New Glarus Unplugged Enigma

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

Pours deep luscious caramel brown color with a hazy muck apparency, ever so gentle rising carbonation. Nose is pungent, oak lures the aroma with strong acidic consistency in the midst. Apples and sour cherries in the background. Mouthfeel of microbubbles but not with harsh aggression. Initial taste is much like it’s appearance, caramel with vanilla tones. Moving into the sour tangy presence of cherries. Mid palate resembles almost apple cider with spices. Finishing with the continuing vanilla caramel and warming spices. Mild bitterness lingering. Mild dry finish. Average palate duration and head retention. A light to medium body. A little bit different some of the sour ales I have had in the past. Very nice job and enjoyable. The acidity is probably the lowest I have had but definitely good sour ale.

A nice dried spiced apple smell. Nice copper pour with almost no head or lace. Flavor of sour apple and vanilla dominate on the front. Very solid palate and mouthfeel. Very good beer that is solid all the way across. thanks to springslicker for this one I think?

Bottle. Ruby Brown with scffent of cherry. lightly carbonated, light sour. real good.

12oz. bottle, courtesy of footbalm, thanks Eric! Pours a hazy orange tinted iced tea color with a two finger foamy tan head, nice lacing. Aroma is quite full, dominated by wood, sour cherry and funk, along with a hint of vanilla. Flavor is some sour cherry with a little oak and some vanilla, but drops off significantly from the aroma, and the funk, acidity and sourness is just not where I want it. Carbonation is confusingly flat, and there’s only a slight bit of tart that carries over. A nice effort, but a shadow of a sour compared to others. Thanks again Eric!

Thin fluffy head which dissipates quickly. Light carbonation. Big wet red oak aroma with some cherries, vanilla and some whisky soaked tobacco. Color is a cloudy garnet brown. Very smooth and full bodied. Light sourness that makes the mouth salivate for more. Loads of oak and vanilla again with lots of sweet malts and a hint of cherry. This has just the right amount of sourness. Just enough to accent the flavor and makes you drool for more. Finishes soft and vanilla-ee. Tartness actually makes the alcohol stand out more on the tongue. A damn fine beer and a very good experiment. I find a soft, slightly tart brew like this much MUCH more enjoyable than the super tart, overly dry sour brews out there.

Bottle courtesy of Quake1028 or Ibrew2or3. Pours a slightly hazy amber with a small off-white head. The aroma reminds me of when I was a kid, while mowing the lawn on a hot Florida summer day, after all the oranges have fallen off the tree and begin to rott. Taste is tart cherries, citrus, and some yeast funk. Medium thin mouthfeel with a mild amount of bitterness and a moderate amount of acidity. Very good.

12 oz. bottle very generously given to me by tjthresh. Pour is a slightly hazed golden orange, bronze with not much tan head to speak of and visible tiny carbonation bubbles. Initial aroma is vanilla, oak and sour. Very much a cherry sour. Beneath the vanilla, oak and cherry is some interesting spiciness. Very complex and engaging nose. Taste is sour cherries, vanilla oak woodiness, a hint of lemons and the spices from the nose. The finish is fairly drawn out, and is quite earthy - like fallen leaves. There is also a Black Cherry soda taste to the finish. As this warms, the complexity really comes out, as does the oakiness. The sourness is fairly subdued after the initial sip. Big palate, very mouth coating. On other sours this would have been annoying, but with this one it was nice. This one was a real treat, thank you for giving me this bottle, so many months ago, Tom.

Thanks IowaHerkeye and pepsican for the tag team. Big amber pour. Aroma of vanilla, cherry, raspberry, some oak. Not nearly as sour in taste as it would smell. Taste of rhubarb, cherries, raspberry.