development period, they have arrived at a process and flavor profile that offers a soft, approachable tartness rather than a sharp sour flavor. Orange peel and sea salt are added during the whirlpool step of wort production, and lime is added post-fermentation to further accentuate the beer’s citrus complexity. The resulting beer boasts aromas of ripe limes, lemon zest, and Valencia orange, matched perfectly on the palate with the same flavors complemented by a zesty, tart sourness and a soft salinity. Margarita Gose clocks in at 4.2% ABV and 5 IBU’s.
“Experimentation with this yeast strain has been a game-changer for Cigar City Brewing,” says Wayne Wambles, CCB’s Brewmaster. “The clean sourness provided is a perfect complement to the vibrant citrus character of Margarita Gose, and we are pleased to offer this refreshing beer that was created by our team back in 2014.”
CCB’s Brand Manager, Neil Callaghan, says, “After years of teasing beer lovers with small, brewery-only releases, we couldn’t be more excited to bring Margarita Gose to an international audience. The work that Wayne Wambles and his team put into creating the beer’s recipe and refining its production method is beyond impressive, and the approachable, moderately tart beer that’s resulted from that work speaks for itself.”
Now that we have the Margarita Gose backstory out of the way, click the play button on the following video to get my take on what sounds like a mighty tasty brew:
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