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August 25, 2010 New Glarus Brewing invites fans to weigh in on its 2011 beer schedule
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August 24, 2010 New Glarus Brewing Company's Octoberfest; Wisconsin's Real Red.
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August 03, 2010 New Glarus Brewing Company's Beer Vote Returns.
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July 29, 2010 New Glarus Brewing Company's ABT
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July 09, 2010 Wisconsin's Dancing Man
If you dream of wheat, 'Dancing Man' will get your toes tapping. Since 1995 New Glarus Brewing Company has brewed Bavarian style wheat beers exclusively for the same great state that grows and malts their own Wisconsin wheat. In a world full of posers this is a true hefe-weizen, naturally 100% bottle fermented and hazy.
The Reinheitsgebot, or German Purity Law (first adopted in 1516), states that the only ingredients used in beer be barley, hops, water and yeast. The 'hefe-weizen' (or 'wheat beer with yeast') was the only exception, due to an intentional loophole in the law. In fact, the honor of brewing with wheat was initially bestowed on only a single brewery. Wheat was, at that time, an expensive grain better suited to make bread. For this reason, the majority of wheat was used for the family food staple, bread, allowing only the most wealthy and elite to enjoy the extravagance of a beer brewed with wheat.
Today, not many people make true Bavarian style hefe-weizens. Daniel Carey (Diploma Master Brewer, New Glarus Brewing Company) apprenticed at a German brewery, and has always been a fan of authentic wheat beers. He even built a special wheat beer cellar at his new Hilltop brewery in New Glarus. Dancing Man Wheat adheres to all the traditional brewing methods, which have grown out of favor with even the Bavarian brewers as they are an expensive and time consuming departure from the usual American wheat beer in many ways. Dancing Man is brewed in Copper kettles using a decoction mash, which means that the wheat flavors are extracted from the grain by double boiling. The majority of American brewers use 'infusion mash', which is similar to steeping in water, like a tea. Despite the ability of more flavors to be extracted by boiling, it is an uncommon practice. Dancing Man is fermented in specially designed open top fermenters, which are uncommon in the United States. It is bottle conditioned, meaning that the yeast continues to ferment the beer in the bottle, ensuring the freshest possible 'living beer' when opened. This isn't even a common practice in Bavaria anymore. In addition, New Glarus Brewing Company continues to use their proprietary yeast strain (and have since 1995), making for an incredibly fruity and assertive beer. Only a few small traditional Bavarian breweries still practice these methods, and it is unheard of in the United States. However, the combination of these unique steps makes for a fuller flavor, and a more complex beer.
Wheat beer fans are lucky to have this true original to enjoy all summer long. Expect this beer to cascade effervescent into your glass. The rich spicy clove and cinnamon notes will greet your nose while sweet fruit and wheat kisses your lips. Lick the foam from your mouth and admit sometimes you just gotta get up and dance.
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June 13, 2010 Desperately Seeking Session Beer: Interview with Dan Carey of New Glarus Brewing Co.
Ken Weaver
Desperately Seeking Session Beer: Interview with Dan Carey of New Glarus Brewing Co.
Desperately Seeking Session Beer is a collaborative effort with Lew Bryson’s The Session Beer Project™, and aims to seek out the finest lower-alcohol brews from the West Coast and beyond. For these purposes, we loosely consider a ’session beer’ as being 4.5% ABV or less, flavorful enough to be interesting, balanced enough for multiple pints, conducive to conversation, and reasonably priced. Lew also puts it another way: “low-alcohol, but not low-taste.” These beers can be complex, effortlessly satisfying, indelible, and elusive.
There are good reasons why cardboard boxes from folks in Wisconsin I have never met keep appearing on my doorstep. It’s not (despite tendencies in that direction) because I have a cheese problem.
Dan Carey, co-owner and brewmaster of New Glarus Brewing Company in Wisconsin (and ultimately a German-style brewer at heart), makes some of this country’s finest wheat beers, fruit beers, and lagers. Skeptical? The Ratebeer style percentages don’t exactly disagree with me. Still skeptical? It doesn’t really matter. Because Dan and his wife Deb (founder & president of New Glarus, and the first female example of both in the U.S.) rock their home state’s beer scene harder than most breweries can even dream of.
I’d originally planned to interview Dan regarding his fruit beers – Apple Ale, Raspberry Tart, and Belgian Red – but the story of how New Glarus came to be so successful while keeping close to home proved more interesting. This is a story of session beer, of how one brewery thrives without being extreme.
(© Anneliese Schmidt) |
KW: I guess my first question is how you go about crafting these different fruit beers. How do you approach the fruit addition; and, in the same respect, why did you decide on sort of really low-alcohol beers? Elsewhere you see like 8%, 10%, you know, gigantic sticky fruit beers, and yet you’re talking 4%, on the order of 4%, and your beers show this enormous fruit character.
