Dookit Balla-Mara Gose Sour - Wee Beer Shop

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barley, wheat. Vegan.

Dookit say “When coming up with a few recipes for Spring a Gose with Scottish Sea Buckthorn suddenly sprung to mind. I met Kirstie (who founded the Scottish Wild Food Festival last year and was pleasantly surprised at how sharp and restorative one shot of the luminous juice is. The native shrub you so often see barricading sand dunes around coastlines holds an overpowering taste and can be astringent in high doses. And so I proceeded with great caution… “Christina Riley is an interdisciplinary artist whose work we’ve been big fans of for a wee while now. Her careful and astute focus on the sea makes for beautiful work and taps into our shared, and very human, draw to the coast. Her work, approach and studies located around the West Coast made for the perfect project. The artwork for the label, taken not too far from where the salt makers collect their sea water (near Troon), captures a natural balla-mara. And with a bit of luck (a technical mistake on the camera’s front), a bright orange squiggle imitates the luminous orange of the sea buckthorn juice. “As luck would have it Christina also forages sea buckthorn from time to time! She kindly offered up a small sample of her gatherings and I got to work. Several tests led me to believe you would not want to add more than 10% sea buckthorn juice. Anymore and the beer became astringent. 10% gave off a pastel orange hue, however the flavour dominated. I love the stripped back flavours of a Gose: the citric medley of coriander and lactobacillus and the smooth texture you get from the creamy culture and high dosage of wheat malt. When done right that medium acidity balances nicely with the clean flavours of both barley and wheat. Not to mention that dry, crisp finish aided by the subtle salinity and virtually no hop character. So the sea buckthorn became another small adjunct addition, much like the coriander and salt. “The sparingly dosed sea buckthorn means a bright straw colour is achieved with a bit of haze. You can smell the berry too. The aromas oscillate between fruity and creamy esters. Some peachy and even pineapple notes come to mind. Pleasant memories of drinking Lilt as a kid in the summer pop up too. However, the dominant fruity note is citrus and a clean lemony one at that. Some floral aromatics arise from the ground spice but the Plantarum culture ascertains lemons as the overriding flavour.

“The salt, sourced from the inimitable Blackthorn, is subtle but it’s there. By the mid palate you get its delicate sweet and umami character and a touch of its tannic nature enthused by the hardy branches, which the Scottish sea water is filtered through. Dosed on the lower side of stylistic guidelines (88g/L) the flavours are muted, but the saltiness works its magic and makes for a dry and crisp, refreshing finish.” Less