Shipping to 30+ countries

Shipping

Hoptimaal offers a wide variety of beers both in-store and online. If you can place an order, we usually have the product in stock (though mistakes can happen, unfortunately). Products that are in stock will be shipped the same day if ordered before 3:00 PM.

If we make an error with stock levels, you will be notified within 24 hours. In that email, we will offer you an alternative product, the right to a full refund, and a new delivery time. It's up to you how you'd like us to resolve the issue.

We ship all orders with DPD from the Netherlands. You can choose between:

  • Home delivery or delivery to your work
  • Delivery to a DPD pickup point near you

Shipping costs and the free-shipping threshold for your country are in the table below.

Deposit

On cans and bottles we charge the Dutch deposit (statiegeld): €0.15 per can and €0.10 per bottle (a little more for some bottles). It shows as a separate line in your cart. The deposit belongs to the Dutch deposit system: you can return the packaging in the Netherlands, not in deposit machines in other countries.

Shipping Costs by Country

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CountryShipping costReduced rateFree shipping from
Netherlands€8.50–€75
Belgium€8.95–€100
Germany€13.50–€100
Denmark€15.95–€150
Austria€15.95–€150
Bulgaria€47.50€25 from €150not available
Estonia€17.50–€150
Finlandpickup point €24.95
home €29.95		home: €10 from €200pickup point €200
home €250
France€16.95–€150
Greece€29.50€15 from €150not available
Hungary€21.95€10 from €150€200
Ireland€15.95–€150
Italy€16.95–€150
Croatia€47.50€25 from €150not available
Latvia€17.50–€150
Lithuania€21.95€10 from €150€200
Luxembourg€12.95–€150
Poland€15.95–€150
Portugal€19.95€10 from €150€200
Romania€27.50€10 from €150not available
Spain€18.75–€150
Czech Republic€15.95–€150
Swedenpickup point €24.95
home €29.95		home: €10 from €200pickup point €200
home €250
Norway*Coming soon
United Kingdom*Coming soon
Switzerland*Coming soon

Delivery

DPD generally delivers within 24 hours after receiving the parcel. So if we have received your order before 15:00 on working days, in 99% of cases you will have your order at home the next day. It may sometimes happen that they need one day longer. You can follow this via the Track & Trace details you receive from us, so you can see exactly where your order is. DPD also gives you a time window of 2 to 4 hours in which your order will be delivered. Not at home? No problem! You can indicate yourself whether you want them to come by again tomorrow or whether they should deliver it to the nearest post office.

Do you have a question about the delivery of your beer? Feel free to contact us: customer service.

Returns

You have a cooling-off period of 14 days after you have received the product. Within this period you can register the product for return. The email you received stating that your order is on its way contains a link that you can use to easily and free of charge download and print a return label. Returning is free: we provide the return label and the shipping costs of your return are at our expense. After registering your return, you have another 14 days to send the product back. If you bought multiple items at once, the period starts after receipt of your last item.

How do I return or exchange a product?

  • Fill in the return form within 14 days after receipt. If you are unable to print the return form, please write at least the order number and your name on a piece of paper and include it with your return.
  • Register your return with our customer service. You can do this by sending an email to: info@hoptimaal.nl or by calling 085 -130 1591. Or print your return label yourself via the link in the email titled "Your order is on its way".
  • After registering your return, you have another 14 days to send the product back.
  • Then send your return back in its original condition and with the packaging. Products that are damaged or incomplete are not eligible for exchange or refund.

Please note: after the 14-day cooling-off period it is no longer possible to return your product.

What can you expect after returning your product?

After receiving your return, you will receive a confirmation from us. This can take 3 working days, but in general we process your return on the day we receive it. We will check your return to see whether your product meets our return conditions and will then get to work on the solution you want.

Do you want your money back?

  • We will refund the purchase amount within 3 working days after confirmation of receipt to the account with which you paid. If you want to receive the purchase amount in another way, please contact us about the possibilities.
  • In case of visible signs of use, missing accessories or missing packaging, you are no longer entitled to a refund. If the packaging is not returned entirely in its original condition, we won't make a fuss and you will in any case get 75% of the purchase amount back. This is very rarely the case; usually the full purchase amount is simply refunded.

Do you want to receive a new product?

After receiving your return, we will send the new product right away. If the product is no longer in stock, we will refund the purchase amount to the account with which you paid.

  • Is the new product cheaper? The remaining amount will be refunded to your account within 3 working days.
  • Is the new product more expensive? You will receive a payment request for the remaining amount. After receipt of payment, we will send the product immediately.
  • Do you want to receive the new product at a different address or on a different day? Please contact us.

Exceptions

Beer that has been opened will not be taken back. We also do not take back beer that you ordered at a discount because the shelf life is almost expired. Of course we state this clearly on the product page, so that you are not surprised by a limited best-before date.

The item may be returned to the address below:

Hoptimaal
Leeghwater 5
3825MR Amersfoort
Netherlands

Order before 3:00 PM on weekdays, shipped today.
Break-proof packaging

Your beers are always carefully packaged. If there is any damage during transit, we offer a guarantee. Not satisfied, money back.
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Beer School › Sour beer · Fresh & Fruity

Gose

Gose is a light, tart German wheat beer with a pinch of salt and coriander. It tastes fresh and lemony, with plenty of carbonation and a dry finish.