DC: Well, I think the thing is that alcohol is part of an overall picture so, if you have a beer that has a lot of alcohol, that usually means there’s a lot of everything else. We don’t really think in terms of alcohol. The rest of the world does and it, to me, is sort of an English thing. This whole ABV thing is not something that I even really think about. I’m more of a German-school brewer, so I think in terms of original gravity, and alcohol to me – I don’t even like talking about alcohol. It’s like asking a butcher to measure his steaks or hamburger in terms of percent fat. Alcohol to me isn’t important. When I brew these beers it’s about flavor.
The idea to make the fruit beers was not to have an alcohol bomb. You know, on Ratebeer.com and BeerAdvocate, generally those [higher-alcohol fruit] beers do well and they do well because they’re like, you know, they’re huge. They’re like a woman with fake breasts, not something you’re going to bring home and marry.
To give you an example, somebody brought me a bourbon-barrel-aged stout, and they said “taste this beer”, and I said “wow, that’s like the best beer I’ve ever had, that tastes like chocolate cake, that’s just really wonderful.” They said “here, well, take a 12oz bottle home.” So I took it home and put it in the refrigerator. Friday night I brought it out and I let it warm up a little bit, and I got about a third of the way through the bottle and I couldn’t finish it.
The problem with Ratebeer.com and BeerAdvocate is that you get this little snapshot, that people will drink a glass of beer sitting around in their underwear in front of their computer, and you have to scream really loud to be heard, but beer is not meant to be drank that way. It’s a social beverage, and something that you sit around with friends and enjoy. So personally, I don’t want to drink a 9% alcohol beer. Anything over 5 or 6 ounces, I can’t take it, I can’t buy a 22-ounce bottle of 9% alcohol, because I’m going to dump about two-thirds of it down the drain because there’s no way I could drink it.
So the idea for these beers was, “What does fruit taste like? Fruit is sour and sweet. It’s tart and fruity, and intense, but it doesn’t need to hit you in the face. The idea for these beers is something you’d have for a Thanksgiving dinner. I would not sit down with a shot of cherry-infused vodka to celebrate my Thanksgiving dinner, but I would with Raspberry Tart or Belgian Red.
Whenever a Thanksgiving thread comes up and people are talking, “Oh, what are you going to drink for Thanksgiving dinner?” And people are talking these gigantic barrel-aged Imperial stouts, that just sounds awful, and a distraction from the food and everything else.
Exactly. I agree 100% with you. That’s why I don’t drink 16%-alcohol zinfandel. Give me a 13% Chianti, or something that’s more approachable.
The other thing that I think people that think about beer, like you (not you personally), but people who think about what they drink, they forget that a brewery has to still be able to sell the beer. So if you make something that’s so bright lights and tinsel and in your face, there’s a certain percentage of the population who will drink it simply because it’s 10,000 [bitterness] units, but they’re not going to come back to it, they’re not the people who are going to continue to drink that beer.
So the idea of making a beer that’s sessionable is important because it’s what people want to drink, it’s what is socially responsible, and it makes for a long-term investment for a company, for a brewery to make a beer that people will drink. Fortunately, that’s the way that the world works.
(© Anneliese Schmidt) |
Do you consider these fruit beers “session beers”? I mean, the Raspberry Tart… you sounded like you were talking about it that way, but the Raspberry Tart, Belgian Red, Apple Ale. Do you see these as session beers?
No, I don’t consider them session beers. I consider the Apple Ale a session beer, but not the fruit beers. The fruit beers are more of a study in the taste of fruit. We do make what we call a “session beer,” but it’s a little bit out of your description. It’s more like 5% ABV, but it’s more in the spirit of what you’re thinking about. Basically what it is is it’s a little IPA. We made a beer that’s called “Moon Man”, which is actually the name of one of our brewer’s cats. It has about 2 1/3 pounds of dry hops per barrel, and the purpose of this beer was to make a session beer that had a balance: a little bit of bitterness, a little bit of maltiness, but mainly a lot of hop aroma so that people would have the experience of the American-type hop aromas without 9% alcohol and 100 IBUs. It’s been out since March, and it’s now our number 2 selling beer.
Behind Spotted Cow presumably?
Yep.
How do those beers ultimately fit into your portfolio then? Even if they’re not 4.5%, your lower-gravity beers are your biggest sellers it seems like.
Our beers are around 5%-6% by volume. It’s where most of our beers are. So this conversation is a little bit awkward for me [we both laugh here, thankfully], since I don’t consider Belgian Red and Raspberry Tart “session beers”, they just happen to fall into your criteria for alcohol, which is 4.5%. We do make some high-alcohol beers, but the reality of the situation is that they don’t sell very well.
To give you an example, we do zero marketing. When I say zero, I mean zero marketing, you have no radio, no television, no advertising, no neon signs, no nothing. So we brew the beer and it goes onto the shelf and people buy it, and I don’t control them at all. There’s no spiffs, there’s no “Put this beer on tap, and we’ll give you tickets to the Packers game.” There’s none of that. And the beers that sell are on the lower gravities. You may have people that want to write about the 10%-alcohol beer that was aged in bourbon barrels and fermented with brettanomyces, etc. etc. They may want to talk about that, but they don’t particularly drink it. So, the reason why we brew the beers that we do is not because we have a grand plan, it’s because we do what our customers tell us to do, and we live on their graces, solely on the graces of our customers.
