Wild Beer Sleeping Lemons (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

Some of my favourite things to watch on TV are the various travel, food and drink programmes. I enjoy following a chef around some far off country somewhere where they sample the local cuisines and often cook something back at the villa or hotel that they are staying in. Cinabar was watching a foodie programme a while ago and caught sight of this Sleeping Lemons Gose from the Wild Beer Company. The wine expert on the show happened to say that this was his favourite beer, so she hunted it down and now I'm going to find out what all the fuss is about.

This Sleeping Lemons is a 3.6% volume Gose and could be considered as a session beer for its low alcohol content. The back of the bottle states that 'L'hamd Marakad' is the Moroccan for preserved lemons, which literally translates as 'sleeping lemons'. The travel foodie programme we watched this afternoon was set in Morocco, and the chef was cooking with preserved lemons. So that programme reminded me of this beer that was in my beer fridge.

A Gose is a traditional German style sour wheat beer brewed with coriander and salt. This Sleeping Lemons is the Wild Beer Company's take on that traditional Gose, brewing it with preserved lemons instead of coriander. On opening the bottle there was indeed a very sour aroma and a pleasing although almost sadistic sounding fizz. This Gose really does smell sour. This cloudy golden beer poured with almost no head to it. As an ex-barman that concerned me a little, especially with the sheer sour smell. However, I checked the date on the bottle and it was still okay. This Gose almost smells like a super dry cider. I couldn't pick out any particular hops, only the sour wheat and an overpoweringly sour citrus lemon aroma.

On taste this Gose is probably the most sour beer I've tasted next to a really awful passionfruit beer I wish I'd never tried a year or two back. Strangely though Sleeping Lemons is oddly moreish in a weird masochistic kind of way. Having said that though after a few more sips I decided I just didn't dislike myself enough to finish it. So on another almost unheard of occasion like the passionfruit beer, I sadly poured this Sleeping Lemons away. I like bitter beer, I even like some sour Gose beers, just not THIS SOUR!