News: Gosefest 2009 and Q4 Beer Price Index Numbers

Victory Bar and Brewpublic are hosting a rare event tonight: Gosefest 2009. Gose was a lost style as recently as 20 years ago. An ancient German product, goses (possibly pronounce Goh-suh) were made with an addition of lactobacillus and finishes off with salt. For those of you who have had the Indian salted yogurt drink lassi, this is something like the German versions. In my visit with Ron Gansberg recently, he said that the description of the lacto being added during the boil was probably wrong (which I intuit to mean he added his later).

There are only two extant versions currently being brewed in Germany, and they're both revivals. Now we have two more breweries making them here: Cascade and Upright. Ron has three versions, a light summer edition that is a take on the original, and then two more for autumn and winter. Upright's I know nothing about save the beautiful label. At this event tonight, you can try one of those, plus all four Oregon versions. I hope to be able to make it (though this is bad timing--come on folks, what are you doing scheduling these things right before Christmas!?!), but since I've had all but Alex's, I may miss it. YOU SHOULD NOT. Seriously, this is an extremely rare and cool thing that no other place on the planet has the good fortune to witness.

Gose Tasting
Victory Bar, 6-9pm
SE Division at 37th

The second bit of news comes from Bill at It's Pub Night. (I may start calling him Bill Night for short.) As you recall, he has taken it upon himself to create a "Beer Price Index" that charts the rise and fall of beer prices in Portland. (The complex methodology is described at the post for those who are concerned about fidelity.) The upshot though? Prices actually fell marginally over the past three months on two of three types of package, and was unchanged on the third. Huh. Whooda thunk?