So when people put money on the table, they pick the song that we play. I remember Bert Grant used to say back in the old days that “I brew the beer I like, and to hell with you if you don’t like it.” You know, it’s like the antithesis of the Burger King ad: have it my way, or don’t eat it at all. And that’s not how we view our customers. Our customers tell us what to brew, and so we just follow. And normally it’s a lower-alcohol beer.
(© Anneliese Schmidt) |
You have two main lines of conversation most of the time now. Well, maybe one main line, which is extreme beer and things like this. You hear about the ABV race. Things going on over in Europe between Schorschbrau and Brewdog doing 40%, 43%…
That’s a blip on the radar, because all they’re doing is freezing the beer. Who can freeze the beer more? Like I said about fake breasts: it’s just more silicone. It doesn’t relate to anything that’s grounded in the long-term.
Where do you see the American craft beer industry? I mean, you look at what’s getting coverage, what’s getting newspaper time, sort of what the larger narratives of the whole industry are right now – where do you think these smaller beers fit in? I think the majority of beer being sold right now still is session beer, or something along the five, five-and-a-half level of alcohol. Where do you see the extreme beer thing fitting into that? Is it a distraction, is it a novelty?
It’s a good question, it’s a great question, and I have a definite opinion on it, but of course the jury is still out. But how I view it, and what you just asked, the question you just asked could be a book. Somebody could do like a PhD or a Master’s thesis.
Sessionability does not necessarily mean lack of complexity. So the best beer is one that you can drink, and is complex, and I think we all know what that is, because we know it when we taste it. We taste a beer and you say “Wow, THAT’S a good beer.” And it doesn’t happen very often, but from time to time, we all of us taste a beer and say that’s great, that’s a homerun.
The future of the beer business is a marriage of complexity and drinkability. You have a beer that’s 10% alcohol and 100 IBUs and dry-hopped with three pounds per barrel, or you have Busch Light, that’s the spectrum. What you want is to take the complexity of the big beer and marriage it with the drinkability of the light beer, and when you do that, brewers hit a homerun.
When you think about other beverages… do you drink wine? I’m sure you must.
Not nearly as much as I should living out in Sonoma County, but I do.
Then you know that wine is incredibly light and easy-drinking. You’ve got something that’s 12%, or 14%, or 15% alcohol, but it’s very light, and it’s very complex. And I’m always amazed by that. And then when you taste a Belgian beer that’s 6%, 7%, 8% alcohol, they’re very light and delicate and easy-drinking.
So I don’t think sessionability has to be tied to a cutoff of alcohol percent. It’s more about, a beer has to be more drinkable, you know, it has to be, you want to drink it, it tastes good to you, you want to have a second pint. That is about subtlety and finesse. Just because the Sex Pistols can turn their amps up, does not necessarily mean that their music is better than Beethoven. Subtleties in a given musician’s music is about the small things, and that’s where the future – that’s where us as brewers, the 1,500 of us around the country, as we hone our processes and get control over what we’re doing, we’re going to continue to do a better job of making a beer that has that impact but that is drinkable. It’s like if you’re learning to play the guitar, the electric guitar, and you play it really softly, you can hear all the mistakes. Well, just turn the amp up and there’s lots of feedback and it sounds cool.
I think the reason you’re asking this question is that craft brewing is on the verge [...] – we’ve already passed up Germany, now we’re getting ready to pass up Belgian, in the sense that we’re going to be able to turn our amplifiers down and you’re still going to appreciate our music. So we don’t have to be really loud, we don’t have to be the biggest, we don’t have to be, you know, the girl in the bar with the most makeup on to be attractive. I think that’s where the future’s going, towards the marriage of complexity and drinkability.
But on a separate note, I think that you’re seeing and alluding to a dichotomy in the craft brewery market. I think the future is the craft brewery market. The Anheiser-Busch is faltering, people are losing interest in boring beer, so we are the future, and you see two groups: you see those that sell 5,000 or 8,000 barrels of beer in 35 states, or people like us that sell 100,000 barrels of beer in 1 state. It depends on what your company goal is, so that you might interview other people and they’ll say, we’re going to make really the biggest, badass, boldest beer and we’re going to sell it across the country. If I made the biggest, boldest, badass beers, I would be out of business, unless I sold in 35 states. So, there’s going to be a split. They’ll be the guys making 5,000 or 8,000 barrels of beer, and then they’ll be the rest of us who are strong in our local markets.
(© Ken Weaver) |
Do you think the extreme beer trend is a distraction from some of this, or is it just sort of a necessary evil?
Absolutely not at all. I am sounding pissy and negative…
I sound pissy and negative all the time.
