New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb

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

Purchased: 750ml bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2014 (2013 Vintage/Bottle)

Style/ABV: Fruit Beer, 4.0%??? 

Reported IBUs: ?

Yup, I still have some New Glarus stuff lingering...I'm gonna try to kill it over the next few days. 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 Strawberry Rhubarb is a spontaneously fermented beer brewed with strawberries and rhubarb. Suggested food pairings include butter croissant, pan fried whitefish, baked chicken, mascarpone and brie cheese, ice cream, and angel food cake.

New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb

This is an ugly beer...it pours into a murky and swampy brown color. It looks like Wisconsin pond water, and I mean that in the best way possible. The beer does produce a lofty, dense, three fingers of khaki/light brown/sandy head. Head retention is good, and there's minimal lacing. In the brightest of light, the beer picks up orange and red tones, but it's still murky. There's some lazy carbonation.

You won't care much about how this beer looks (nor should you care much about how any beer looks, really) when you get some of that awesome aroma. This beer smells like strawberry rhubarb pie and pastries, with huge strawberry rhubarb pie filling, strawberry sweetness, strawberry Big League Chew and candy, and some doughy and pastry hints. There's a lot of strawberry and fruit sugar on the nose, but I think there's some bready, caramely malts in the mix. There's a hint of wet rain and hay funk on the nose as well, which definitely suggests something like a fruity lambic or spontaneously fermented beer.

What is there to say about this beer? It really does follow through the nose, with pretty dense, malt-driven blasts of strawberry, rhubarb, and strawberry rhubarb pie. You get lots of strawberry: currants, Big League Chew and strawberry Blow Pops, and tons of pie crust and pastry dough. The beer has hints of bready, and there's plenty of hay funk to keep things interesting. It's really good.

I think even the most cynical people can appreciate the simplicity of this beer. Yeah, it's not uber complex, but the palate depth is outstanding. It's low-ABV, drinkable, and actually pretty affordable at $10 per 750ml bottle. It's a reasonably priced treat. The mouthfeel is medium-full, but drinkability is high thanks to lots of carbonation, and that slightly tart (but not sour) hay funk that hangs over the beer. It's sweet...but not aggressively so. It's sweet in a bready sort of way. Up front: tart strawberry and rhubarb, strawberry and rhubarb pie; that rolls into big strawberry, strawberry gum and candy, bready strawberry sweetness, currants, and more strawberry; the back end trails off with lingering strawberry, bready notes, sweetness, lingering hay funk, and it finishes a bit like fruity champagne. I love it.

Rating: Above-Average (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. This is maybe my favorite of the New Glarus fruit beers, even though it's probably not the best. I would say this compares favorably to their Apple Ale in terms of what you are getting, which is basically a bready and dense Brown Ale type beer with the fruit trimmings and spontaneous fermentation. It's just a polished, straightforward beer. I would second the suggestion to pair this with angel food cake or strawberry short cake. You could also pair this with vanilla ice cream, strawberry rhubarb pie, buttery white fish, and definitely with pancakes or waffles and a berry fruit syrup. This beer screams breakfast pairing. Serve it in champagne glasses split up among several people. Or whatever.

Random Thought: I still have the Belgian Red and the Serendipity on deck. I might bust one out on Sunday night.