Magic Hat Saint Saltan

I would like to point out that we are some of the first to review this beer. There are only 7 reviews on BeerAdvocate right now, and 6 on RateBeer.

I was intrigued by this when I saw it on Magic Hat's website. A Gose style. A rather uncommon style of beer that's brewed/found in the US. Gose is a brew originating in Germany that's pretty much a witbier that's salty. The saltiness originated from the waters that were used in the region it originated. I've only previously had 2 other gose styles previous to this; a homebrew from our friend Kris Fry and Samuel Adams Verloren. The homebrew was fantastic, and salty. The Verloren was, ok at best, misleading on the name of gose though.

Back onto this brew.

It pours a very clear, light golden color, with lighter carbonation. The aroma is sweeter and slightly malty with notes of coriander. The first sip is interesting. There's some sweet, lighter malt notes, with some spice from the coriander on the front, leading to a sea salt sort of flavor on the back. Nice, light, smooth drinking, light mouth feel. 4.5% ABV is about average for this style, but it's not noticed anywhere in this brew. This drinks about as smooth as water, but much tastier. This would be perfect on a hot day after a long day at work, sitting on the porch and watching the sun go down. Unfortunately it's cold in Ohio and I haven't seen the sun in... Oh, I don't know, about as long as the SAP system has dominated my world and forced me to be at work much longer than anyone would care to be, week in, week out, 54 to 60 hours. But I seem to be getting away from the game plan here of reviewing beer.

Yet another strong offering from Magic Hat.

4/5 caps

-Nathan-

I don't have much to add here... I found a lot of coriander in the nose. But then again, that was before my nose was tainted with cleaning products from the maniacal binge I've been on. Cleaning, not huffing them, that is. The coriander doesn't make its presence known as much to me in the flavor as it does in the aroma. Other than that, this is a pretty damn good offering from Magic Hat, and a decent representation of the style. Thank you, Fry, for spoiling me... thank you, Magic Hat, for putting out a decent version of it.

Side note, Phil and I were shopping today, and we finally drank Kroger out of 30-packs of PBR. Because, no lie, we go through 2 a week between the three of us. No, we're not raging alcoholics... it's Valentine's Day, and I didn't see my love until 9:00pm, almost twelve hours after he departed, and twelve and a half hours since we awoke. (I'm not thrilled with him working so much, either, other than that it allows us to sample more brews. When we have time. And energy. Which isn't often.) Anywho.... back to the beer predicament. Kroger was out of our usual, so I suggested this when I saw the Gose in the pack. Good choice.

By the way, Nathan, you've been putting in these crazy hours since before New Year's. Like all of December, and 2013 to date. Uck.

Back to the beer.... it's super smooth, and pretty darn good.

4.1/5 caps

-Jennie