The easiest way for me to say it is, is the extreme beers are doing an important job for the beer business by forcing the medium up. Thirty years ago, a pale ale with 30 IBUs – that was like, woah, this is woah, this is, this is like way out in left field, this is, this is crazy beer. Now we have people who are pushing 100 IBUs and god knows what percent alcohol, so what that does is it pushes the medium up. Although the average person is never going to go for a 100-IBU beer, because these people are pushing the extreme, now the average person who was raised on Coors Light is drinking a 30-IBU beer and liking it. And so I think it’s a good thing.
What are some of the brewers that you think are doing some of the best jobs of that, or some of your favorite session brewers that you actually drink?
Deschutes is an amazing brewery; they always make great beer. Of course Vinnie at Russian River, Vinnie and Natalie; they make great beer, I’m always blown away by their beer. I think, of course, Sierra Nevada is always spot on and flawless. I drink a lot of really good beer from Petrus. Westvleteren beers. Westvleteren is a good example of big, extreme beers that are eminently drinkable. Those are the big ones that come to mind.
Do you think session beer is a good measure of what else the breweries are doing, in terms of overall craftsmanship – is that one of the better places to look in terms of assessing that sort of thing?
I think the best way, in my opinion, to assess a brewery is go to the neighborhood, go within a five-mile radius of the brewery and walk into the dive-iest bar you can find and ask the guys behind the bar what they think of that brewery. And that’s the best way to know if a brewery is a good brewery.
But more to answer the question [...], I’d say yes. Because it’s harder to brew a beer that’s subtle than it is to brew a beer that’s huge.
(© Anneliese Schmidt) |
Two questions left. Why are your German beers so damn good, Dan?
Oh, my German beers. Well, thanks!
I was an apprentice in Germany. I’ve been a brewer for, ah, thirty-two years now, and ever since I started brewing I’ve always been a fan of lagers and German beer and I consider myself a lager brewer. I just can’t talk enough people into drinking lager beers. I try to make something that’s drinkable. I think it’s just something that I’ve been doing for so long that I know how to do it.
Lastly, what else can we look forward to – well, “what can we look forward to” is such a funny phrase when most of us don’t live in Wisconsin – but I mean what else do you guys have coming out in the future as far as session beer, or as far as anything else that’s new? I know you guys have your calender set up, but you did the Two Women Lager thing that was entirely off the radar.
Yeah, that was something because I wanted a lager for the summer.
I wanted you to brew that for the summer, too. So it works out.
We’re making an Abt. Our next Unplugged will be an Abt, like St. Bernardus or Westvleteren 12, something like that. We’re going to be brewing that here in a few weeks, and that’ll be released in August; but that’s the antithesis of what we’ve been talking about…
We’ll still be looking forward to it. Best of luck, Dan. Thanks so much.
Thanks for talking to me.
(© Anneliese Schmidt) |
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May 17, 2010 American Craft Beer Week!
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May 10, 2010 New Glarus Brewing Company's Enigma
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April 29, 2010 Draft Magazine's Top 10 Sexy Beers; Totally Naked.
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April 13, 2010 Drink to Adventure and Friends with Crack'd Wheat
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April 08, 2010 A Pint with: Dan Carey, Brewmaster of New Glarus Brewing Company
seriouseats.com
A Pint With: Dan Carey, Brewmaster of New Glarus Brewing Company
Posted by Maggie Hoffman, April 8, 2010 at 10:30 AM
We are a true "mom and pop business."
In 1993, Dan Carey left a job with Anheuser-Busch to start his own brewing company with his wife, Deb. Since then, Carey's beers (including some unusual spontaneously-fermented fruit beers) have won countless awards and garnered attention from beer lovers around the globe. We're so glad that Dan had a minute to chat with Serious Eats.
Name: Dan Carey
Location: New Glarus, Wisconsin
Occupation: Diploma Master Brewer, New Glarus Brewing Company
Tell us about your decision to move from Anheuser-Busch to craft brewing. This question is not so easy to answer in a few words as it is really speaks to who we are, where we came from, why we do what we do and why we fight so hard to make our business work. People don't know that Deb and I are really just a couple of hard-working poor kids that fought our way up—words do not convey how hard it was.
How would you describe your brewing style? My style is eclectic yet traditional. I've worked and traveled extensively in Europe and love traditional beers. But my brewery is not in Europe and I'm not bound by their traditions. I feel inspired by the old ways but try to find my own way. I want my beers to reflect my American heritage and specifically the Wisconsin landscape. Plus, I love to try new things and surprise my customers!
Describe for us what your days are like at New Glarus. What are you working on, and what sort of schedule do you have? We brew 5 to 6 days per week. From 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. We are not heavily staffed so we all work very hard. Everyone pulls their weight. If you call the brewery, there's a good chance Deb will answer the phone. We are a true "mom and pop business." She runs the business end of things, that is, marketing (she literally hand draws and writes ALL of our labels and POS), Sales, Lawyers, Wholesalers, Bankers (she raised 21 million dollars for the new brewery alone. When I say alone, I mean by herself. NOBODY ELSE).
