2017 New Glarus Thread

Nice... champ db but with red grapes

 

It's also 10%. What gives?

 

I don't like it being that high either, but Champ du Blanc was, so I am not surprised. Guessing they used the same exact recipe and just added red grapes instead. Probably going for "wine-iness" and trying to match wine ABV.

Champ du Blanc was sweet out of the gate, but I had one not that long ago, and it's coming along nicely (though still a bit sweet and alcoholic for my dry, low ABV preference).

 

Is there still pallets of previous R&Ds sitting out?

 

"Crisp clean air, a lovely view, a well crafted brew and someone I love are central to my finest memories. Dan and I are looking forward to welcoming and visiting with many this Oktoberfest, Beer Release weekend. We take great personal pride in the space and beers we have created. We trust our Guests will celebrate their friendships with the New Glarus brews that created this space. If you forget - no problem- I will remind you No Bottle shares here". -Deb Carey per FB.

 

Well I bet the line is a lot shorter this time...

 

Yes all still available as of today.

 

I don't mind the no shares allowed at New Glarus. It's their house and they put up with a lot of garbage for a lot longer than they probably should have. It's unfortunate that a small bunch of grown "adults" have to act like animals and ruin it for everyone else that was respectful.

What would make it better would be if they ever put anything decent on tap at the releases; different thumbprint beers, a special brewery only one-off, previous R&D instead of stuff like Moon Man, Bubbler, Serendipty which I can walk into any gas station and buy for a lot cheaper.

Hopefully it won't hurt the food vendors too much. I would always buy from them to help counteract the alcohol but now that I'll probably just grab and go, I likely won't buy food. And perhaps the non-release patrons will pickup the loss from those who don't stay to buy. I'll likely head to other Madison area establishments to hang out.

TL;DR Their house, their rules; unfortunate some animals ruined it for everyone.

 

On top of the surprisingly sparse taplist for such a large brewery with such a wide library to pull from, I really don't understand the need to buy a glass with a beer purchase either. Is there some kind of law in Mid-Western and Central states? Or do they only have a certain kind of license at New Glarus? To illustrate the point, after a recent road trip out to Iowa and back, I came back with 14 beer glasses--none of which I had any intention of acquiring.

And I have to just add, I really don't understand why such a massive complex that attracts groups of people from all around, including full families, doesn't have their own restaurant, or some kind of cooked food on premise. While I didn't mind busting out my pocket knife in order to crack open a delicious block of Montamore to go with some Wisconsin Belgian Red, it just felt kind of tacky, and not entirely hospitable.

 

I assume New Glarus forces you to bring/buy a glass because otherwise too many people would walk away with them. In a big beer garden without a controlled entry/exit it'd just be too easy for people to steal them. Heck, it might be like the bottle sharing and maybe they didn't used to do it that way until people ruined it.

I assume all those old R&D's won't still be available after this weekend but they do seem to have a ton of them. It's rather bizarre to go to a release for 2 bottles of the new beer and then be able to go buy a dozen total bottles of previous R&D bottles. Hopefully I can actually exercise some restraint and not buy any more of those old bottles; I've got a decent stockpile after my last trip up to NG with my wife.

Partly due to those old R&D bottles showing up and hanging around for so long this will be my first NG release where I don't plan on getting there early. They obviously didn't not only not run out at those previous releases, they weren't even remotely close to running out.

 

I've had people openly admit to going into work drunk after New Glarus bottle shares. Not only is not having a say in how much people are drinking a huge liability for them, they care about their community and probably don't want people from far away sloshed on their long drives home. It sucks that a few people ruin it for everyone, but to get all pissy about not being able to drink a bunch of beers that aren't bought from the brewery at 8 am seems a little ridiculous.

(This isn't directed at anyone in particular, just the overall negative overreactions)

 

Plus there isn't even a need to get there early and wait in line for any of the releases the past couple years. If you're too bored in line without bottle sharing just don't get there early.

 

You know you can bring your own glass to NG for draft beers, right? I'm sure you can't just bring ANY glass, but you definitely don't need to buy a new one every time you go.

Also

A lot of that stuff doesn't get kegged, or gets kegged in extremely limited quantities. Agree that it would be nice, but I don't see it happening.

--

I'm still planning on getting there early in the hopes that I'll be able to get some of the vintage R&D's. I haven't been out there since the Sour Porter R&D release, and I bet a good chunk of the old R&D's get wiped out this weekend.

 

There's no way I would know that. I scoured their website--maybe not good enough--and didn't find anything. I wasn't even sure we'd be able to drink on premise when we got there. Even on a return visit, I probably wouldn't think to make a packing list to remember glassware so I don't have to buy more at New Glarus, lmfao.

 

Well, just so we're clear, you don't need to buy a glass, certainly not after the first visit. I'm sure it's not on their website.

To address your other complaint, the reason that there is no food/restaurant at the brewery is that it would do a lot of damage to other businesses in the (very small) town. Deb Carey would much rather you go support the Glarner Stube or Sugar River Pizza then to have food on-site.

Based on your post yesterday, it seems like you didn't really enjoy your visit. At a minimum, you seem to have multiple complaints. Good thing that there are many other breweries out there that will meet your ideal vision.

 

I agree with you @sherm1016 about stuff like that getting kegged; mostly just wishful thinking. I will continue to go to the R&D beer releases because I enjoy them and they make my regular trade buddies happy. As I said above, it's their house so I'll follow their rules. Cheers!

 

For specificity's sake, it was a grand total of two "complaints."

Do you always feel that anyone that detects room for improvement at a brewery is incapable of enjoying their time there? I had an absolute blast!

However, I think it's a huge lost opportunity to not provide food, and especially to not have a Bavarian-themed restaurant to make the whole atmosphere complete--I mean, how could a that not work? It just felt like a major missing piece to what could be an all around experience.

I'm surprised there is any push back to be honest. There were people going back to their cars to bring in food packed for their road trips, coming in with lunch boxes and coolers with pb&j or lunchmeat sandwiches and bags of junk food--it doesn't seem to me like refusing to offer food does anything for the local town. And frankly, it's less safe to not have prepared food on site. I mean, the place is as close to a beer theme park as I've been, and visitors pretty much view it as such. To walk into such a wonderland and find yourself perplexed with the inability to find food is probably a pretty universal experience for all first time visitors--and I'd hazard a guess that a good chunk of visitors are first timers. I know every patron I ran into and spoke with was.

Really though, this is a minor point of improvement I wasn't expecting to defend, but I didn't want to give the wrong impression. By no means did I have a negative experience, but I did essentially go 16 hours without a wholesome meal, and a Bavarian lunch to go with my Staghorn would have been a wonderful addition to my stop on my way through New Glarus.

 

@Sabtos points are valid IMHO. While New Glarus is always a marvelous experience just because of the setting & their usually solid lineup, it would be nice if they put some special releases on tap, or brewery-only stuff (like 95.5% of other breweries in the country). And as someone who has been there more than a dozen times, I also thought you had to buy a glass every time.

I do understand the food thing. We often stop at Glarner Stube, & a restaurant would be a whole different area for the brewery to get into.

No need to be defensive! I love my hometown Surly, but there are things they do that people aren't wild about, too.

 

I do agree on that point--not every brewery succeeds on the restaurant front and it's a whole new challenge (a challenge worth tackling IMO). While I would have loved to explore town a little more, I just didn't have time.

 

Even a food truck would be nice. I live 2 hours from the brewery so if there's nothing onsite, I'm drinking and driving on an empty stomach.