Dancing Man Wheat - New Glarus

Third review of the night, third New Glarus beer. I can't help it...if they have beer that I haven't tried I have to give it a shot (for the most part).

Dancing Man Wheat is a bright and lively hefeweizen wheat beer, but I have to say I have to try this beer without the influence of any type of fruit additive. I think a solid wheat beer should be able to stand on its own, but that's just my opinion :-). Beer stats are as follows:

Name: Dancing Man Wheat

Style: German Hefeweizen

IBU: 10 - 15?

ABV: 7.2%

Gravity: ~1.055?

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

The Descriptions: As you can see this beer poured very head-y and took quite a while to settle down so I could pour the whole bottle. The smell of this beer is amazing, sort of like banana and cloves and is a deep yellowish-gold in color. True to German Hefeweizen form, this beer is extremely hazy/cloudy giving it that nice unfiltered look and taste.

This beer tastes as good as it smells, reinforcing the banana and clove flavors and also with a slight citrus taste. The beer is somewhat dry but finishes very smoothly and is very very very deceptive insofar as the alcohol doesn't come through as a 7.2% ABV beer. The beer isn't overly yeasty, which is awesome, and it has a creamy hefeweizen-esque mouthfeel.

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: Honestly, this is one of the better wheat beers I have had recently. If they are offering it in kegs I may consider getting a quarter barrel of it this summer. In 90 degree weather this would be absolutely perfect to enjoy in the sun. It's a very refreshing beer and is a must try for anyone who has any interest in drinking a hefeweizen. This totally redeems the Two Women lager that I finished prior to this one. Go out and pickup some of this while you can.

Cheers,

Hurls

Two Women - New Glarus

Next up on the reviewing is another component of the make-your-own six pack that I got with my 1/4 barrel of Moon Man (we'll get to that review eventually) for the kegerator. The beer is called "Two Women" and is another New Glarus brew that I opted to try out.

Two Women is a deep dark country lager that is made with Bohemian malt and Hallertau Mittelfrueh hops. Beer stats are as follows:

Name: Two Women

Style: Country Lager (Bohemian)

IBU: ?? I would say 25-30 at most based on being a Bohemian lager

ABV: 5%

Gravity: ?? I would say 1.045 - 1.055 based on being a Bohemian lager

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World

The Descriptions: So this beer totally poured a lot darker than I thought it would...coming out a bit browner than I initially expected. There was a generous ~2.5 inches of head, but the head on this beer is so light and bubbly...it left the beer pretty quickly. The aroma left much to be desired...it just smelled like a typical lager, slightly grassy, not too distinct on the hops, but also slightly bready.

This beer tasted like it smelled...leaving much left to be desired. The malt came through more than the hops and seemed to be somewhat toasted, which gave a decent backing to the beer. However, it seemed to me that the malt was about the only thing coming through prominently. There was a slight initial fruity taste, but it disappeared and left a metallic, unappealing aftertaste. Truth be told I just couldn't get into this beer.

Overall Grade: C-

Comments: This beer is just lacking in all aspects, in my opinion. It did not distinguish itself in any way, which is atypical of a New Glarus brew. I think they just missed the mark on this, which is a shame because from what I have read the initial recipe of this beer (before they pulled a Favre-like retirement and un-retirement, though with a longer break than ol' Brett) was a huge hit. I will say this: if you're really looking for a lager and love them, you can probably find one that is much better than this. By the same token, if you are looking for a New Glarus brew, you can definitely find ones that are much better. When all is said and done I just don't find this to be something I would ever have a reason to drink.

Cheers,

Hurls

IIPA - New Glarus

NOTE: due to a posting snafu this ended up being the 2nd post, but I submitted it earlier and the blog site screwed up. Oops

This is the first entry in the first blog I've taken seriously so I'm not exactly sure how to get going on this type of thing.

The first beer I am going to review is a Double IPA (IIPA) from New Glarus' "Thumbprint" Series. Beer stats are as follows:

Name: IIPA (creative, eh?)

Style: Double IPA / IIPA

IBU: 85

ABV: 9%

Gravity: 19.2 Plato --> ~1.080 original gravity

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World as part of a create your own 6 pack.

Availability: Not only is this a seasonal brew, but it's a special release from New Glarus, so get it while you can.

It occurred to me while typing the above stats that it may make sense to define some of the abbreviations used above.**

IBU - International Bittering Units, representing the most accepted method of measuring and expressing hop bitterness in beer. Beers will typically range from 5 IBU to 100 IBU. The human threshold is approximately 6 IBU and 6 IBU also represents the required change for a human to discriminate between levels of hoppiness.

