New Glarus Snowshoe Ale

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

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2014 

Style/ABV: Amber Ale, 5.7% 

Reported IBUs: ?

Mmmm mmm love those trips across the border. 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 Snowshoe Ale is a winter seasonal, brewed with a blend of American and German malts, and hops from Slovenia and the Great Pacific Northwest.

New Glarus Snowshoe Ale

Appearance: Matches the bottle. Seriously, we have a chicken and egg thing going on here. What came first, the beer's SRM or the bottle? I can only guess. Anyway, this one is dark brown/red, like an Amber, with a nice finger of caramel/amber head. The beer is transparent, and features a nice amount of mid-sized carbonation. It's a good looking beer.

The aroma is very malty, with Marzen and Vienna-esque malts popping on the nose. I'm getting Munich malts, toast, bread, rye, sweet sugary malts, caramel, and some grassy and floral hops. The hop note almost hints at something brighter and sweeter, like tropical fruits. I'm curious what "pacific northwest" hops were used in this. 

This is incredibly New Glarus, with a strong leaning towards the sweeter, German, caramel malts, toast, Munich sweetness, and Marzen-like goodness. I think this is an Ale, but fool me once. There's a lot of bready toast and dried berry sweetness in here, and any hints of "pacific northwest hops" are washed away in favor of more straight up grassy and floral hop notes. There's a kiss of hemp sweetness, but this is no West Coast bong rip. 

This beer is amazingly consistent like that one girl you dated who was super average and you had no real reason to break up with, but you did anyway because sometimes you want to try something more edgy. It's a good Winter Amber...consistent and smooth, but malty and warming, and yet drinkable. But the 5.7% is on the higher end for the New Glarus wheelhouse, at least for this style of beer. It's medium-bodied, well carbonated, has good duration, and is complex enough. It's an Amber. The front end is malty and toasty; the mids dial up more toast and caramel sweetness, with dried berries, caramel, and burgeoning hops; the back end hits some hop notes and features lingering malts.

Rating: Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Average on this. It's somewhere between "middle of the road" and "above average." I couldn't not recommend it based on how quaffable it is, but there's no mystery or intrigue here. Food pairings here are whatever. Anything light goes well with an Amber. Pizza, chicken, whatever. Not bad @ 7.99 a sixer or whatever I paid.

Random Thought: I do appreciate these simple beers, but I'd appreciate them more if I lived in Wisconsin.

Gnarly Oak Hazelnut Dark

Brewed By: Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe, Wisconsin  

Purchased: 22oz bomber from an $8 dollar gift set bought at Walgreens in Chicago, IL; 2014 

Style/ABV: Amber Ale, 5.5%

Reported IBUs: 24

Hazelnuts? Yarrr. After last night's mediocre Minhas offering, I'm happy to crack open tonight's beer and put this one to bed. About Minhas: 

Minhas is the oldest continually operating brewery in the Midwest, and the second oldest brewery in the United States. As you can see from the brewery's history page, the brewery has been owned by many different people, and rebranded numerous times. The brewery began in 1845 as the Monroe Brewery when it was opened by Mr. Bissinger. In 1906, the brewery changed its name to the Blumer Brewing Company. And in 1947, the brewery was purchased by Joseph Huber and the brewery became known as the Joseph Huber Brewing Company. In 2005, the Minhas Family purchased the brewery, and in 2006 the brewery changed its name to the Minhas Craft Brewery. For more info, check out the brewery's website. 

The Hazelnut Dark is billed as an "Ale brewed with natural hazelnut flavor." The bottle says: "Hazelnut Dark is a reddish amber ale that has an impeccable balance between its carapils and caramel roasted malts and centennial hops. We add just a touch of hazelnut to give a rich nutty flavor and aroma." I can only hope the hazelnut flavoring added to this beer isn't artificial and crappy.

Gnarly Oak Hazelnut Dark

The Hazelnut Dark pours into an orange/amber body. The body seems mostly transparent, and some streams of small to mid-sized carbonation are visible. The beer kicked up three fingers of amber-tinted head, and that has dropped into a consistent pinky of head. There is lacing if you swirl the beer, and the beer is bright orange when held to a bright light.

The aroma here is actually a bit of a departure from the Winter Bock and Chocolate Stout. I'm getting big Carapils malts and cereal grains on the nose, malt sweetness and fruity molasses, coffee, and hazelnut. There's a slightly buttery quality to the hazelnut aroma...and I'm getting some Cream Ale vibes from this.

This tastes a lot like a moderately hoppy Brown/Amber Ale spiked with hazelnut. The hazelnut doesn't taste too artificial...but there's a slight burnt and butter thing going on in here. Otherwise, I'm getting lots of toast, bread, unprocessed Carapils (which are fucking delicious so whatever), pretty clean hop notes that are floral and spicy, and lots of hazelnut. The hazelnut has some nutty and coffee character. This is actually okay.

As is the trend...this one is medium-bodied and probably a bit too heavy for 5.5%. BUT, you can forgive it because of the bitterness and carbonation that balances things out. This isn't even that hoppy, but the toasted character and Carapils provide additional bitterness. It's drinkable. The palate depth is good, and the complexity is aight. Up front: sweet molasses, hazelnut, and then some toast; the mids hit floral/spicy hops, toast, Carapils, and the beer cleans up; the back features lingering hops, and this one finishes dry and clean. It's almost like they used analytics and shit to brew a beer that has some thought and balance. They probably used BeerSmith for this. 

