Wisconsin Treats, part 2

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"In heaven there is no beer. That's why we drink it here..."

If there isn’t beer in heaven than Wisconsin is NOT heaven, because there is plenty of beer here. And those of you who know me KNOW that I really hate to take a trip of any kind without sampling the local beer and, better yet, touring the local breweries.

Monroe, Wisconsin (our stop for the first night) features a large brewery that used to be the James Huber Brewery but now operates under the Minihas name. It’s something of a “contract” brewery, producing beer under a number of different labels including the Berghoff (the now defunct restaurant in Chicago), as well as such “classics” as Rheinlander and Mountian Crest. We chose not to tour the brewery, but the smells from the brewery, even on a Sunday, are enough to put a smile on the face of an old homebrewer like myself.

Instead we drove up the road from Monroe another seventeen miles to the town of New Glarus, home of the New Glarus Brewing Company. For those of you not from the Midwest and not into beer, you have likely never heard of New Glarus. In order to keep their size reasonable they have chosen to restrict their distribution to the state of Wisconsin. They are known for their almost plain beer labels (often simple logos/sketches in one or two colors on single color paper) and their flagship beer Spotted Cow.

While I say that they have made an attempt to keep their size relatively “small” let’s not be fooled - this is a large microbrewery. The figure I read online indicates they are ranked #21 in the United States among craft breweries (based on volume of beer sales) and #32 among all breweries in the United States. In other words, the good folks of Wisconsin drink a LOT of beer brewed by this company.

Founded in 1993 by the husband and wife team of Deb and Dan Carey, the company is one of the truly interesting brewing stories in the business. If you are the type to like that kind of thing, read up on the brewery on their website and on wikipedia.

The facility we toured is their new “hilltop” brewery situated on the south side of New Glarus and it is built to look like you are approaching a small, old time European hill top city. Inside you can take a free self-guided walking tour which takes you past gleaming copper mash tuns, stainless steel storage and fermentation tanks, microbiology/yeast propagation labs, and a noisy bottling line. It’s all really impressive if you have never seen a brewery before. However, it is really almost too sterile in appearance and the tour is woefully un-informative. There is no information about what you are looking at beyond an occasional label on a door or window. I really wanted to have someone explaining things to me, or at the very least some informative plaques or a brochure with numbered explanations to correspond with what I was viewing. Every brewery is different, and what makes a brewery tour interesting is learning about the production, history, and equipment of each individual brewery.

But don’t get me wrong, I have no regrets for touring New Glarus, and will do so again, because the tour ends with a small tasting and the beers at New Glarus are very tasty. Having had the standard offerings from New Glarus in the past (Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel) I had an opportunity to try three beers I haven’t had yet. Their Dancing Man Hefeweizen was delicious - an unfiltered wheat with nice spice undertones. The next beer I tried (whose name escapes me and it isn't posted on their website at the moment) was a Belgian style beer (think Orval) beer using wild yeast which gives it a delicious “funk.” Finally, their Wisconsin Belgian Red was a sweet lambic style beer that reportedly uses 1 pound of Door County cherries in every wine bottle sized offering.

They were three VERY nice beers and given that this was my 40th birthday it was a lovely present to myself.

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Photos

New Glarus Brewing Company
Approaching the new "hill top" brewery in New Glarus Wisconsin.

They did the mash
Caroline and Margaret in front of the giant copper lined mash tuns at the brewery.

Happy birthday to me!
What better way to spend my birthday then with a glass of beer, a spectacular view of the countryside, and my beautiful family,