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Special Ingredient: Tomato

Taking the idea of a bloody beer to new heights, some Eastern European brewers have embraced a gose-based style thickened with tomato, chiles, garlic, smoke, and more. (Just add hangover.)

Joe Stange Jan 11, 2024 - 7 min read

Special Ingredient: Tomato Primary Image

Photo: RESTOCK images/Shutterstock

When I was a kid, I liked tomatoes just fine—on burgers, BLTs, salads, whatever—but I couldn’t think of anything that grossed me out more than tomato juice. Tomatoes were supposed to be eaten, not processed into pulpy liquid and drunk from a glass. However, our tastes mature. Like a grown-up, I appreciate a great Bloody Mary, not to mention a nicely mixed bloody beer, michelada, or even an airplane-service can of spicy V-8. So, I must admit: However much it might gross out my inner child, brewing beer with tomato has a certain logic to it. There is precedent. There is potential.

A few American breweries, inevitably, have seen that potential and taken it for a test drive. They include WeldWerks in Greeley, Colorado, better known for its hazy IPAs and huge stouts than for its Taco Gose or Spaghetti Gose. Both feature fresh tomatoes that get pureed and cooked at the brewery before going into the fermentors. (Also watch out for those rare Taco Gose iterations aged in hot-sauce barrels that were previously Medianoche barrels that were previously bourbon barrels.)

From a sensory standpoint, gose is a style that makes tomato beer seem almost reasonable. A touch of salt and a controlled hit of acidity make sense as a platform for savory flavors, in the same way that a Mexican michelada makes sense, once you taste it.

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