We are a manufacturing-driven company. We invest a great deal of effort and money in making the best beer possible. No neons and nearly zero marketing budget. Most of my time is spent guiding our brewers, maintenance team, and quality control team. I am constantly looking, tasting, and thinking about our process. My job is to make sure our beer tastes good each and every time, is better today than yesterday, that our employees are safe and empowered, and that we use our raw materials, time, and utilities responsibly.
Do you have a favorite New Glarus beer? Do you have favorite foods to pair with your beers? Nope...That is like asking me to pick my favorite child! I love each of my brews for different reasons and in their own right, and I simply cannot pick a favorite. I am proud of them all. As far as pairing, I love Totally Naked Lager with Pizza!
How do you get inspired to make new beers? I find inspiration in what I see around me. For example, after drinking white wine in Italy, I came up with our Berliner Weiss. I also find inspiration from my customers, wholesalers, employees and Deb.
What breweries have been your inspiration? What are your favorite non-New Glarus beers? Sierra Nevada, Augustiner of Munich, Schneider of Kelheim German, Rodenbach of Belgium, Budvar of the Czech Republic.
Have you had any beers not work out as you expected? What is the worst beer you ever brewed? I have made beer that was dumped—every brewer has (or should have). Beer is temperamental and sometimes need a little coaxing to behave. Just as everyone has different tastes in music, each person's palate responds to different taste experiences in different ways. That is what I love about my job. It allows me to experiment with flavors and styles. But in the end, I can't brew beer to please everyone. I just brew the best beer I can and hopefully people enjoy it as much as I do. I made an historical recreation of the original London Style Porter called "Old English Porter". One third of customers loved it, one third thought the beer was spoiled, and one third didn't know what to make of it. I loved it!
What are your plans for the brewery this year? Is there any chance we'll see expansion (and expanded distribution?) We opened our new Hilltop brewery in November of 2007. That was a huge project—it nearly killed me. So we do not have any plans for further expansion beyond continuous improvement projects for energy conservation and beer quality. Absolutely no plans to expand our market. We want to stay small.
What is the craft beer scene like in Wisconsin? Has it changed since you started New Glarus? The market has changed greatly over the seventeen years we have been here. It used to be "Miller Lite" country. Now the national shippers are waning, especially with the recent implosion of Bud. As in the rest of the country, young people are looking for beers with character. People in Wisconsin like to support the local brewers. The future is bright!
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April 02, 2010 Get Totally Naked in Wisconsin.
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March 09, 2010 Moon Man Prowls Wisconsin.
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February 16, 2010 Back by Popular Demand; New Glarus Brewing Company's Unplugged Cherry Stout.
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February 09, 2010 Embrace the Frozen Tundra with New Glarus Brewing Company's 'Road Slush Oatmeal Stout'.
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January 11, 2010 Thaw Old Man Winter with New Glarus Brewing Company's Cabin Fever Bock.
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November 11, 2009 Settle in to the Wisconsin Winter with New Glarus Brewing Company's Snowshoe Red Ale.
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November 08, 2009 Celebrate Wisconsin with New Glarus Brewing Company's Lambic-Style 'Wisconsin Cran-bic'.
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October 23, 2009 Here & Now; Beer Tax Debate Cont.
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October 22, 2009 WOLK Weekend Perspective (Beer Tax; Carl Nolen)
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October 16, 2009 Here & Now; Beer Tax Debate
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October 12, 2009 The Fresh Draft: Wisconsin Breweries Uniting to Ensure Your Pint is All It Should Be.
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October 08, 2009 Capital Brewery letter on Beer Tax (Assembly Bill 287)
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Hello Beer Enthusiasts,
Next week Tuesday October 13th at 10AM there is a hearing scheduled at the State Capitol regarding Assembly Bill 287 that would raise the tax on all beer produced in Wisconsin.
Certainly the position of the Capital Brewery and the Wisconsin Brewers Guild is to stiffly oppose this bill from reaching law. The bill would raise the tax on breweries under 50,000 BBLS of production from $1.00 to $10.00 per BBL. The proponents for this bill have argued that this is a small amount and that the tax has not been raised since 1969.
What they have not chosen to report is that Wisconsin ranks in the top 5 in our Country with a total tax impact of >40% of the cost of beer going to one tax or another. They also report that the average (so they call us) beer consumer would not mind having the price of beer go up and that this is easily supported by residents of Wisconsin. I guess you are not average citizens as I have yet to meet a beer enthusiast that is favorable of seeing their beer go up in price.
If this would pass as a "production" tax, the reality is that all beer manufactured must be sold through a 3 tier system. Here at CBC we have all 3 licenses, but for all beer sold off our premise there is a $ multiplier added on by the distributor and the retailer. The impact of this tax will likely result in an increase of .50 cents a glass or $2.00 per case on every brand of beer.
