Chef Josh Eans and 4 Hands Brewery collaborate on another Preserved Lemon Gose

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Chef Josh Eans is some kind of hero to those of us who love sodium. The co-owner of the Columbus Park Ramen Shop knows just the beer to pair with his salty, spicy noodles: a salty and tart gose.

That’s the latest collaboration between Eans and 4 Hands Brewing Co.: the recently released Preserved Lemon Gose.

“It’s a really nice, refreshing, approachable beer that’s great for the summer,” Eans says. “But to me, that kind of beer is delicious all of the time.”

This is Eans’ second collaboration with the St. Louis brewery, the latest result of his friendship with 4 Hands owner Kevin Lemp. The two bonded after the release of Foundation, a blonde ale for which the brewery worked with four James Beard Award–nominated St. Louis chefs. Eans was drinking the limited release one night after work and checked into it on the Untappd app. The check-in caught Lemp’s eye, and he messaged Eans back to start a conversation about the beer.

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“I just threw it out there because they were newer to the Kansas City market: ‘Would you guys ever be interested in a Kansas City-chef–collaboration beer?’” Eans recalls. “He was like, ‘Absolutely.’”

The brewing wouldn’t begin for about nine months, when openings in Eans’ and Lemp’s schedules finally intersected. Eans was intrigued by the idea of brewing a farm-to-market-style beer.

“Let’s approach beer like we’re approaching food,” Eans remembers telling Lemp. “I think a lot of times in brewing, people don’t pay the same attention to ingredients, and it’s not artisanal on the same level as cooking. So let’s do that with beer because, to me, that makes total sense. That’s how that was born. So we partnered with Prairie Birthday Farm.”

Late Harvest Saison was brewed with wild persimmons, fresh ginger and raw wildflower honey.

“It turned out really good,” Eans says. “Since that time, we’ve been talking. It took almost two years to do it again.”

Eans and 4 Hands finally hooked up again in September. “I sent him [Lemp] a text one day and was like, ‘What if we did a gose with preserved lemons because lemons and wheat beer are very synonymous?’” Eans says. “To me, it’s a very chef kind of beer because it’s drinkable. It’s refreshing. It has acidity. And it’s brewed with salt.”

Lemp agreed, and they pulled in Prairie Birthday Farm again for the herbs. Eans traveled to St. Louis in mid-September for a brew session with 4 Hands’ brewery manager, Martin Toft IV. He brought with him a batch of fresh herbs from Prairie Birthday, including lemon verbena and lemon basil.

“There were five different herbs, and we made teas with each herb, and then they had a base beer of Prussia and then added the teas to it to decide the flavor profile,” Eans says. “So that was kind of fun. So we decided on the two herbs that way.”

Preserved Lemon Gose was released in 500 ml bottles a couple of weeks ago. It’s also available on draft. The limited-release beer will also be distributed beyond the metro.

“We made more this time,” Eans says. “Last time, we did a 15-barrel batch, and this time we did a 30-barrel batch.”

This likely won’t be the last collaboration between Eans and 4 Hands, including a possible rerelease of Late Harvest Saison, possibly in different barrel-aged versions.

“I would love to do more,” Eans says. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s mutually beneficial, and it’s one of those fun things you can do on the side.”