Beer: Cucumber Lime Gose
Brewery: Nickel Brook Brewing Co. (Burlington, Ontario)
Style: Sour – Gose
4% ABV / N/A IBU

As summer produce goes, cucumbers are almost as iconic as watermelon. Like most melons, cucumbers pair exceptionally well with salt. Part of this is just that the salt acts as a desiccant and draws the excess moisture out – standard practice is to salt the cucumbers before cooking with them. But the combination of sweet and salty can be tantalizing to tastebuds, and that’s really what the gose – a sour style with a sweetish flavor profile and some brineyness from the introduction of salt – is all about. We have honeydew goses, cantaloupe goses, and what seems like hundreds of watermelon goses to choose from… why not a cucumber gose?

Remarkably, Nickel Brook’s Cucumber Lime Gose (initially called “Ceres” when it was first introduced) isn’t the only cucumber or cucumber-lime beer on the market. But it is one of the few I’ve encountered where the presentation is naked and straightforward – it smells and tastes like its core ingredients (cucumber juice, lime, and Himalayan sea salt). The cucumber nose right after you open the bottle is especially fantastic. But aside from the wheat and barley and an agreeable amount of sourness from a hint of lactobacilus, that’s it. What you see is very much what you get. No need for mint, tequila or gin barrel aging, or anything else. Between this and its Uber series, Nickel Brook has hit upon a perfect formula for interesting tasting, session-range ABV sours – perfect for a lazy Sunday during the dog days of summer.

For more info, check out Nickel Brook Brewing Co here.