New Glarus Unplugged Enigma

Formerly brewed at New Glarus Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale
New Glarus, Wisconsin USA

Thanks Styles for this great beer man. Nice brown color and the taste was very cherry vanilla and funk. There was a bitter aftertaste that stuck around, not that I’m complaining, but it was nice

Bottle shared by psprings at hellbilly’s hellraiser 3.0 tasting. Pours a hazy amber with a small off-white head. The nose is light cherries, some funk and wood. The taste is sweet cherries, tart cherry skins, oaky vanilla and malt. Medium bodied. Interesting sour – I liked it. Thanks Paul!

hazy brown pour with a minimal head of white froth that turns into a ring quite fast. nose is wood, cherries and caramel. very nice on the palate with a flavor of wood, cherries, butter and slight sourness in the end.

12oz bottle courtesy of iowaherkeye poured into a tulip. Pours a murky deep iced-tea brown that shows hints of amber around the edges. The head is decent-sized and off-white leaving a trace of lacing as it settles in as a collar. The aroma is an intriguing mix of sweet and sour cherries and some underlying brown sugar along with a sizable oak presence with vanilla. The taste is a bigger, sweeter version of the aroma. It’s got the tart cherries up front that gives way to the huge caramel malt and brown sugar sweetness underneath. The finish has tons of vanilla and the oak helps leave a slightly dry finish. The mouthfeel is pretty full-bodied and super smooth with minimal carbonation. Another wonderful creation from New Glarus who really knows how to mix fruit and beer. It’s big and complex but also very drinkable. Highly recommended!

Big thanks to Brigadier. Pours a murky red brown with a thin head, leaves a spotty lacing. Aroma is faint, what’s there is cherries and funk. Tart cherries and resinous wood flavors are perfectly harmonized into the general sourness, which gradually segues into a slightly cheesy funk. Sweet, silky aftertaste. Medium bodied, the palate blends smoothness with effervescence.

Bottle courtesy of drewbeerme. Pours a hazy brown with a small bubbly head. Aroma is funk, sour cherries, wood, spices. Flavor is low acidic vinegary subdued cherries, sugars, malt, funk. Easy drinking and understated sourness. Decent sour ale.

Interesting back story to this one. My parents moved into a new neighborhood - one of the neighbors came to greet them in the first week and introduced himself as a capable home brewer. My parents replied that they had an avid beer consumer in the family, and relayed that when I came home for the holidays I should be happy to meet the new neighbor. So I did. Honestly, I expected a humble brewing set-up, with some coolers and bottling equipment and completely satisfactory beers to sample. What I was shown was extraordinary engineering skills and intuition, zealous dedication to the craft, ingenuity and stunning brews including a pre-prohibition style Pils - the best pils I’ve had to date. After talking beer for a bit, he asked me to sample a bottle from his collection -a New Glarus Enigma. Naturally, my jaw dropped. I never thought I’d have a chance to have at this retired brew, but here I found myself in the capable, magnanimous hands of a beer patron who happened to live across the street from my parents. So, I gingerly carried the beer home and waited for the right moment to sample it. January 1st, opening 2009, I popped the cap, and had a surreal beer experience. I anxiously poured the beer like I was handling a piece of enriched uranium - careful, precise, and with a certain nervous twitch. Out came a murky date brown brew, a muddy concoction with but a few ashen gray bubbles drifting aimlessly on the surface of the Enigma. I slowly crane my neck over the beer, careful not to corrupt it by dipping the tip of my nose into its sanctified depths. I breath in the vapors, catching fresh, sweet red grapes, a slight acerbity and sourness, a heavy, nose-wrinkling wood aroma, a hint of dry balsamic vinegar, and a bit of cobwebs, as if the beer had retained a dusty flavor from aging. It reeks of luxury, a sophisticated aroma that makes me feel very unworthy - a serf coming across someone else’s buried gold and greedily spending it for himself. The next few lines in my notes, which mark the moment I tasted the Enigma, are filled with expletives of shock and disbelief, some of them hyperbole, but most of them genuine. I then pose a question to myself: “Where do I begin?!” The experience, the journey, the epiphany, the Enigma begins with a sweet, easing taste of caramelized apples, oak aged tastes, red grapes and then yawns, slipping into a supine relaxation of flavor, before re-posturing itself into a rejuvenated sweet phase. Here I find a veritable dessert tray of gourmet dessert flavors, including a delicate apple pie and more red grapes, dusted with cinnamon and all-spice, all amidst a brilliant backdrop of none-too-sour acidity. I feel like I’m watching a creative work of art being developed/performed in at a fast timelapse speed, with the final product delivered to my tongue - but I can PERCEIVE the effort the brewers put into the Enigma. Indeed, this is the most “compelling” beer I’ve ever drank. I’m struck with palate awe, slowly sipping this beer which, as it warms, dons a nice black pepper puff taste and a restrained but firm hit of alcohol in the back of the throat. I feel like this should be paired with a tremendously fancy or elegant meal in a classy restaurant to match, but here I am in a humble living room reigning in 2009 with one of the best beers of my life. If the review is a bit cloying, I promise you nothing about this beer is. It is, perhaps, the best beer of 2009.

Bottle thanks to Optigon: Poured a chocolate brown with an off white thin head. The aroma is sour fruit with oak. Taste is a mix of bitter fruits and malts, there is some woodsy oak in it as well. Very fine sour ale.