Tinkering with the Latest Releases from Real Ale & Austin Eastciders

by Jessica Elizarraras

March 16, 2018 at 1:23 PM The temperature is slowly but surely making its way up, and although our weekends have been rained out, that hasn’t stopped local breweries from turning their attention to patio pounders.

Two highlights that have come out this spring’s batch of brews. Released in early March, they are already hard to find on shelves.

Real Ale Brewing Co., which celebrates 22 years in Blanco, unleashed a grapefruit gose that’ll keep the gose line in stores perennially. Billed as a historic style from Northern Germany, this slightly sour wheat beer has hints of coriander. The staff at Real Ale adds fresh grapefruit purée after fermentation and the result is a 4.4 percent ABV with 5 IBUs — in other words, you’re going to have a lot of these if you’re into a dry, citrusy beer.

A 66-mile drive up I-35 will land you at Austin Eastcider’s tap room, but you won’t have to deal with all that traffic to get your hands on their sixth endeavor in the world of ciders. Made with heirloom sweet apples, American dessert apples and namesake grapefruits from the Rio Grande Valley, the Ruby Red Grapefruit cider is refreshing, not overtly sweet and at only 5 percent ABV, you’ll be able to enjoy them by the six-pack.

Because they’re so light, the gose and cider lend themselves to some tinkering. Here are a few suggestions for your own experimenting.

Bunches of Basil
Delicate grapefruit meets powerful basil for a refreshing sipper
3-5 big sprigs of Thai basil
1 (12-ounce) can Austin Eastciders Ruby Red Grapefruit
Directions // Give the Thai basil a rough chop and add into a French press. Pour cider, cover and refrigerate. Plunge after five minutes and enjoy.

Minty Goodness
Muddled or chopped, the mint adds more depth to the gose
5 springs mint
1 (12-ounce) can Real Ale grapefruit gose
Directions // Give mint a rough chop and add into a French press. Pour gose, cover and refrigerate. Plunge after 5-7 minutes and enjoy.

Of course, the natural progression is doctoring your gose/cider into an ever-popular Paloma, with the usual three parts grapefruit soda (or in this case, cider or gose) and one part silver tequila — toss in some ice, a grapefruit wedge and you’re done. If you’re into more elaborate set-ups, here’s how both companies suggest taking your grapefruit drinks in a boozier direction.

The Eastciders Paloma
3 ounces grapefruit cider
1 1/2 ounce tequila, silver or blanco
1/2 ounce Aperol
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
Directions // Fill tall glass with crushed ice. Add tequila, Aperol, lime juice and simple syrup to glass. Top with Austin Eastciders Ruby Red Grapefruit and stir.
Courtesy of Austin Eastciders

Smoky Grapefruit Gose Paloma
2 small slices jalapeño, muddled
1 1/2 ounces smoky mezcal
1/2 ounce agave syrup
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
Grapefruit gose, for topping
Directions // Shake jalapeño, mezcal, agave syrup and lime juice and pour into a pint glass with Sriracha salt rim. Top with Grapefruit gose. Garnish with lime wedge.
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