2017 New Glarus Thread

Zwickel was both on tap and in the beer depot when I went on Monday.

 

While I'm more interested than ever in IPAs, I entirely agree with your assessment. There's only so long you can drink super-hopped/adjuncted beers before you view something as simple as a well-made lager as a "comfort food" for beers. They're tasty, they're refreshing, and they don't require you to be in the mood to have your palate dominated.

I've never entirely bought the "sours are going to overtake IPAs" argument, but I can certainly see lagers giving them a good run.

 

Until I discovered porters in my late 20's, I hated beer. Absolutely hated it. I had only had macro lagers.

While I can certainly appreciate that "craft" lagers are better than that stuff, I just think the style is not for me. It wasn't that these macro lagers were terrible per se, but the flavor profile (crisp, mild flavor) isn't what I'm looking for.

Having said that, I am now FOR SURE going to get into lagers at some point, because everything I say I'll never like I usually end up liking.

 

Funnily enough, Guinness got me into beer in general, so not too far from your porter experience (also in my mid 20s).

I don't find lagers amazing or anything, but they can be really nice to drink sometimes.

 

FYI that "0" may be a "D". In the 2016 thread, it was stated that they have switched to a letter, followed by 3 numbers. And they do pull dates now, instead of "bottled on" dates. The letter is the month (A= January and so on). So D177 would be "pull from shelves April 17, 2017"

Someone else can confirm, but I think this is how they do it now.

Also heard the pull date is six months after bottling, but I don't have a link to that


P.S. Like the last few posters, I am also in a lager phase, after suffering from some IPA/stout burnout. NG Zwickel + Two Women + Hometown Blonde, the German oktoberfests, Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel, Weihenstephaner Original and 1516, Great Lakes Eliot Ness + Dortmunder Gold. These are the things I crave now.

 

Yea I agree with this as well. I can only drink so many IIPA's or Adjunct Stouts before I start reaching for HighLife or PBR for the rest of the night. I still have a pretty well stocked celler and a fridge full of Local high flavoir offerings my desire to drink a buch of "extreme" brews in one night/weekend/or sitting no longer exists.

 

Interesting - and good to know. I finished off my Zwickels over the weekend, so I can't doublecheck the "D" vs "0". Oh well. Either way, they tasted great. And if you're near the brewery, I recommend grabbing some.

 

From watching when the first rolled out cans last year, I believe the pull date is 5 months after bottling/canning. At least for the beers I've looked into anyway (Moon Man, Bubbler). It's possible it might differ slightly across beers.

 

Hey, here's one more from none other than Forbes. Not trying to continue beating the horse I killed above, but I thought it was funny and coincidental when this popped up in my newsfeed today.

 

The bottle shares were much bigger last year. They are so efficient and start earlier than they usually state. The only bottle share opportunities are afterwards now and those just arent as big as the in-line ones used to be. Not that I am complaining. Love how amazing and easy these releases are.

 

When does strawberry rhubarb hit shelves. For some reason I thought it was going to be something in Feb.

 

March

 

Ok cool. Thanks.

 

I thought they were done making Strawberry Rhubarb. You know, like done done.

 

Thumbprint (4 packs) this time, instead of large format, too.

 

That's what they claim, but they consistently have more pale ales than Lagers on. Amazing how breweries lose their style focus when consumer's style demands and spending money win out.

 

Awesome and awesome.

 

I'd love to see them offer their regular fruits in a four pack format as well. Wishful thinking I'm sure.

 

I have never been there personally, so I can't speak to what's on consistently, but whenever I've looked at what they're doing, it's near a 50/50 split between lagers and pale ales. Right now that's the case with 3 lagers and 3 pale ales (plus a porter and what I can only assume is a saison interpretation). There are definitely some places that give into consumer pressure (Monkish seem like a great example here: once they said they never would do an IPA, now that's basically all you hear about from them with a few Belgians and wilds thrown in), but I don't think having a few pale ales on and having something for everyone is a bad thing or a compromising of their integrity or something.

Sorry to sidetrack the thread. On topic, I'm excited for Strawberry Rhubarb since it was always my favorite of the fruit beers, and the format change is so welcome. Fingers still crossed on Hometown Blonde soon, as I'll be going up through there a few times in the next couple months.