Coco Pina Gose

Review Date 6/8/2018 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Fruit Beer   Brewery: Coastal Empire   Country: USA   State: Georgia   $ Per OZ: $.15 (B)   ABV: 3.8%

So, brewers are throwing just about everything under the sun into sour beers and calling them Gose these days.Sometimes that works for me, and sometimes it doesn’t. There are always two tests for me when I drink a beer. First, how does the beer fare in the style the brewer aims for? Second, how did it fare hedonistically? We’re about to apply those criteria to Coco Pina Gose from Savannah’s Coastal Empire Brewing Company.

Coco Pina Gose is sort of like a Pina Colada mixed with a bottle of Gose. That is the intent here, and the combination sounds like a winner for hot summer weather. Coastal Empire says:

Coco Piña Gose is a tropical take on the classic sour German Gose style brewed with pineapple, coconut, pink Himalayan salt and Atlantic sea salt.

Coastal Empire Coco Pina Gose has an alcohol content of 3.8% by volume with 8 IBUs. I bought a 6-pack at Total Wine for $10.99, about a dollar more than I think it should go for.

Coastal Empire Coco Pina Gose pours to a pale-yellow color with a thick fizzy and quickly fading head and a tart pineapple and coconut nose. Taking a sip, the beer is tart immediately and salty, and has plenty of coconut and pineapple to suggest the Pina Colada theme. The beer finishes very sour and refreshing.

Tasty indeed and perfect for the 90-degree weather we are having, but for me this is really more of a fruit beer than a Gose. They got the low alcohol right. Where’s the coriander though? I doubt that would go well with pineapple and coconut, but this is not a Gose for that reason. Call it a fruit beer or a sour and call it a day. Whatever you call it, I for one would buy it again; it passes the hedonistic test, if not the stylistic one. It’s quite tasty indeed.

Glad I tried it?  T