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Dogfish Head Brewery makes some of the most outstanding brews in the craft beer space, with year-round offerings and seasonal picks among them. While it isn’t quite the season for a gose, we decided to review this superb beer on a rare and warm (for east coast winter) afternoon.

The gose style of beer hails from Germany, making its debut during the 13th Century in the town of Goslar hence the name. The beauty of the goes is that it sour and salty, perfect as an aperitif before dinner or just something to si while sitting outside with friends. Usually, gose brews have salt added to them to mimic the water sources from where it was originated but Dogfish has achieved something altogether unique with yet another “off-centered” creation.

We’ll let Dogfish explain the impetus behind the brew below:

That same spirit can be found in our latest collaboration with the analog creators at Kodak. They’re bold. They’re storytellers. And well, they’re our kind of people. Which is why we’ve teamed up with them to ‘develop’ a one-of-a-kind partnership that’s full of creative chemistry.

It all started when Dogfish founder & CEO Sam Calagione learned during a Kodak podcast that if the pH of a beer is low enough, it just might be able to develop their Super 8 film. Challenge accepted.

Insert SuperEIGHT (the beer). This sessionable ale brewed with eight heroic ingredients: prickly pear, mango, boysenberry, blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, kiwi juices, toasted quinoa and an ample addition of red Hawaiian sea salt! Okay, so technically that’s nine, but it ‘gose’ without say that there’s going to be salt. These unique ingredients give this beer a vibrant red color, with delicious flavors of berries and watermelon, along with a tart – yet refreshing – finish.

The explainer goes on to add that the beer can actually develop super eight film from Kodak, which, if you know anything about Dogfish, shouldn’t be a shock. They specialize in doing the unthinkable and turning it into the drinkable.

So how does it taste? In simple terms, delicious. The fruit notes are muted of course by the sourness of the brew but they dance together effortlessly, giving way to a salty, puckering finish that makes one grab another sip almost immediately.

I’ll not mince words. As of this writing, it is a sunny 50 degrees outside, a warm day for my neck of the woods in early February so I tried my best to imagine it being perhaps 25 degrees warmer, grill going, and kicking back on the deck. The nose is fruity, the taste is sour, the finish salty and satisfying. I can see this being a great beer to have with some chips and dip, perhaps a hearty loaded baked potato, anything that would play with the fruit and saltiness.

Kudos once again to Dogfish Head Brewery for Super Eight, a beer you should definitely grab when it goes back into its release stage starting this April and going through December.

Dogfish Head Brewery Super Eight - DLC

Source: D.L. Chandler / DLC

Photo: Dogfish Head