New Glarus Apple Ale

Brewed by New Glarus Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
New Glarus, Wisconsin USA

Bottle. Looks a little bit like cider. Smells like fresh apples. Very sweet, it tastes like apple juice. Went down quick, not much carbonation at all. Not bad, different.

Poured a dark golden amber color with a nice white head that retained quite well. Smell is like smelling a crisp apple. Nice and tart, perhaps like smelling apple juice with slightly overripe apples; almost like stepping into an apple orchard. Taste is like biting into a mixture of different apples and moves into the taste of the apple skins, without the astringent tastes of actually biting apple skins. Light-medium carbonation, lighter side of medium bodied with a crisp, dry finish. Excellent drinkability, I’d be drinking plenty of this if it were still produced. This bottle was three years old and still held up remarkabley well, I can only imagine it was more powerful when it was fresh.

GABF 2004. I found a small treasure trove of old ratings sheets that I hadn’t enterred; this is one of them. Smells good, somewhat sweet and yeasty, but nothing to go crazy over. Was lightish bodied and not as sour as the Red or Tart, mostly sweet, with distinct flavor of MacIntosh apples (the red ones with the waxy skins). Good beer.

The aroma was rich with apples and hints of caramel and brown sugar. The beer poured a hazy rich copper color with little to no head and lacing. There may have been a carbonation problem with mine. The flavor was syrupy like straight apple juice and little malt. The mouthfeel was slightly wet and creamy with a light to medium body. I enjoyed it. Thanks to Vac for scoring this one for me.

Thanks to JK for sharing another fruity gem for the evening. Burn cider caramel nose with faint brown sugar. Yellow body with a sour apple flavor. Very nice.

(bottle thanks JK) Pours amber with little to no head. A really nice baked apple with cinnamon aroma along with some brown sugar. Taste is apple, but not too strong (probably the age on this) with some cinnamon on the finish. This is pretty good, and just reaffirms yet again that New Glarus knows how to do fruit beers.

Sampled from 12-oz bottle and shared by JK. Pours a very hazy amber brew with a thin off-white head that quickly dissolves to a fine film. Aroma of sweet apples, nutmeg and a touch of cinnamon. Taste is medium bodied, no carbonation and a flavor of mostly sweet apple cider with a touch of cinnamon. Finish is semi-sweet with a decent apple aftertaste. Reading some of the previous ratings it looks like four years of aging has smoothed out the flavor. I hope this is the one NG brings out of retirement in ’08.

[Bottle, thanks JK!] Pours amber with a very small off-white head. Medium body, good finish. The aroma and flavor were intense apple with some cinnamon and nutmeg. While I didn’t like this as much as the Belgian Red or Raspberry Tart, this is still yet another excellent New Glarus fruit beer. Re-rate: Didn’t really get any spices with this new batch, just straight apple. Almost was like a sparkling cider it was so apple heavy. I really enjoyed drinking it, and it was insanely drinkable...but to be honest it is very one dimensional. Still, I could drink this all day, so I am going to up the overall a bit.