New Glarus Unplugged Enigma

New Glarus seems to be using cherries more in their unplugged series. This tastes like a second running of the Cherry Stout, but with an Ale. Lighter cherry flavor, but more malt than cherry.

Bottle from Styles. Pours a reddish brown color and is pretty hazy. Aroma of cherry, oak and just the slightest hint of acid. Medium bodied and lightly acidic. Full cherry flavor, oak and a pleasing sense of spice and light acid blend to make this truly a creation. Fantastic.

Impressions from a few bottles:
-A ring of fat bubbles circles the dull red tones.
-Vinous fruitiness, wooden dryness and bretty wilderness evoke deep messages the meaning of which can’t be fully understood by the seduced nose.
-The cherry fruitiness deviates into red cranberry territory before coming back on track, and the tongue just loves to see it interpret these fruity acrobatics.
-Although it didn’t look like it was going to be effervescent (which wouldn’t be wrong at all for this style), it turned out to be quite carbonated, which might have lessened some of the beer’s power.
-The sweet front, with balanced vanilla and cherry pleasures, beautifully segues into a rather firm and outgoing tartness.
-New Glarus is one of few non-Belgian breweries which could pull this style off with class and idiosyncratic personality, and they’ve done a fantastic job of it. Mr.Carey is definitely one of my favorite brewers in America.

Bottles.

Oak cask aging always does great things to a brew. Cherry flavor is strong but much nicer than New Glarus Cherry Stout. Not overly sour. An impressive, unregrettable, unforgettable change of pace but not my thing. Perhaps some sort of vineger. No hops.

Thanks to drewbeerme for this one. Not as sour as I had expected, which si fine because it allows you to taste the crisp freshness of the ale proper with a little bit of tart at the end. By no means a La Folie, but delicious in it’s own right. Good stuff, worthy of the high numbers.

Bottle from iowaherkeye, Thanks Joey! Nose of cherries, funk, chocolate, but no hops! Hazy cherry brown with a good beige head. tart cherries lead off the flavor into chocolate, caramel, oak, and funk.

From a bottle purchased at Steve’s in Madison. This is wonderful stuff indeed. Notes of oak and apple cider on the nose lead into Montmorency cherry, vanilla, tobacco, and apple cider vinegar. Impressive profile that rivals La Folie. Great work by Dan Carey.

This has a very nice tartness in the aroma and taste, right from the start. But what an unpleasant looking beer, a muddy color with no head some lacing. There is some sweetness to this in the background, mild cherries. Very good beer. Finially a brown ale I liked.