New Glarus Opinion

Two Women lager would be well worth a drive from Illinois.

 

Had it many times. My sister lives in Wisconsin. I get it there, and she will bring some for me when she comes to visit.

 

Spotted Cow is the perfect gateway beer from swill to craft.

 

I think Josh didn't communicate the point of his article clearly enough. I thought it was whether you'd drive to WI to drink any of these 11 NG beers. What I think it developed into was "are there beers in Illinois that are equal or better than NG beers". At least that was my interpretation. The guy who owns Hopleaf in Chicago responded that basically the NG beers are nothing special and there's plenty of good alternatives here.

That said, I agree with others that fresh Moon Man, Raspberry Tart and others are worth the 2 hr drive to get in bottles or the 3 hr drive to have on tap at the brewery. I can't say I'd crave an Edel Pils instead or HA Pony enough that I'd make the drive. But if I went to WI to get Moon Man, I'd also get Edel Pils to experience it.

 

As someone who has yet to make the pilgrimage out to FFF outside of DLD (that's right, I live in Chicago and have never been to FFF's brewpub/kiosk), I definitely understand the point (that driving an hour or two for beer requires a very good reason). However, I think it's disingenuous to assert that "since Chicago has top tier breweries everywhere, why try NG?" At that point, why try literally any other brewery (outside of breweries that make styles we don't have much of)?

Why try anyone else's BA stouts? We have Bourbon County.
Why try anyone else's APA/IPA/DIPA? We have FFF, PW, Rev, Half Acre, etc.

You get the point.

The thing is, NG is one of my favorite breweries, but it's not because all their beers are better than everything else. It's because 1) their quality is consistent, 2) their beers are always well-priced, 3) they seem to be very genuine, and they give back to their community (which is a great little town, btw), and 4) they do some really great stuff with fruit/sour beers. At the end of the day, writing off a brewery because you have something "as good or better" locally is doing you a disservice, because you'll miss out on two things:

1) You won't see how other places add their own little twist to common styles, and
2) You won't be able to truly appreciate how good the beer around you is.

I'm all for buying local whenever possible, but I'm also a huge supporter of trying new things.

 

He is going to age a pasteurized beer in hopes that it developed a more tart flavor? Good Luck with that.

 

Dan and Deb are awesome. They show up to every R&D release to help with the crowds and just hang out.

 

I guess it depends on your definition of "long." You can get NG in ~1.5 hours from the city (maybe less). That's not terrible in mind (although I also don't do it; I spend a lot of weekends in Wisconsin, so I just pick up NG then).

I was more arguing the broader idea of trying other breweries than specifically NG. NG certainly isn't new to me (although I grab the new Thumbprints as soon as I can). Listen, very few people are bigger homers than I am, and the vast majority of what I drink is Illinois beer, if not Chicago. I'm just disagreeing with the sentiment that I should avoid making trips to pick up other beer, just because I can find better stuff at home. Au Cheval's burger is better than Burger King's, but I'll be damned if I don't really crave their A-1 Whopper sometimes!

Although I've never met either, this was the impression I've gotten from statements they've made, and from the experiences of people around here.