Additionally, the State has collected nearly 400 million dollars over the last 40 years and has yet to allocate monies to these initiatives. Why not....,I would like to know. Now they are pursuing taxing all of us to support new spending of unproven programs, during the worst recession of our life time. This is a bad idea.
We need to stop this now. If you wish to take action on this, please reference the links below and do the following:
Contact your representative and express your point of view - they will appreciate it
Tell your friends that are not on this list
Attend the hearing next Tuesday at 10:00 AM (see below) plan to arrive early and register your point of view.
Next time you visit our Brewery, please let me know your thoughts and of any questions that you may have. I would be glad to hear from you.
Cheers!
Carl Nolen
President
Capital Brewery
Wisconsin Brewers Guild
Members, Committee on Public Safety:
http://www.legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/commpages/IndividualCommittee.aspx?COMMITTEE=Public+Safety&HOUSE=Assembly
Meeting Notice on AB 287:
http://committeeschedule.legis.state.wi.us/files/HearingNotices//09-10-13-1000-2009APSA-12331.html
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September 26, 2009 2009 GABF Winners Announced!
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September 16, 2009 New Glarus steps up big time with an old-school English porter
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September 02, 2009 Inc. 500|5000 Honors New Glarus Brewing Company for 3rd Year in a Row
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September 01, 2009 Food Manufacturing; Crafting a Better Brewery
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September 01, 2009 Toast the Harvest Moon with New Glarus Brewing Company's Staghorn Octoberfest
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August 26, 2009 The Full Pint Interview With Dan Carey of New Glarus Brewing
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August 26, 2009 Bounty of Green County
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August 06, 2009 Tour de Brew: New Glarus Brewing Co.
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July 30, 2009 New Glarus Brewing Company's Old English Porter
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July 22, 2009 The Brewery That Laid the Golden Ale?
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July 08, 2009 Take a Tour of Wisconsin Microbreweries
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July 06, 2009 Buy Local. Drink Yokel.
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July 06, 2009 New Glarus Brewing Company’s ‘Organic Revolution’ Supports the Organic Movement
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June 25, 2009 MBR Interview with Randy Thiel Part 2
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June 23, 2009 MBR Interview with Randy Thiel Part 1
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June 15, 2009 Wisconsin's biggest little brewery gets a little bigger
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June 10, 2009 New Glarus Brewing to celebrate grand opening of Hilltop Brewery this weekend
Dan and Deb Carey, founders of New Glarus Brewing Co.,
are welcoming visitors to the new $20 million Hilltop Brewery.
- Mike DeVries/The Capital Times  |
Spotted Cow, Wisconsin's most popular craft beer, has an astonishing new home.
Open just a week, the New Glarus Brewing Co.'s new Hilltop Brewery is up and running, and eager beer fans have already begun exploring the state-of-the-art brewing plant and the new gift shop.
With both exterior and interior spaces that invite comparisons to famous destination breweries like the Guinness headquarters in Dublin, the Hilltop Brewery is poised to burnish the Badger State's growing reputation as the Napa of the North when it comes to craft brewing.
Deb and Dan Carey -- founders, owners and operators of the brewery -- are hosting a grand opening on Saturday, June 13, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tours of the $20 million expansion are free, and there will be music in the afternoon featuring the Jimmys. Dancing is encouraged.
The Careys said even they are a little dazzled by the project, which has basically doubled the brewery's output from about 65,000 barrels to around 130,000 barrels per year. They anticipate sales of more than 80,000 barrels in 2009, sold exclusively in Wisconsin.
"It's been a pretty exhausting project, but we knew it would be from the beginning," Deb Carey admitted.
Trained as an artist, her vision is stamped indelibly over the look and feel of the entire project, which is sited on 30 acres just outside of the village of New Glarus in northern Green County.
She's been the marketing whiz behind its meteoric rise, with sales growth in double digits every year. The brewery's flagship beer, Spotted Cow, has become the state's most popular craft beer, according to Steve Frank of Frank Beer Distributors Inc.
Dan Carey is the brewery's innovative and highly regarded brewmaster, with a slew of international awards contributing to his world-class reputation.
The design of the new buildings on the hill pays tribute both to the barns and farm buildings of the surrounding countryside as well as to the classic architecture of Northern European communities, where many of the finest brewing traditions arose.
Casual visitors will love the views; the impressive limestone rock work, including a small waterfall and pocket gardens; and a quiet, formal garden that feels more like a monastic retreat than a rollicking, traditional beer garden.
But the real fun is for brewing fans at all levels of interest and experience.
One spacious room is outfitted with Spanish slate floors and four large copper-clad kettles purchased from two now-defunct breweries in Germany. Under lighting that wouldn't be out of place at a gallery, the kettles glow like art objects, and each serves a different purpose at the beginning of the brewing process. Glass portals allow visitors, as well as the brewing team, to see right inside the kettles at work.
Each kettle was re-engineered with state-of-the-art stainless interior fittings and multiple mechanisms to ensure flawless operation as well as energy savings.
