Bits and Brews 009: Blood Orange Gose & Ducktales Remastered
Around on and off since the early 1600’s, the Gose (pronounced goes-uh) style has seen a recent resurgence in popularity. And with good reason. The beer, a sour wheat beer, is incredibly refreshing any time of year. It pairs very well with food and its low ABV makes it one of the more sessionable beers on the market. There are a number of craft brewers around the United States brewing a Gose as part of their regular lineup. Lost Nation out of Vermont, Westbrook out of South Carolina and Off Color out of Chicago are three excellent examples of modern Gose production. But, as you can see from the photo, this article won’t be touching on those. For our purposes we are looking at a Gose with a bit something extra. Anderson Valley brews a traditional Gose as part of their Highway 128 series called The Kimmie, The Yink, and the Holy Gose which aside from being a truly ridiculous name for a beer is an excellent example of the style. But it is their Blood Orange Gose that is truly stellar.
The first versions of Gose were brewed in the German town of Goslar. Due to the natural makeup of the water, the beer received a certain amount of saltiness that when paired with the malted wheat and lactobacillus gave the beer a tart, lemon like sourness. Anderson Valley, located in Colorado not Germany, had to recreate the trademark flavors using corriander and sea salt. They took it a step further though and added a ton of fresh blood oranges to the mix. That addition takes a really good beer and puts it over the top. I love this beer. Dearly. It’s available from October until April and despite it being a fruit forward, sour wheat beer, it really does go with any time of year. Pair this beer with fish; you’ve got the makings of a baller meal. Pair it with Thai food or other spicy Asian cuisine, you’re in for a damn treat. It looks so pretty in the glass. It smells amazing. It is as crushable as could be. And the best part? Anderson Valley distributes all over so getting your hands on some should be relatively easy. Seek it out, trade for it if you must, but drink it. You will not regret it.
Oh Ducktales. (whoo-oo) Just… look okay. As a kid in the 80’s, Ducktales was part of the fabric of youth. The show, with its amazing theme song, was required watching. It was a daily occurrence in our lives. As I got older my love of the franchise grew and expanded into the Scooge McDuck comics that are, quite frankly, inarguable classics. And my appreciation of the NES games grew as well. As a kid, I liked them quite a bit. They were tough but passable platformers that rewarded replay and mastery. They are much loved classics of the 8-bit era and for good reason. Both games are masterpieces. They excel at every aspect of design and the music, well damn. But we are not here to gush about the classic. For our purposes we are going to focus on the most surprising release of 2013, Ducktales Remastered.
At E3 2013, a trailer was shown that caught everyone off guard. There were no rumblings of Ducktales being remastered in HD but when we all saw the footage, it made perfect sense. Developed by WayForward, Ducktales Remastered is an absolute gem. Aside from the graphical updates, which are some of the prettiest you will ever see, WayForward reimagined the levels for a modern gamers sensibility. They absolutely nailed it. This game is some of the most fun you can have on a modern console. It takes everything we loved about the original and takes it to a whole new level of awesome. The remixed music is stellar as well. Words cannot do this game justice. It is simply must play. And the best thing is that since it was both a digital and physical release, you can find it on pretty much any modern system you might own. It is worth the money and then some. Get this game.
So why these two together? Simply put, there may be no better examples of classics being brought back with a new twist. Both Blood Orange Gose and Ducktales Remastered take much loved originals and treat them with respect in their reimaginings. So often we see a classic thing, be it a cartoon or comic or film, brought back with none of what had originally made it such a part of the culture. But these two, there is nothing but love. Nothing but respect. Enjoyed together there is no way to not feel that love. Let me know what you think on twitter, @geekadedan. And if you liked the article, make sure to check out the archives here and over at www.sommbeer.com.
