For those in the craft beer scene New Glarus is one of those famed breweries that we all know about but many don't get to try. The reason for this is New Glarus only sells their beer in one state, Wisconsin. Fortunately for us a friend recently brought back some of their beers for us to try. In short, the hype is real, the beer is amazing and we need to make it out to Wisconsin now to go buy more. Raspberry Tart, perhaps the most famous beer from New Glarus, did not disappoint. We rarely enjoy fruit beers but you know something is good when 6 guys sitting around having some drinks all exclaim various versions of "wow," "delicious" and "amazing" upon first sip. This beer goes beyond beer, it's really more like sparkling raspberry juice that is also somehow miraculously beer. While very sweet it's in no way cloying and it doesn't wear on your pallet like many sweeter beers do. Raspberry Tart seems to walk some perfect line that no other fruit beer we've tried has been able to do, perhaps that's why it's so well known.
In addition to the Raspberry Tart we were fortunate enough to try three beers from their Unplugged series, their line of limited production beers. The Bohemian Lager was a perfectly crisp lager that didn't disappoint. The Imperial Saison and Berliner Weiss were another story, though...they were amazing. We didn't really know what to expect from an Imperial Saison. Saison by design was made to be light and quench the thirst of Belgian farm workers so the idea of an imperial version was like getting a veggie burger with extra bacon, it just didn't make sense. But ohhhhhh were we wrong. To call this a Saison is a bit of a stretch, so lets just lose that piece of it. There may be a Saison yeast at work here but this beer has been soured in oak barrels resulting in an amazingly complex tart, sweet and sour flavor that finishes with an amazing sourness that almost makes us pucker...but not quite. Once again New Glarus seems to come right to the edge of flavors without overdoing it. We've never tasted anything else like this, but we want more.
The Berliner Weiss was more true to style, and was the perfect refreshing tartness we were looking for on a hot summer day. We really didn't want this beer to end, and with a single 12 oz bottle to split between a few of us it was gone all to quickly. So while we are grateful to our friend Rose for bringing us back beer from her trip we now face a dilemma. We want more, but more means going to Wisconsin...but we think it might just be worth the trip.
Not knowing anyone who has been or is
going to WI, this is almost one of those
mythical unicorn type beers. I've been
wanting to try New Glarus beers for
years. It's sounding like a Midwest road
trip is in order...