Every week you’ll find something new and exciting at Urban Artifact’s Tap Tuesday beer tapping.  They put out some really fantastic different beers last year, and the train seems to be on track to roll through 2016 with some equally great things.

I made the trip down to the taproom this weekend, and got a sneak peek at what they’ve got coming on this week and figured you guys would like to know about it.  The beer, called Abacus is a wintery Gose, which…. Wait… wintery Gose?  Does this even make sense?

Let’s take a quick step back to understand what a Gose is, and then we’ll explore what Abacus is all about.

Gose In Winter?

Most of the grain bill of a Gose is wheat… which sounds pretty “summery” to me. Dominant flavors of the style tend to lean toward a tart lemon flavor and a slight saltiness, which started from the water source in Gosler, Germany, the home of the style.  Tart lemony freshness and a slight saltiness in the water… uhhh…. sounds like summer again.  In fact, all of the German styles that are cousins of the Gose such as Berliner Weisse and Witbier… these all certainly sound like summery beers to me.

What in the world is Urban Artifact doing?

They’ve taken their certainly summer style of Gose and put their own twist on it.  If you’re familiar with the brewery you’ll understand this as just another way for them to put their Urban Artifact stamp on things… I’m starting to think that when they refer to themselves as “Wild”, they aren’t just talking about the yeast and bacteria that they use to ferment their beers… their personality as a brewery just might be about doing things a little wild and off the beaten path.

So… how do you put a wintery spin on a Gose?  They took their base Gose and added some chocolate.  They sourced some cacao nibs from Ohio’s own ‘Ohiyo Chocolate’ (Check out their Facebook page when you get a moment) and added in around a pound of fresh Raspberries per barrel.  The resulting beer is certainly still a Gose… crisp, refreshing, easy drinking, nicely tart.  But all the while it’s dark color and full flavors certainly hark to winter time.  This follows in the footsteps of their Keypunch and Chariot Goses, which to me are some of the finest uses of fruit in beer here in Cincinnati.  It’s got a lively punch of the Raspberries that goes great with their tart and slightly salty kick of the Gose.  It’s almost as if this beer is meant for a Cincinnati winter, where you might get those days where the sun shines, and the back of your neck warms up, followed by the biting windy days where it aches to stand outside.  It comes in at 4.9% ABV, which is slightly higher than their other Goses…but in no way too high that you can’t put a few of these back over the course of a night.

Is this the first ever wintery Gose?

When Can I Get It?

Get down to the taproom for Tap Tuesday, kick off your new year of beer the right way.  The beer is tapped at 4pm and it’s going to mark an incredible year for Urban Artifact, they’ve got some really great ideas up their sleeves that I know about, and what I can only assume are some mind blowing ideas that they’re still holding back on.  If you’re curious to hear our impressions of this beer live, we could very well be doing a tasting, live on the air tonight on Cincy Brewcast… so get your periscope apps ready, we go live at 8 – Follow TheGnarlyGnome and CincyBrewcast to get notifications when we go live!