  • Alcoholusually 4.2–4.8% (BJCP); the Brewers Association gives 4.4–5.4%
  • Entry levelFor those who have already tasted a bit

How it usually tastes

Bitter
Sweet
Sour
Roasted
Fruity
Full

Average for this style; every beer has its own accent.

What is it?

Gose is a top-fermented beer made from Pilsner malt and wheat, with a little salt and coriander seed. Lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus) make it sour. According to the BJCP, that sourness is noticeable, but less sharp than in Berliner Weisse or gueuze. You taste the salt mostly in the first sip, but gose must not really taste salty. You smell fresh, lemony coriander and something of bread dough. Gose is usually cloudy, very fizzy and hardly bitter: the sourness keeps the beer in balance, not the hops.

There are two main kinds: - Traditional (Leipziger) gose: without extras, with at most a little salt and coriander. At the Brewers Association those may even be absent. - Modern (contemporary) gose: with fruit, spices or darker malt. According to the BJCP, gose is a widely used base for fruited sour beers.

The BJCP gives the pronunciation as 'GOH-zeh'.

Myth or fact?

Partly true

‘Gose is supposed to taste salty.’

You may notice a little salt, but according to the BJCP gose must not really taste salty. The Brewers Association even calls salt optional.

Partly true

‘Gose is supposed to taste salty.’

The BJCP describes the salt in gose as light to moderate, up to the point where you can just taste it. You may notice it, especially in the first sip, but gose must 'not taste overtly salty'. According to the BJCP, salt can also give the beer a rounder, somewhat mouth-watering mouthfeel.

At the Brewers Association, salt and coriander in a traditional gose may be present in small amounts, or be absent altogether.

In the past, too, it was not clear-cut. A German brewing book from 1853, quoted by beer historian Ron Pattinson, describes gose without salt or coriander. A brewing handbook from 1907, by contrast, prescribes 1 gram of salt per litre, added just before bottling.

You often hear that the salt came from the spring water of Goslar. We have not found a historical source for that.

Sources

Partly true

‘Real gose is only lightly tart.’

Modern gose is balanced and less sharply sour than Berliner Weisse. But historical gose was probably quite a bit more sour, according to the BJCP and beer historian Ron Pattinson.

Partly true

‘Real gose is only lightly tart.’

For modern gose the BJCP asks for a sourness that is 'balanced, not forward', but it also writes that historical versions 'could be very sour'.

Beer historian Ron Pattinson cites a source from 1927 that called gose 'similar to Berliner Weisse, but sourer'. He also published a document about the trial brew of 1986, which old gose drinkers approved as the real thing: it had a pH of 3.1, very sour. Pattinson concludes that gose is supposed to be 'mouth-puckeringly sour'. Lars Marius Garshol called sourness 'almost the defining characteristic of gose' in 2010.

Not every source agrees: a brewing handbook from 1907 calls gose 'slightly acidic'.

In short: today's mild gose is one way of doing it. In the past gose was probably more sour.

Sources

Partly true

‘Gose comes from Leipzig.’

Leipzig is the city of gose, but the name points to Goslar and the little river Gose.

Partly true

‘Gose comes from Leipzig.’

According to the BJCP, gose is associated with Leipzig, but originated in Goslar, on the little river Gose. Beer historian Ron Pattinson writes that the name comes from Goslar.

In Leipzig gose was documented as early as 1740 according to the BJCP, and in the late 19th century it counted there, according to Pattinson, as the local style. A lot of that gose, incidentally, did not come from the city itself. According to Pattinson, in 1824 a brewer from Goslar began brewing gose on the Döllnitz estate, between Merseburg and Halle. In the second half of the 19th century that brewery got almost the sole right to supply Leipzig.

When gose came about in Goslar is disputed. The BJCP says in the Middle Ages, Pattinson wrote in 2007 'early 18th century'.

Sources

Where does it come from?

The name refers to Goslar and the little river Gose there, but the beer became famous in Leipzig. According to the BJCP, it was documented there as early as 1740. In the late 19th century it counted, according to beer historian Ron Pattinson, as the local style of Leipzig. When gose came about in Goslar is disputed: the BJCP says in the Middle Ages, Pattinson wrote 'early 18th century'.

Cafés received the gose still fermenting in casks and bottled it themselves, in long-necked bottles. These were not closed with a cork, but with a plug of yeast that rose up during the secondary fermentation. After the Second World War gose faded away; on 31 March 1966 the last cask of gose was delivered. From 1986 gose was brewed again, at first for one café in Leipzig. According to the BJCP, the beer has only recently become popular outside Germany too.

How to pour it

A good starting point: 4–10 °C in a flute glass (CraftBeer.com of the Brewers Association). In the past gose was sometimes mixed with syrup or caraway liqueur; according to the BJCP, modern gose usually needs no sweetener.

Did you like this? Then try Lambic & Gueuze →

Similar to: Sour beer, Witbier

Terms

Lactobacillus ('Lacto')
A lactic acid bacterium that converts sugar into lactic acid: in ordinary beer it counts as a spoiler, but brewers also use it deliberately for sour beer, such as Berliner Weisse.
Top fermentation (high fermentation)
Fermentation with yeast that rises to the top during fermenting (ale yeast), usually at a higher temperature than bottom fermentation; this is how pale ale, IPA, stout, weizen and Belgian styles such as witbier, dubbel and tripel, among others, are made.
Bottle conditioning
At bottling, some sugar or wort is added to the beer, so that the yeast ferments again in the bottle and the beer gets its carbonation naturally; you therefore often see a layer of yeast at the bottom.
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