Rating: Strong Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Average on this. I like this...I would buy this again if it came in a 6-pack or if I could find single bombers for three dollars. I can't overlook the slightly burnt/buttery aroma, but in terms of the taste, this is definitely the most balanced of the Gnarly Oak beers. This beer has some nuance and progression. There are things like sugars, malts, and then hops. And when you combine them the right way, you get things like a nice palate progression and balance. I dunno. Whatever. Don't care. Food pairings: American bar food, chicken satay, ribs, pulled pork, pork, anything with pine nuts, YARRR

Random Thought: And that concludes my little $8 Walgreens adventure. All-in-all, not a bad deal....I've spent more than $8 on a single 12oz bottle of beer.

Anchor BigLeaf Maple Autumn Red

Brewed By: Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, California  

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 6-pack bought at Binny's in Illinois; 2013

Style/ABV: American Amber/Red, 6.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

How can anyone say "no" to Autumn/Fall beers? Fall beers have to be the best seasonal releases, coinciding with the changing leaves, crisp cooler weather, and football. Mother fucking football. That's all you need to know. And if you don't like football...well, you suck, or it sucks to be you. But we also have baseball in October, which is the best baseball, and hockey and basketball just around the corner. So yeah, Fall. About Anchor:

Anchor Brewing Company is "America's first craft brewery." The brewery can be traced back to the 1849 California gold rush, where German brewer Gottlieb Brekle arrived in San Francisco with his family. In 1871 Gottlieb purchased a beer-and-billiards saloon, and turned it into a brewery. In 1896, Ernst F. Baruth and his son-in-law, Otto Schinkel Jr. bought the brewery and named it Anchor. In 1906, Baruth passed away, and a fire and earthquake destroyed the brewery. In 1907, Otto Schinkel Jr. was run over by a car. The brewery was maintained by Joseph Kraus, August Meyer, and Henry Tietjen. During the 1950s and 1960s, the brewery went through hard economic times, and Anchor was shut down twice. In 1965, Fritz Maytag purchased Anchor saving it from bankruptcy. In 1971, Fritz began bottling Anchor Steam beer; and by 1975, Anchor had four beers, their Porter, Liberty Ale, Old Foghorn, and Barleywine Ale, and their annual Christmas Ale. In 1979, Anchor moved to its current location, on Mariposa Street, where the brewery currently resides today. Since then, Anchor continues to brew beer (and distill spirits), and remains one of America's most traditional breweries. Definitely check out the company's history page, HERE.

The BigLeaf Maple Autumn Red is obviously a Fall/Autumn seasonal. This beer is brewed with maple syrup, and is inspired by the California maple tree. In addition to the maple, caramel malts, and pale malts, this beer is also brewed with three additions of Nelson Sauvin hops in the brew kettle, and a blend of Nelson Sauvin, Citra, and Cascade for dry hopping. Punching in at a pleasant 6.0%, this beer is available between August and October.

Anchor BigLeaf Maple Autumn Red

I'm obviously doing this wrong, but the beer pours into a nice amber body, and kicks up three-plus fingers of super fluffy, soapy, off-white head. The head is sticky and is sustaining nicely, and takes on some amber/tan tones. In bright light, this beer looks exactly how an Amber Ale should look. The beer is transparent and filtered(?), and there's lazy carbonation. Head retention is sexy, and sticky lacing is coating my glass. 

The Nelson Sauvin hopping is apparent on the aroma, along with the big Cascade. I'm getting a lot of pine, grapefruit rind, and wet leaves on the aroma. But what's surprising is the huge blast of bready, maple syrup on the aroma. I'm getting bready/biscuit honey, maple syrup, and cake on the nose. The pine and bready maple syrup thing on the nose is fantastic.

Wow...this is really fantastic for a seemingly simple style of beer. The beer is refreshing and crisp, with lots of pine, earthy floral, earthy bitter, rye, rye spice, and big crushed wet leaves, iced tea, and hints of citrus. The whole hop package is wrapped in a layer of bready maple syrup. Like, legit maple syrup. The whole beer takes on a rustic, earthy edge...and it reminds you of being outside on an Autumn day.

The Nelson Sauvin hops play nice here, never imparting any serious passionfruit or grape. At 6.0% this beer is dense enough, but drinkable and crisp at the same time. The mouthfeel is medium, and palate depth and complexity are both alright for the style. You get lots of pine, rye spice, hints of citrus, wet leaves, and tea up front; that rolls into more pine, rye spice, wet leaves, and hints of maple; the back end is a coating of maple syrup, bready goodness, and a nice finish that is dry and pleasantly earthy/floral. Autumn in a glass.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Above-Average on this. This is a really good, simple, Amber Ale. There's not much to this style of beer, but the addition of the Nelson Sauvin and Cascade impart some rye-like spice that adds a nice layer of complexity to this beer, and the addition of the maple syrup actually comes through in the taste. This beer is everything you want in an Autumn/Fall seasonal, and would be a great beer to sip on during a football game, or on a chilly October night while you watch some baseball. Ambers pair well with whatever, but I'd stick with food that doesn't have a ton of heat...anything starch + meat or bread + meat would work, and yeah. Good stuff.

Random Thought:  I'm so happy that Anchor continues to put their beer in 6-packs.