ABV - alcohol by volume - if you went to college you don't need me to tell you this...

Gravity - gravity is an approximate measure of the amount of alcohol that may end up in a finished beer. Expressing this in terms of "Plato" is a European and American scaling which is based on a percentage of pure sugar cane in the wort. For instance, a 10 or 12 degree Plato beer would have original gravities of 1.040 and 1.049 respectively...meaning they are 4% and 4.9% heavier than pure water.

The descriptions:

In pouring the beer into my glass, I was quite surprised that it didn't have more head on it (insert perverted joke here). However, I looked into a beer book I have to see if I was pouring it correctly (I had the glass tilted and was giving it a slow pour). Turns out I was not - the book prescribes "boldly pouring down the center" (so I guess those old Bud Light commercials with the Asian guy whacking that dude with a reed and telling him to "Pour down center to release aROma and carbonation" were actually more than just annoyingly funny b.s. commercials). At any rate, I am obviously a newbie at this, so we will let my poor pour (ha ha, get it?) slide this time.

The beer came out a brilliant, a hazy deep gold or pale amber color. It doesn't help that I wasn't able to use natural light, but in my experience beer drinking is much more acceptable after the light of day has faded.

I know I will love this beer just from the smell - a completely hoppy/piney aroma accompanies this beer and it completely makes my mouth water. Pale ales are my weakness.

This beer is a pretty solid IIPA - I would honestly expect nothing less from the fine folks at New Glarus...they truly know how to make beer and if you are ever in Wisconsin you need to get some (they don't sell anywhere outside of the state). The beer gets a huge hoppy flavor without too much bitterness (relatively speaking, less than I originally expected). At 85 IBUs, it doesn't necessarily feel that way to me, not completely hitting me over the head from the onset, or even a lingering bitter flavor. It's a dry mouth feel, especially at the finish of the sip. The beer smells a bit sweeter than it actually is, as I have taken a few more whiffs and sips. Again, I am still learning how to do this stuff, so perhaps take what I say with a grain of salt.

I am thinking that they used a light biscuit malt in this beer, similar to a Hopslam (from Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, MI). It's also somewhat fruity, maybe orange or grapefruit? It adds a nice kick to the beer.

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: Try this out if you can and if you like really hoppy and pretty bitter beers. It is limited so you need to move quick - another great brew by New Glarus!!

Cheers,

Hurls

** Definitions quoted from Tasting Beer: An Insider's Guide to the World's Greatest Drink by Randy Mosher

God, I miss being young...

So, today Sarah and I were running errands around downtown and as we're driving around I'm like what the hell is with all these people on one of the main streets here in Madison (Gorham/University for those who are familiar). At first I thought that that's just how Madison is on a nice sunny day after about 6 months of cold overcast weather. We go to the Capitol Centre Market to redeem a MoochoMoocho thing and get some groceries and literally thousands of college kids are drinking everywhere. I thought it was just from some "Crazy Legs" race they have around here this weekend, but I asked one of the people working at the store (since cases of beer were flying off the shelves) what was going on and apparently today is the Mifflin Street Block Party. Basically, this is the spring version of Halloween in Madison and I was completely oblivious. This is the latest in a staggering sequence of events that has lead to me realizing on a semi-continuous basis that I am getting old (at least relatively speaking, living in a college environment does that for you).

I looked into it and the event has it's own wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mifflin_Street_Block_Party) and originally started in 1969 as a protest to the Vietnam war. Interesting stuff. Anyways, when you have that many kids drinking all day, hilarity ensues. My personal favorite t-shirt that was being worn was "Drink me how to teachy" (a mock on the ever popular "Teach Me How To Bucky" shirt). I want one so bad now, but not quite as badly as I want to be young again. It was nice in undergrad when you could just do whatever you felt like and not have to worry about it.

One of the best parts was this girl exclaiming loudly about how it was so bad that they already ran out of beer so early (this was approx 1PM, likely an impressive showing depending on how much they had put away already). Sarah turns to me and is like "that IS pretty bad..." and this drunk kid behind us is like "it's not that bad..." all defensively like who could ever pass judgment about re-loading with 4 cases of beer at 1PM on an idle Saturday. Oh to be a college kid again...I do somehow miss that logic...

Oh well - at least now I'm drinking the beers that I'm reviewing on this site rather than pounding back Keystone Light or Milwaukee's Best (why has someone not sued them for false advertising by now?). Take a minute to think about what you drank in college and what you drink now - hopefully you're a step up and able to look back and smile about some of the stupid stuff you did when you were in college.

Cheers,

Hurls