New Glarus Brewery

What better way to spend the first cold weekend of the year than at a brewery? Lauren and I "toured" the New Glarus Brewery in New Glarus, Wisconsin on Saturday. New Glarus is a town of about 2,000 people, about a half-hour south of Madison in rural Green County.

We arrived in New Glarus at about 2 pm and decided to grab a bite to eat first, rather than pound beer on an empty stomach. New Glarus is known as "America's Little Switzerland," and was originally a Swiss settlement founded in 1845. The charm of this town is unparalleled and truly did look like an old Bavarian city - everything from the townspeople, to the shops, to the architecture. Even employees of some of the stores dressed in traditional Swiss garb. It reminded me a lot of Cooperstown NY (replace the baseball museum with a brewery), in that it's a small town that gets lots of visitors due to its character and major tourist attraction. We stopped at Ticino's Pizzeria, a very warm (both literally and figuratively) eatery on the ground floor of the New Glarus Hotel for lunch, and filled up quickly on a fantastic pie. After lunch, we were tempted to devour some fudge at the shop across the street, but knew we had to get the brewery before it closed at 4.

Whereas the town center of New Glarus is as authentic as you can get, the brewery itself is kitsch personified. The original brewery was founded in 1993, but the new Hilltop site we visited was opened to the public in June. This new location allowed the brewery to double its staff and barrel production in an effort to keep up with the ever-growing demand for craft beer in Wisconsin, the only state which currently has the privilege of this tasty beer. It is built to look like an old Bavarian village and is nestled on a hill at the top of a dirt trail, amidst some barns and a vast view into the hilly farmscape - how delivery trucks navigate that trail, I do not know. This faux architecture would normally upset me, at say a civic building in a large city, but at a small brewery in rural Wisconsin, it was just perfect. It just would not have been appropriate to arrive at the top of that hill and see giant steel & glass boxes.

You may have noticed in the beginning that I put the word "toured" in quotes. The New Glarus Brewing Company's idea of a tour is "over there is where we make the beer, if you have any questions ask." Clearly the modus operandi here was to get people to actually drink and enjoy the beer, not just have a couple of 6-oz samples during a long tour. I found this to be quite pleasant - after all, this was the 6th or 7th brewery I've toured, and when you've seen one mash tun you've seen them all. Besides that, Lauren and I had been to the Lakefront Brewery together in February and felt that no description of the beer-making process could ever top that, so we immediately proceeded to the brewhaus. The first thing you notice when walking inside is that there are only about 10 chairs for a packed room of people. We quickly figured out why - everybody just spends their time drinking in line! I felt that this room had a missed opportunity to be a great lounge, but I also understood under the circumstances why people would just want to hang out in line. Your choices at the brewhaus are either a $6 full pint glass with $3 refills, or $3.50 for three samples in a small glass, and both are take-home souvenirs. I of course went with the pint glass, and Lauren the sample glass. This proved to be a pretty good idea, because Lauren got to taste some of the higher-priced beers for the same price, whereas I would have had to pay extra in my pint glass. So, with glasses in hand, we repeated a cycle of stand in line, order beer, move to back in line, drink beer in line, repeat. This went on for about 30 minutes, and at the end we had tried 5 beers between us. Besides the famous Spotted Cow, which is described as a "farmhouse ale" with a hint of sweet corn, other choices were Naked Lager, an organic hoppy beer, a couple fruit beers, a wheat, and an abbey ale. I had the Crack'd Wheat, which had hints of clove, cinnamon, and citrus, and the Stone Soup abbey ale, and Lauren had a raspberry beer and a couple other lighter beers. I thought the Stone Soup was not that good, thought it would be darker. But the other four beers we shared were decent. I was kind of upset that they didn't have Yokel on tap, which is one their better beers in my opinion. Spotted Cow is just so perfect that I'd say most people would probably be disappointed sampling the rest of the New Glarus Brewery catalog.

After our beers, we made a few purchases at the gift shop - including a bar of "beer soap" - and meandered a bit through the actual brewery, and snapped some photos in the courtyard outside. We ended our day in New Glarus by purchasing some cheese, fudge, and bakery at a couple of the delightful Swiss food shops back in town. We left very full and very happy. The best part of our day was on our final trip through the beer line when the bartender gave us each a coupon for a free pint of their beer at any bar in town. Looks like we'll be visiting New Glarus again sometime soon!

rankings and stats:
beer selection - 8 (8-10 beers depending on season)

samples - 8 (bonus points for full pint option)
gift shop - 6 (bonus points for beer-infused soap)
tour guide - 3 (no formal tour - lady inside was helpful)
tour quality - n/a
design - 7 (brewhaus has more potential, the site is incredible)
taste - 6
price - $ ($3.50 for 3 samples or $3 per pint)

Would we recommend? Yes
Best beer - Spotted Cow
Type - craft brewery
Location - 2400 State Hwy 69, New Glarus WI
http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/