New Glarus upcoming beers and other info

This is some intense Lager debate.

 

These people must be from Wisconsin.

 

Lagers are the future! Didn't you know?

 

If anyone listened to the beer compass podcast where Dan is giving the tour he mentions that the Lambic is only about 4 months old now and only a small portion is going into bottles for Great Taste release (half original and half with peach). He does mention the base beer for all the fruit beers is being used for an Old Bruin release probably in August. They have blended may year versions of this beer including a batch about 3 years old. He also mentions CranBic will be released around then too. So no mention of the BB Kriek specifically.

 

CranBic is delicious and ages quite well, so that makes me very happy and it would be a perfect late fall release. Thank you for summarizing the podcast since I haven't had time to listen to it.

 

Lol, I would call it discussion not debate, but lagers need a little more discussion on this forum. I hate yokel on tap and from the bottle again this weekend. For me it's not as good as the last release. It's different, i'm different, we're both different, but it's not quite as good to me.

 

We are an intense bunch. Better call the U.N.

Yeah, your palate was compromised.

 

WI Brewing Co. seems to think so. Next up is #008, a Helles.

 

Nice. Where's your info coming from? But since their last new release was a Saison, and they have 2 Porters and 2 IPAs, I'd say they aren't banking solely on bottom fermentation.

 

It was mentioned on twitter from Chris D. aka WSJbeerbaron yesterday. I'm hopeful that it will be a good representation of the style. The only two I have had were apparently not.

 

Ditto. The closest thing to a well-made Helles from a US brewer is Metropolitan's Flywheel -- and it's labeled as a Pilsner.

 

With Kirby at the helm, are we surprised?

 

Hangar 24 brewed a decent Helles a few years ago. Didn't get great reviews, but I wouldn't expect the SoCal crowd to rave about a Helles.

 

How's Wisconsin Brewing Company doing? In all honesty, I was there on opening weekend, tried all the beers, and have completely forgotten about them. Everyone there was very, very friendly, but I think the beers they released were already middle of the pack on their opening day. Not much action for them on BA, which puts them squarely in the "gateway craft beer" or "if you like Leinie's, try this" category.

 

@steveh Wisconsin Brewing Company Zenith is on the shelves in Madison. Time to give this Saison a try.

 

Roger that.

 

They haven't been open a year, give 'em some time. The owners have been involved in the industry for longer than BA has been around, that's a great foundation right there.

 

Sounds like most startup breweries. In 3 years we'll see where they stand. They'll cater to the easy going craft crowd.

 

The more I read about them, and the more I see the beers being introduced, I think Kirby's brewing more for himself than anything! He even admitted that with the Amber Lager -- said he need to brew something to drink while he was brewing everything else. More power to him -- and it doesn't hurt (me) that I like what they're producing!

 

I just like to see breweries push themselves a little bit creatively. Not necessarily to the point of Dogfish Head, but it's pretty clear that WBC's initial business plan is a money grab ( a smart one, given the increase in demand that will happen over the next 2-3 years for craft beer in Wisco. We think we're near the top of the game, but we're not even close yet). It's based on selling extremely large quantities of beer (especially for a company that isn't even a year old yet) in distribution. That means establishing a safety net of sorts, which means brewing beer that isn't going to push any boundaries. They're riding a few trends (Session IPA, canning) but they're not ready to break any new ground yet. Their beer is as good as Ale Asylum and Capital, so they're going to do ok in the Wisconsin distribution game. They don't want to take any big risks and that's ok.

I compare them to Karben4, whose been around a bit longer. But K4 has less beer industry experience and came in with a very, very different type of business plan. K4 brews beers that I love to drink and is a must-stop on every trip to Madison. It doesn't hurt that I enjoy their tasting room. I drive by the WBC facility often, (especially on beer trips to Mt. Horub & New Glarus) but have only stopped in once. Maybe if they increased their brewery-only offerings I'd stop in more often. WBC brews beers that have better in-state representations available (in my opinion) and their facility, while very nice, is a typical tasting room attached on to a production brewery. It's interesting to see both breweries flourishing within their own spheres of existence, and occasionally collaborating with one another. I actually think that each one serves a different bubble of the craft beer crowd (with a tiny bit of overlap- hipsters bringing their dads to K4 and vice versa).