There I was, this past June, on mile 320 of a 500-mile bike tour. My buddy and I had been battling wind, hills, dust, and sun all day to get to New Glarus. Checked into our hotel and had just enough time to take showers and hop back on the bikes to go another two miles to the New Glarus Brewery.
They have a little sampler tap room. We got our samples and went out on the patio with sandwiches we bought on the way. If I remember correctly we had Fat Squirrel, Belgian Red, Moon Man, Two Woman, Totally Naked, and Spotted Cow. Brothers, that was some nice medicine.
As my riding buddy pointed out, with Moon Man and Two Women you could start a colony.
For me New Glarus is one of my go to breweries of choice when I have friends who either say they dont like beer, or are the types that only drink the stuff from AB/Miller/Coors.
Dan and Deb at New Glarus always seem to impress me with an easy to drink beer that helps me introduce people to the world of craft beers.
In fact when I go back home usually I will bring a couple cases of Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel with, people just love the stuff, but for now its in Wisconsin only.
I’d be VERY surprised if that ever changed. Actually quite happy to see that they are happy with where they are at and don’t complicate things by going for larger distribution. Nice to see someone who is content with what they have and leave it at that.
That said I regularly have my dad, whom lives in Wisconsin, grab me Thumbprint beers and their other special stuff so that I can have some. :cheers:
Supposedly they’re Wisconsin-only in a deliberate effort to try and stay smaller. Though they’re still one of the 20 largest craft brewers in the country despite limiting themselves to something like 2% of the population, so I’m not sure that’s really working out for them.
No, I’ve bought it many times here in Minneapolis. They might just be keeping it to a certain region. They would be silly not to distribute in the Mpls/St. Paul area.
Would guess you’re buying from a place that uses a distributor based in WI, I’ve heard of the occasional place that will have it in store in MN but I’ve never seen it. They certainly do not intentionally distribute to the Twin Cities area but it isn’t like they check all vehicles leaving WI.
I doubt only being officially distributed in Wisconsin does a whole lot to stop someone who wants to carry their beer from doing so if they only live 20-ish miles away from the state line.
I remember this story from back in '09. According to this article NG is not licensed to be sold outside of WI. I would assume that it is still not licensed to be sold anywhere but WI. So, I guess these liquor stores are breaking a law? Not sure.
Well with that being sold out of state where it was confiscated it sounds more like they had laws they broke in that state. While it is not licensed to be sold or actively distributed it is pretty hard to keep things under wraps. I’m sure that they could have an agreement with their whole sale distributors that they will not sell out of state there is probably times it does happen, particularly if the distributor is inside the state of Wisconsin.
That being said I like most of their offerings and try to pick up cases or six packs of it every time I’m visiting family there. If things open up somewhat later on that would be great but they are able to sell everything in Wisconsin with out having to think about expanding which is similar to Surly, demand keeps the product home!
I’m gonna hi-jack this one slightly; any one else notice a very noticeable metallic taste in their beers lately? Snowshoe, Winter Warmer, Coffee Stout come to mind. I have noticed a pattern where if you pour heavily and work out some carbonation while allowing the beer to warm up, it dissipates. Am I the only one (and just hyper-sensitive to metallic notes)? The beers are great, don’t get me wrong but the metallic taste (in the front, if that makes sense) is really preventing me from being completely wowed by them all. I’m drinking these from the bottle and have noticed a high level of carbonation in them all.
While it would be great if they would export their beer to the other states, including Missouri where I live, I understand their logic. It does make it a special treat when I can get someone to bootleg me a 6er or 12 of fat squirrel or spotted cow. Great beer indeed.
Somewhat similar to New Beligium and its Fat Tire brand, I find that NG’s flagship beer (Spotted Cow) is unimpressive while their specialty beers are truly excellent. I won’t turn one down if its the only alternative to a Miller/Bud beer at a party or something, but I don’t think its a very good beer at all. For me, the Thumbprint series beers are almost all excellent (my favorites are the Enigma, Cran-bic, IIPA and the Barleywine). The Belgian Red and Tart are of course both excellent, and of the regular beers I think Fat Squirrel and Road Slush are the best, with Moon Man being a very good pale ale.
Love most NG offerings. Couple years ago they put out a “traditional porter” which was soured. Love that one. Have not seen it recently but I thought their Alt was awesome. They do make some fantastic beers. If you like Weiss beers Dancing Man Wheat is a must try IMO. most recently I’ve had their raspberry red. Like third normal red just with raspberry, which was excellent.
Beautiful facility but the regular tours are unguided. I hear their is a guided tour available but you need to RSVP for that. :cheers:
