Gosnells First Sour Mead

Gosnells First Sour Mead

When I first tasted the original Gosnells I knew that the balance between the sweetness of honey and a complex acidity profile of mixed fermentation was a direction I wanted to explore.

Given just the starting simple sugar profile of honey brewing a complex acid profile with enough body structure has been a hurdle.

Developing this sour has certainly not been easy but after many trails (some successful and many much less successful) we've finally created a product that marries the sweetness with the sour and is reminiscent of a traditional spontaneous fermentation flavour profile.

We've achieved this balance by developing a blending program, much like lambic styles, to get the exact balance of acidity dialled in.

For our first release, we've blended a combination of mixed, single strain and open top fermentation. This allows not only a funky fun flavour profile but also allows for better consistency.

Using Spanish Orange Blossom Honey as a base for all the ferments was an easy decision. Its light and citrus profile allows for another string to the acidity bow with the honey itself being around 3.9 ph.

With the movement being towards kettle souring in the beer industry, we decided to create a more complex acidity profile as LAB produce a fruity but thin mono-tonal acidity profile. Using acetobacter as well as 2 LAB strains and a few other tricks, created our first ever sour mead, which has complex layers of flavour, a puckering sourness, and our signature honey flavour!

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