New Glarus Fruit Beers

I've always thought they (the fruit beers) were overhyped. If someone handed one to you and didn't tell you want it was, you wouldn't know it was beer. If AB produced this, it would be panned.

 

!!!Ummmm..... WRONG!!!!

 

So the only NG fruit beers I've had were the Apple Ale and Serendipity. The Apple ale was good but I felt like it held the same weight as a really good cider in the end. I really liked Serendipity but I have a sweet tooth...my girlfriend, on the other hand, likes sweet things from time to time (I was the one who introduced her to framboise and she loved it) but she said the Serendipity smelled and tasted like Robitussin. I was super excited for her to try one of NG's fruit beers too cuz I thought she'd dig it. There's no accounting for taste, I guess. I still really wanna try Raspberry Tart and Wisconsin Red.

 

They don't promise to be anything other than fruit beers, for the most part, so you have to take that into account when tasting them.

Raspberry Tart, Serendipity, Belgian Red, and Strawberry Rhubarb are all relatively sweet- but they are the best crafted examples of non-lambic, non-wild ale fruit beers on the market.

Now, with the explosion of sours (lambics and wild ales in particular) a lot of sour beer fans are trying NG fruit beers and having the same reaction. Even Cran-bic, which sort of promises to be a lambic, comes across more as a fruit beer (although I do think this year's batch is a touch funkier than the last one, probably thanks to the coolship process).

I would say that before judging NG too harshly you need to try the Oud Bruin (tasting really great right now), and definitely try to get your hands on a true NG wild ale, Peach is probably your best bet at this point. The gueuze from 2011(?) was delicious, as was VSB (of course).

Rumor has it we'll see a BB Kriek and some sort of blonde sour coming out sometime next year, along with another batch of Berliner Weiss (which flew under the radar due to a carbonation recall).

Also- get your hands on a Belgian Red.

 

Have had the Raspberry Tart and the Stawberry Ruhbarb . Both were delicious . They don't taste like most beers but that's what they were going for . Neither does most of the wild ales/sours that I like .

And I like how non craft beer drinkers like it too . I brought some Stawberry Ruhbarb to last thanksgiving and everyone loved it , including my mom . She asked me where she could get some more though and I told her Wisconsin . It's one you have to trade for .

 

I really enjoy Serendipity, Belgian Red & Raspberry Tart. Had the tart yesterday with Thanksgiving dinner. All delicious as far as I am concerned. One of them is almost always available and a bomber goes for $9.99 ea. I appreciate having easy access to these unique and reasonably priced beers.

 

Fruit beers sweet? That's weird! NG makes the best fruit beers. Had all 4 NG Fruits and all 4 are world class.

 

I thought all the fruit beers were leaps and bounds past phenominal. I'm driving to New Glarus today to finally visit my favorite US brewery. Dan Casey knows his beer styles better than 99.99999 percent of the users here. Its a longer drive for me to get to new glarus than it is to go to goose island for their bcbs release party today. And I will choose New Glarus if I only had one brewery to live off of for the rest of my life. Even their spotted cow(not fruit) on draft everywhere is cheap as budweiser but is exceptional.

 

While I will agree Tart is a bit on the sweet side, I found the Cran Bic I had to be very much in line with the quality I would expect from a Cantillon or Drie Fonteinen. I let it sit in the glass to warm up a bit and the aroma was outstanding. The taste was truly Belgian in character and while some bit of sweetness was there it was not overpowering or cloying. In fact the sourness was what was really the overall sensation, not the sweet. Overall I would say it's one of the best non-Belgian sours I have had.

 

I haven't had any Belgian cranberry or raspberry lambics (3F Hommage waiting for our 1-year anniversary) so I really didnt' have a good comparison for it. My only criticism is that because it is pasteurized, it won't evolve as much as it's Belgian counterparts.

 

They are different than most in my opinion but that's why I like them.

 

Love the Strawberry Rhubarb.

 

I had a Raspberry Tart tonight. It tastes like what I remember wine coolers tasting like.

 

I thought Serendipity was outstanding. A nice change of pace. Looking forward to trying more NG beers. Fyi. I am a Stout and IPA guy. Change is good. Sometimes!

 

I've tried them all and all are outstanding. I don't think any of them are overly sweet, I find that they are easy to drink and pair well with many different types of food. I would agree that the Appld Ale is more like a hard cider than ale but that's probably my only gripe about them. Price point is also reasonable for all the 750's at $10 each.

 

I find the new glarus fruit beers to be some of the most authentically flavored fruit beer out there. I have had raspberry tart, cranbic, apple, and Wisconsin red. I really enjoy new glarus beers and almost always find them to be as advertised.

Raspberry tart definitely the best.

That being said- I found Wisconsin red to be disgusting because I don't always like cherry.

I was also slightly off-put by the lambic title of cranbic-because it tastes way more of a cranberry fruit beer than a lambic.

 

I Had Raspberry tart yesterday. Didn't get any tartness from it. It says on the bottle that it's spontaneously fermented so i expected a little more from it. Way too sweet for me. This beer would be much better if it was injected with brett and lacto to dry it out.

 

I don't know anything about the NB beers as I unfortunately have yet to try them. But I do know overly sweet and how it ruins beers. Right now, at this very moment, Festina Peche and Rubaeus come to mind as fruit beers that are not overly sweet yet terrific. I would say Rubaeus pushes the line of sweet to me while remaining excellent. Festina is my go to summer beer. An absolute treat to drink in the heat.

EDIT: I will say this, lambics are great but I think have become too sweet to my taste buds. If you want a beautiful beer, mix something like an IPA with a lambic. 3/4 IPA to 1/4 lambic. Delicious.