Beer Man: New Glarus wheat brew is so good, you'll want to dance

Dancing Man Wheat
New Glarus Brewing Co., New Glarus
www.newglarusbrewing.com

Dancing Man Wheat is one of those beers that make you feel like you’ve never really tasted beer before.

I’ve enjoyed German wheat beers for nearly 30 years now and have certainly had many good ones. But Dancing Man, from the New Glarus brewery, is a revelation that makes many of the German efforts pale in comparison.

Sure, Dancing Man has the high carbonation, sweet malt flavor and banana-clove aroma that is common to the style, but it goes a step further with a bold body that is not often found in the category, along with a 7.2-percent alcohol content.

Dancing Man first catches your eye with its intense orange color and lively carbonation. The fruit and spice aromas are strong – more than typical, but not overpowering. Adding to the fragrance are bready, biscuit-like wheat notes.

The body is creamy and full without seeming thick, yet still retains the high weiss carbonation. The malt flavor is strong and the banana aroma transfers into the flavor, but is not overdone.

I tried my first sample after I drank another beer and the alcohol strength was not apparent. It was more noticeable a couple of days later after I tried a Dancing Man by itself, but it is blended in well. This would still be an excellent beer even with a lower alcohol content.

New Glarus co-owner Deb Carey recently told me that she notices many American microbreweries seem to only go halfway with their beers.

I understood what she meant. I’ve had many beers that fall far short of their announced intention – German-style wheat beers with thin bodies, wimpy carbonation and little banana-clove aroma. There are English-style ales that just taste like your run-of-the-mill American pale ale or Scottish-style ales that have nothing in common with the style except color.

Whether this is because of breweries trying to make a product on the cheap or just not being good brewers is hard to say.

I’m just glad that New Glarus is not part of that group.

Beer Man sez: Dancing Man Wheat is a world-class German-style wheat beer.

Todd Haefer of Scandinavia gets paid to drink beer and write about it for The Post-Crescent. He can be reached at beerman@postcrescent.com. Read past reviews at www.beermanblog.com.