New Glarus Unplugged Enigma

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

Bottle from Dickinsonbeer, thanks! Pinkish red color, cloudy. Leathery aroma with cherry and marzipan. Sweetish flavor with cherry and marzipan. There is some sourness present. Not too sweet, and you can smell and taste the brett. The cherry character is not very outspoken, like in a matured oude kriek. Good.

thank you drewbeerme! a really nice cherry beer...reminds me of cuvee de tomme due to the cherry and vanilla oak flavors....very similar...but not quite as good...makes me sad that this is a retired beer....I was expecting a similar beer to leifmans..but was suprised to have a beer more similar to cuvee de tomme....great stuff

12oz bottle courtesy petrucci914. Pours a deep cloudy red with a thick white head. Sour apple, cherry aroma with a little bit of barnyard funk. Smooth sour taste with hints of apple, cherry, and molasses. As it warms, a cherry tartness starts to take over. Finishes clean with a little cherry tartness. Really nice.

Bottle courtesy of pantanap; thank you!

Pours a deep murky brown, like unfiltered cider, with a modest orange-tinged tan head. Cherry and vanilla-oak aroma, really heavy on the vanilla oak with those barrel flavors pretty much swamping everything else. The taste suffers similar problems. There are clearly some nice sour cherries under there, but the beer is absolutely saturated with barrel oak. Slight smoky hints, not as sour as one might of expected, I like the previous rater’s suggestion of over-ripe tangelo sweetness (I was thinking mandarin oranges; are they the same thing?), grapefruit juice sourness in the close, but dangit that barrel character just keeps blasting over everything else. With each deep sip I keep looking and longing for a more sour, acidic close sparkling up into my sinuses, but instead a mild overripe strawberry sweetness smoothed further by all of that oak.

This could have been an interesting beer. Actually, that’s not fair -- this is an interesting beer. But it could have been really good as well. A bit more sour, half as much oak, we’d be in business. Too bad!

Courtesy of Gillard. Thanks buddy. Pours mildly hazy with brownish body and thin off white head. The aroma starts fruity tart with a bowl full of tangelos where a couple have already gone bad and molded. I also get some grassiness and faint sweet cherries. The taste is much sweeter and smoother than the aroma led on with sweet fruitiness from ripe cherries, plums, ripe sweet raspberries and then a bit of tart cherry fruitiness. It slowly moves more and more tart as the taste progresses on toward the finish with tart fruitiness. It ends smooth and delicious with some tartness and fruitiness riding deep into the after taste carrying some mild malt base flavors.

Big thanks to iowaherkeye for this as part of mystery swap 3.0. This is my second sample, shared with the girlfriend. Murky brown pour with a thin yellow head. Strong cherry and vanilla aroma. Flavor is strong caramel and cherry, with some vanilla, oak, funk, and sour apples. Finishes slightly acidic, sort of like a lambic on training wheels. This beer ROCKS!

Rating from memory as this is apparently retired... Hazy reddish brown, tan head. Big fruity, cherry and oak aroma, some breadiness and toast. Incredibly complex flavor. Sourness and light oak and toast. Delicate, dancing sourness. Somewhat spicy as well. Delicate body.

RATING 100!!!! I chose this one for my 100th because it’s my favorite style from my favorite brewery (at least on this continent). Aromas, of oak. cherries, musty basment, & roses. Pours a beautiful hazy reddish brownwith a nice carbonation but a quickly diminishing head, that leaves nothing on top of the beer. The taste is delightfuly sour, however the sour notes are fantasicly complimented with notes of cherry, oak, lightly toasted malt, light red wine, apple, and yes... I do detect the smoke. Palate is very sharp and slightly thin.