Gose Is Documented at Ilsenburg Monastery

On March 27, 1332, a charter connected with the Benedictine monastery at Ilsenburg recorded Gose by name. The document established an annual memorial observance for members of the ruling family of Wernigerode and specified food and drink to be provided to the monastic community. The charter instructed that the monks receive “gose or other good beer,” together with sausages and two kinds of meat. It is the oldest surviving documentary reference currently associated with Gose and predates Goslar’s documented gift of a barrel of Gose to the Bishop of Hildesheim in 1397. The wording confirms that Gose was known and consumed at Ilsenburg, but it does not establish that the beer was brewed within the monastery itself.