New Glarus Brewing (2018)

Sweet, this argument can go side-by-side with "what is an adjunct."

 

I’m planning on getting to the brewery this weekend. Does anyone know what’s available at the Beer Depot (outside the yearly offerings) or if there’s a good chance of an R&D release? I’ve heard the brewery itself is actually more expensive than it would be to go to a store. Is that true?

Aside: If anyone has any suggestions for where to eat or what to see in the Darington, Moroe, or Mineral Point area I’ll be riding my motorcycle around the countryside so I’d appreciate any tips!

 

C'mon. Talk about confusing things... New Glarus fruit beers (Belgian Red, Raspberry Tart, Serendipity and Strawberry Rhubarb) are NOT lambic-style beers.

 

I can't speak to what's available, but the R&D release is next weekend (Great Taste of the Midwest weekend, the 10th). They aren't random releases but are instead all scheduled. There are likely still some R&Ds from past releases available, however. Someone else who has been there more recently will have to say what R&Ds there are.

The Depot is indeed more expensive than anywhere else you'll go (besides Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha). If you want to get stuff that is available elsewhere (e.g. everything but the R&Ds), your best bet is to go to Woodmans somewhere, preferably West Towne in Madison.

 

You people! Everyone knows that nothing is a lambic unless it is produced in the area surrounding a 64 mile river in North-western-centralish Europe!

 

They may be spontaneously fermented according to NG, but I just don't find them very sour at all. They're as sour as the Lindeman's sweetened lambics (which, although they're not lambics, @Sabtos pointed out as a decent analogue for what people can expect with an NG fruit beer). I think calling them sours is inaccurate, and there is a reason that they're under the Fruit Beer category on this site rather than American wild ale or lambic (obviously these categories aren't always accurate, but "Fruit Beer" best describes Raspberry Tart, Belgian Red, Serendipity, and Strawberry Rhubarb).

I would actually be interested in the full brewing process of the fruit beers from NG, so if anyone has any insider knowledge, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

 

That post made an aggressive right turn into a freeway barrier wall once 'lambic' got sprinkled in.

Instead of us debating the nomenclature of sour, why don't we refer to them as New Glarus does and simply call them Fruit Beers.

 

Thanks for the info! I’m a little bummed I’ll be missing the release by one weekend! Hopefully, I can get my hands on some sort of R&D release and maybe find some SR on a shelf in a smaller town.

 

I instantly thought of Lindemans lambics, which makes the whole thing more confusing to the layman.

 

There were several past R&Ds there last time we got an update (you can look back in this thread, but hopefully someone that was there more recently can update). Probably four or five of them. I'm sure you'll be happy with whatever you get there.

 

Imagine drinking them for a while, wanting to switch to a new one, and getting Cuvée René or Boon Mariage Parfait or something? It would be just as jolting as having an NG fruit and expecting a sour. This is why specific beer styles and accurate descriptions are important, and why I never understand people complaining about more styles being added as legitimate, defined styles.

 

Stop making sense. Although I do get more page views & trade offers in the trading forum when I list it as FT NG fruited sours.

 

Here's where I'm at.

-The New Glarus beers formerly bottled in 750s all have varying degrees of tartness.
-The New Glarus beers formerly bottled in 750s are all spontaneously fermented.
-The New Glarus beers formerly bottled in 750s all (I believe) feature aged hops.
-New Glarus varyingly describes these beers as "wild," "framboise" (a term typically reserved for fruited lambics), and yep, "sour."

Everything about them speaks to a lambic heritage, and though Dan Carey has said he doesn't even like calling them "lambic-style," that's what they are. He's just hung up on respecting the geographic heritage, same as a lot of other people.

Sour isn't a specific style, it's a flavor descriptor, so I'm gonna stick with calling them sour because they're sour. The way different people experience the sourness of these beers doesn't change the fact that they have sourness. They're not hoppy, they're not malty, they're fruity and tart. "Fruit Beer" is, to me, a catch-all that mitigates the inability to otherwise categorize a beer. I don't believe that's at issue with these beers, but hey, ymmv.

Not looking for a fight, I celebrate their entire catalog.

 

And yet not once did you mention the most accurate flavor descriptor of the former 750s, "Sweet."

Isn't it only the R&Ds, not the Belgian Red and Strawberry Rhubarb that originate on the koelschip?
Calling it spontaneous is kind of even playing fast and loose. I took a hard hat tour a few years ago that starts in their fruit cave where their koelschip is. Though they do have vents that open to gather microflora from the area, they said they spray a yeast solution on to the wood beams directly above the koelschip. Maybe they stopped doing that though.

 

I agree with you that the major descriptor I would choose apart from "fruity" is "sweet." They are sweet beers with a very slight hint of tartness.

According to the NG website, the fruit beers are indeed spontaneously fermented. I find this very surprising considering they do not have most of the qualities I associate with spontaneously fermented beer, and that's why I'm so curious about how exactly they brew those beers.

 

Yeah but doesn't spontaneous by definition depend on unique attributes of a particular atmosphere and/or region? It sounds like a much more controlled environment than many other places that practice spon ferm. As such, I mean to my mind, a more subtle "wild" character would seem to follow.

 

It was literally the first thing I said on this subject:

 

But how do you explain the much more pronounced sourness of Cran-Bic, Enigma, Wild Sour, Vintage, Sour Porter, VSB, Wild Peach, Berliner Weiss, et al? At least some of them, if not all of them, go through the same spontaneous inoculation process.

 

I don't know man, but I really don't think they're trying to pull the wool over your eyes. I just don't think spon ferm means sour boom bang !

We need to hear it from the horses mouth.

 

Settle down nerds.