2017 New Glarus Thread

How dare they try and make a comfortable profit and sustainable business model

I kid; they'll have me in their corner as long as they don't go the Short's route and distribute out of Wisconsin.

 

As long as you are calling out shorts, ever since they made more than 1/2 of their annual releases into IPAs, they were clearly focus on dominating as much if the market as possible. NG has not, and I don’t see them ever, releasing half of their annual releases as IPAs.

 

I would be curious to understand the volume of beer that was being brewed in the Unplugged/Thumprint series pre-Hilltop brewery versus what is being brewed in the R&D series today. I suspect that demand on the Unplugged/Thumbprints was much lower back then, driving lower supply.

I wouldn't be surprised to head that the volumes are/were about the same. Meaning, today's Thumbprint series is "incremental growth", if you think Today's R&D series = yesteryear's Unplugged series.

I would also say the level of quality and innovation in today's R&D Series is roughly on par with the Unpluggeds of yesteryear.

 

I don't understand all the dislike for Short's. Granted, they do brew a lot of IPAs, but they put out so many great beers annually it's hard for me not to love them. Melt My Brain, The Anniversary Ale, & The Curl we're a few of my top beers in 2017. If they need to flood the market with IPAs, as their cash cow, to keep putting unique beers like those on store shelves, more power to them. I'd rather see that than have them stagnate like New Glarus has in the last couple years.

 

I like many of the non-IPA offerings from Shorts, Melt My Brain and Cup a Joe chief among them. If my post came off as hate towards Shorts, that was not my intent. I was attempting to further the contrast from a previous post.

 

Funny I read this thread today since I was in the store last night and it dawned on me it’s been over two years since I have bought anything from NG. “Unplugged” got me into craft beer but it’s like Dan put the whole thing on cruise control and gave up. Can’t blame them for playing only the hits but be nice if they mixed up with a b-side every so often.

 

Per the New Glarus Instagram account:

"Dan & Deb Carey have an extra special surprise for you this holiday season, a winter R&D release! Gotlandic, a traditional brew of the Vikings. Dark, hearty, smoky & spicy.
A collaborative brew with Gotlands Bryggeri AB brewmaster Joakim Enerqvist."

 

Interesting. Probably no rush to get it, though. This won't be a beer style people clamor for. I'm personally stoked though. Glad to see some unusual stuff going on at NG, even if it's only in the aptly titled R&D series.

 

Slightly more info via Facebook: "Merry Christmas Friends! Celebrate this season of joy With our brewery-exclusive R&D release of Gotlandic Ale. This historic Viking Ale is the result of collaboration between Gotland's Brewmaster Joakim Enekvist and our own Brewmaster Daniel Carey. It was brewed right here in New Glarus. Gotlandic Ale is hearty, spicy, smoky, and dark perfect for a cool Winter evening. It was brewed in the traditional method with foraged Juniper and a blend of Wisconsin, German and Scandinavian Malts. The malt was hand smoked with Colorado Birch and Wisconsin Cherry Wood. This very special beer is still exclusively brewed at home in Sweden, and mostly by Women! In fact, to preserve this tradition, it remains illegal today for Gotlandic Brewers to commercially brew this special Ale in Sweden. There is a two bottle per person per day limit on this beer. Our hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays! We will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day! Cheers@"

And since it's not entirely clear in that post, it is already available at the depot. Guess I gotta take a drive but I as well assume it's no rush.

 

From my detective work on social media: the depot now has cans of Two Women and twelve ounce four packs of Belgian Red

 

Additionally, I found the Belgian Red at a few places in Madison today

 

I stopped at the depot today, definitely 4 packs of Belgian Red. Also the limit on R&Ds is now 4 bottles per type per person per day. I didn't look closely at which R&Ds they still had but it seemed like most of the ones that were put out in September or whenever that was.

I'm sure Gotlandic isn't running out anytime soon but, well, FOMO got me to think that since I was on the beltline driving by the Verona Rd exit anyways why not take a detour?

 

Did you happen to see any canned Two Women? I’m thinking of making a trip down there tomorrow

 

I didn't see any but I didn't even pass through the area where that'd be. I was trying to be quick and didn't walk past anything but R&D and the Belgian Red.

 

Delicious every single bottle I've had including the one right now.

 

I went to the brewery today and found some good surprises: Vintage 14, Smoke on the Porter, and Milk Stout

 

Damn....after I left I thought, "Was that Vintage 14? That can't be, it must've been 15 or 16." Ah well, it's delicious but it's not like I really need another 4 bottles.

 

I had some time to kill so I took the kiddo and went by the Depot today. They had Vintage 2014-2016, 2015 Golden Ale, Champs Rouge, Sour Porter, Pommier Sauvage and Gotlandic, $15 each, limit 4 per person for each individual R&D release.

In particular, there was a ton of Pommier Sauvage and it looked like Vintage 2014 and 2015 were running a bit low (bottom of the pallet) relative to the others. But that means absolutely nothing as I am sure they have more pallets somewhere.

Hometown Blonde is available as is Abt.

 

I can't believe how much of this stuff there still is, especially the Pommier, which is just an excellent beer. I'd have bought more had I known and the limits were higher during Summer.

Anyway, this makes me wonder just what the process is and what it looks like when they make such massive batches of spontaneous stuff. Anyone have any links or pics?

 

https://www.craftbeer.com/craft-beer-muses/coolships-old-new-american-craft-brewing There’s a little info in this article. 100bbls at a time is an absolute monster coolship.