Visitors are also likely to enjoy what's known in brewing circles as "a stairway to heaven." The steps lead toward the top of the plant to a landing area, where visitors can peer through a large window into a sterile room and watch yeast busy at work in an open fermentation tank.
And then there's the bottling site, where the smell of the beer is delicious and the orchestrated movement of the bottles shuttling along the conveyor belts has the kind of zany but relentless pace that might remind some of a Saturday morning cartoon.
"We designed it (the brewery) so people can see what we do here. It's very transparent, and it's fun to share," Deb Carey said.
Although she has dozens of future plans for things like art on the walls, an audio tour for Hilltop visitors and displays to chronicle the brewery's history, she said she's ready to open the doors, even if every detail isn't complete.
Meanwhile, the original New Glarus Brewing Co. Riverside Brewery just outside of the village will remain open, and visitors can tour that facility with an audio tour.
"For anyone who really wants to learn about brewing, I'd probably suggest going to the Riverside Brewery first and taking the self-guided audio tour there, and then coming up to the Hilltop to see what we're doing up here," she said.
Together, both tours should take an hour to 90 minutes. While the tours are free, there is a charge of $3 for beer tastings that cover a sample glass and a coupon good for beer at several nearby New Glarus eating spots.
As for Dan Carey, he and fellow brewmaster Randy Thiel (who is also the brewery's quality control director) are busy fine-tuning the production end of the new plant so that the beer being produced meets their lofty standards.
But both remain committed to exploring new flavor profiles and intriguing ideas, pushing the envelope on their craft.
"We call it the R & D part of the business," Deb Carey laughed. "It might be research and development, but it's also Randy and Dan. Some of what they come up with will only be brewed in small batches, and only available at the brewery," she added.
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May 27, 2009 New Glarus Brewing Company Opens the Doors to their New Hilltop Brewery!
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May 19, 2009 Brew Notes Summer Beer: Crack'd Wheat
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May 17, 2009 BREWPUBLIC: Interview with New Glarus' Dan Carey
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May 11, 2009 American Craft Beer Week!
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May 09, 2009 New Glarus Brewing Co. Offers a Refreshing Welcome to the Summer with Imperial Saison
Randy Thiel and the latest New Glarus Brewing Co. Unplugged release, Imperial Saison.
New Glarus, WI
May 11, 2009:
Daniel Carey, an innovator in craft brewing and Diploma Master Brewer of New Glarus Brewing Co., continues to treat us with his Unplugged series. The latest Unplugged creation, Imperial Saison, is a collaboration between Daniel Carey and Randy Thiel, New Glarus Brewing Co.'s Laboratory Manager. The fruit's of this venture have produced Imperial Saison, a shout of apricot and peach in a bottle. Saisons were traditionally brewed to refresh workers during harvest season, and holding true to the tradition of a little hard earned refreshment, Imperial Saison is New Glarus Brewing Co.'s latest offering to help wipe winter from your brow.
New Glarus Brewing Co. has been offering world-class, handcrafted beers since it's inception in 1993. The complementing roles of Deborah Carey (Founder and President) and Daniel Carey (Founder and Diploma Master Brewer) have led to a wide variety of award winning selections from New Glarus Brewing Co., the latest series of which are the Unplugged brews. The Unplugged Series has allowed Dan Carey an outlet to experiment and push the envelope with flavor and style in ways that show why he is deserving of the title 'Innovator in Craft Brewing' (2006, Russell Schehrer Award, Brewers Association), Tastemaker (2007, Forbes Magazine), and is consistently considered one of the top brewers in America (2003, 2005, 2006 Brewer of the Year, Great American Beer Festival, 2008 Top 10 Micro Brews, Men's Fitness Magazine) while always respecting the organic nature of beer with all natural ingredients.
The most recently released Unplugged brew, is a collaboration between Dan Carey and Randy Thiel. Randy (Laboratory Manager of New Glarus Brewing Co.) is one of only 14 Americans to be a member of the "Le Chevalerie du Fourquet des Brasseurs", the "Knighthood of the Brewers' Mash Staff", an elite group of brewers and other beer experts that are direct descendants of the ancient Brewers' Guild of Belgium. The Imperial Saison was Randy Thiel's original idea, and Dan and Randy have taken the seeds of that idea, and created a masterful example of the Saison beer style. Imperial Saison is their show of appreciation to all the hard workers, especially in these trying economic times.
Saison is the French word for 'season'. This beer style originated in Wallonia, the French speaking district of Belgium. In Belgium, each brewer had their unique interpretation of Saison, but originally it was a farm house ale brewed to quench the thirst of field hands as they labored under the hot sun. New Glarus Brewing Co.'s version is an 'Imperial', meaning it is brewed to an original gravity of 20 degrees Plato; about 20 to 40 percent stronger than most. Their use of a very unique ale strain, captured in Belgium, contributes to a wonderful apricot nose. Dan brought New Glarus Brewing Co.'s own Lactobacillus bacteria from Germany to create a palate cleansing, natural tartness to counter the rich German malt and aromatic Styrian Golding hops. Imperial Saison is spiced in the traditional way with Grain of Paradise and Ginger. Lastly, it is bottle fermented to impart that extra complexity and to insure the superior shelf life that is expected in all New Glarus Beers. The easy drinking nature of the beer belies its "Imperial" alcohol content of over 9%.
