New Glarus Unplugged Enigma

Very similar to New Glarus Sour Brown Ale, maybe I’m saying that because I can’t get it any more! Anyways, a mahogany finish with fruity and woodsy aromas. Similar tastes of cherries and light smoky notes. A poor man’s SBA.

RBSG 2007 Grand Tasting. Hazy amber body with a small white head. Sweet caramel, molassas and fruit aroma. Sweet molassas and sour cherry flavor.

Pours a cloudy red brown with a white head and nice lacing. Aroma of cherries and brandy. Flavor is tart and fruity and goes down somewhat fizzy. Medium heavy body with average carbonation. Yet another fine beer from New Glarus.

What a Beauty!! I’m buying this one everywhere I find it before it runs out!! Pours a darker brown with a good head. A classic wild ale look. HUGE complex vanilla and cherry nose. Wonderfully sour cherries and vanilla palate. Think you know good sour beer? Not if you havent tried this!

20070624 12oz bottle thanks to allendodd. I barely get a chance to glance at this stuff before being engulfed in its gorgeous aroma. Cherry wafts from the globe with a tempting compliment of vanilla, caramel. It smells like desert, but there’s little in the aroma that would suggest this to be a sour beer. In fact, it’s one of the least sour flemmish sours I’ve had, with an abundance of vanilla from the oak. Meh. Maybe too much oak. Anyway, the cherry presence is great and permeates at all layers with tartness, sweetness, and a kind of overripe dark cherry flavor. Could definitely stand for some astringency and I’d be very curious to see what the effect of a used barrel would be, maybe brandy? The more I drink, the more this is reminding me of a cider - there are certainly apple notes developing, and yet still no astringency. Mouthfeel is medium with fine and airy eff. I’m not completely sure what to make of the stuff. It seems more like a somewhat fortunate experiment that a polished beer and, in this case, maybe that’s just not enough to be great, but it’s good. ..... Oh, wait, there’s the astringency. Okay, things are loking up. But it’s leaving a weird feeling on the back of the palate as though I spent too much time sucking on cherry pits and stems. This is probably just more ofthe oak in combination with some acetic astringency? I don’t know. I just know I’m not loving it.

Bottle from Hezron. Thanks! Copper red pour, nice layer of tan. Vanilla, cherries, medicinal, woody, wet-wool and cherry aroma. Wow. Lots going on! A really nice tension between gentle fruit influenced sweetness and mineral earthy character. A little smoke to the finish. Very intriguing ale this, and my favorite of the evening. Imbibed in the excellent company of Fin, Loz and Traci.

Bottle in the company of Doppelganger, Tracey and Loz. Vanilla and cherry dominated this most stunning of aroma’s, it really was the most lovely of scents that you just had to keep going back to. The beer poured a murky brown that had a slight rubyness to it. Taste was just great with a bitter cherry bite that whilst pleasantly sour was never ever overdone, the vanilla was also present in the mouth and worked wonderfully in taking the edge off of the bitter cherry allied as it was with a nice soft carbonation. I thoroughly enjoyed this beer and despite it being in the company of some very good beers this evening felt that it stood out as something quite special.

12oz bottle from drewbeerme - thanks! Wow, this is a truly gorgeous beer. On the pour my first thought was that its lustrous red-to-brown body (minimal lacing) and wafting tartness resembled JP’s La Roja. There’s certainly something to this, with this beer’s funk and earthiness and wild yeast. But damn if that oak aging doesn’t just put this into another category, with subtle hints of not just the oak but also vanilla and just a trace of coconut (but hey, maybe that last bit’s just me). Truly awesome.