New Glarus Stone Soup

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 12oz bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2013

Style/ABV: Belgian Ale, 5.3% 

Reported IBUs: ?

I swear, there's just a few more bottles of New Glarus left! About New Glarus:

New Glarus is the rare, gorgeous "Midwest" brewery, founded in 1993 by Deborah Carey, the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She raised the capital for the start-up as a gift to her husband, Dan Carey, who is New Glarus' brewmaster and co-owner. Dan Carey has a long history working in the brewing industry, including an apprenticeship at a brewery near Munich, Germany and a job as the Production Supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. The brewery began as an abandoned warehouse using old brewpub equipment. In 1997, Dan Carey purchased coper kettles from a brewery in Germany. In May 2006, New Glarus opened their new (current) facility on a hilltop in the village of New Glarus. The facility looks like a Bavarian village, and is gorgeous. The expansion has allowed the brewery to continue to increase their production, and expand their operations. For more information, check out their brewery page or Wikipedia. 

The Stone Soup is a bit of a departure for New Glarus, at least in my opinion. This Belgian/Abbey-style ale combines pure Wisconsin barley malt, German and English hops, and Belgian "Monastic yeast" to create a sophisticated beer. I guess this beer is a hybrid of sorts. 

New Glarus Stone Soup

Along with American Ales, Belgian Ales are also my bag, baby. I'm just not an authority on German beer (or any beer, for that matter; see "shitty blog"). This one does look like a Belgian Ale, pouring into a radiant, hazy, farmhouse-looking body. The body is a juicy yellow color, and kicks up a finger of hazy white head. Bright light confirms the radiant yellow/orange color. It looks like Gatorade. And the head is definitely white, leaving some sea foam coverage and lacing. There is carbonation. 

There's a really nice malty character on the aroma. It's somewhere between wheat and Pilsner malt. I'm getting huge clove on the aroma, along with some banana, white sugar, and vanilla. I'm getting banana wafers and banana fosters, and a little caramel/sugar. There's lots of perfumey spice on the nose as well. New Glarus suggests a ginger character...I could see that, but it's not something that I would come up with.

I'm getting some nice bitterness as I sip on this...but mostly, I'm getting the elements of a refined Belgian Pale Ale. I'm picking up a ton of clove, zesty and perfume spice, some hints of lemons, Hefeweizen-like banana/clove/vanilla/white sugar, a little wheat, and some of that ginger that I might not have placed. It reminds me of a German Hefe with some elements of a typical Belgian Pale Ale/Belgian Golden Strong. There's a lot of flavor here, and I'm picking up some farmhouse character and Belgian funk. 

The beer here cleaned up nicely. It's attenuated, there are no cloying residual sugars, and it's very drinkable. It's like an Above-Average Belgian Ale. The body is creamy, carbonated, and medium-full. There's a surprising amount of heft here for a beer that is supposedly around 5.3% ABV. But again, it is drinkable. Palate depth is outstanding, and the complexity is pretty good. I'm getting some lemon and ginger zest up front; that rolls into more zesty citrus, including orange, and then you get the clove/banana/vanilla punch; the back end lays on some clove, with lingering Belgian/farmhouse yeast funk, some wheat and straw, and a super nice finish. I really like this, and would buy it again.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

This is a Strong Above-Average beer, and maybe even higher. I really, really like this take on a Belgian Ale. This is maybe my favorite non-fruit beer from New Glarus. Super tasty stuff, and I'm really happy I stumbled upon this beer. This is something I would purchase by the case in the Spring or Summer months. I would pair this beer with meats and cheeses, fruit salad, light white pasta, white fish, mussels, calamari, peach cobbler and other fruity pies, and pork (as per New Glarus). 

Random Thought: My next beer is the last 12oz bottle...and then all I have left are the fruit beers. Woo-hoo!