Dan and Randy believe that a hard day's work should be both rewarding and enjoyable, and with Imperial Saison, have created a refreshing brew that holds true to both. The Imperial Saison is the first example of the fruit's of their joint venture to reward all New Glarus Brewing Co. fans for their hard work. Dan and Randy's refreshing offering will be available in 4-packs or cases. However, just as the seasons change, leaving only a whisper of their passing, and as with the entire Unplugged series, Imperial Saison is a transitory brew, so enjoy this limited edition while it lasts!
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May 08, 2009 New Glarus Brewing Co. Adding a New Unplugged Kegging Line
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April 30, 2009 Beer Tax Poll
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April 27, 2009 New Glarus Brewing Co. Recognized for Energy-Efficiency Achievements
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April 17, 2009 Beer Industry Economic Impact in Wisconsin
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April 15, 2009 Coffee Stout & Iced Barley Wine Review
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March 28, 2009 Higher Beer Taxes hit Wrong Target
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March 01, 2009 The Importance of Drinking Local
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January 01, 2009 Distribution Models: Local vs National
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December 10, 2008 BellaVitano
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December 02, 2008 Most Wonderful Time of the Beer
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November 19, 2008 Beer Here - ALT from New Glarus Brewing
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November 01, 2008 The brewery the Careys built; New Glarus moves: by Daniel Carey
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October 16, 2008 MBR Interview with Dan and Deb Carey Part 2
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October 14, 2008 MBR Interview with Dan and Deb Carey Part 1
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October 12, 2008 The Careys on Spotted Cow
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September 01, 2008 New Glarus Dancing Man - Superb
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July 11, 2008 New Glarus Brewery Just Keeps Getting Better
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July 10, 2008 New Glarus Brewing: The Brewhaus the Careys built.
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July 10, 2008 Beer Here- Organic Revolution from New Glarus Brewing
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July 01, 2008 A Drink with Dan Carey
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June 01, 2008 Ode to Spotted Cow
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March 31, 2008 My Gateway Beer
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March 13, 2008 Rolling Stones Magazine Article
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March 10, 2008 Crafted with Success
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March 06, 2008 Made in Wisconsin: New Glarus Brewing Company Tour
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November 21, 2007 New beginnings at the New Glarus Brewery
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October 11, 2007 Small Breweries Beating Out Big Ones in Sudsland
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August 09, 2007 Beer Man: New Glarus wheat brew is so good, you'll want to dance
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August 07, 2007 New Glarus brewery to build addition
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May 10, 2007 Aging with Oak
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May 10, 2007 Wisconsin Unplugged
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April 27, 2007 New Glarus is brewing up some new businesss at the Port.
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March 01, 2007 Drink Globally
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January 01, 2007 Chance taken, leading to Spotted Cow
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September 01, 2006 World-class brewery, community bank take hometown economy to next level
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May 24, 2006 Pouring another round at the New Glarus Brewing Company
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May 19, 2006 New Glarus Brewing Expansion Draws Raves
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April 19, 2006 Carey receives award for Innovation in Brewing
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January 09, 2006 In New Glarus, Demand Outpaces Production
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December 06, 2005 New Glarus Brewing Overflowing the Kegs
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November 13, 2005 New Glarus: Brewing A Mystery
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October 25, 2005 New Glarus to Boost Capacity
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October 13, 2005 New Glarus Brewing Named Nation's Best
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August 02, 2005 Brew-Monkey's Interview of Daniel Carey
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July 05, 2004 New Glarus Modernizes
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February 17, 2004 Uff-Da, Wisconsin Song
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October 07, 2003 Congressional Record- Extension of Remarks
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October 01, 2003 WisconsinWoman: New Glarus Brewing Co.
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June 13, 2001 Post Messenger: Meet our neighbor... Carey Wants to Change Attitudes About Drinking
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November 01, 2000 Fruit Cocktail
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October 01, 2000 Conference Beer Marks the First Time Eisbock Brewed and Bottled in U.S.
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July 01, 2000 Beer and Cheese
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November 01, 1999 Independent Breweries in a Changing Germany
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May 10, 1999 Brewing the good life
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July 07, 1997 New Glarus buys Old-World brewhouse
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August 07, 1995 New Glarus builds presence in market
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New Glarus steps up big time with an old-school English porter
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Newsvin
TheFullPint.com’s Dan takes time to speak with Dan Carey of New Glarus Brewing. After TheFullPint.com got to try many New Glarus beers by means of Internet trade, we had to talk to the man behind some of the best beers made in the country, if not the world.
Finally, after all these years of my love affair with New Glarus, I got to visit the brewery last summer. First we ate lunch in the town of 
