New Glarus Apple Ale

Brewed by New Glarus Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
New Glarus, Wisconsin USA

This pours with a small and quickly dissipating head and is almost still, with a nice clear golden color. The aroma is of nice red apples very straightforward and very nice. I like the flavor quite a bit. I honestly expected a sweet tart cider sort of thing, I was very glad that this was not so much the case. This tastes like fresh red apples; I’ve had the fresh cider from Gay’s Mills where the apples for this beer come from and it is not surprisingly very much like that cider in flavor. There is also a nice tartness that is seemingly coming off the base beer much more than it is coming from the apples. This has very little green apple sourness or tartness, which is cool. I expected a little more jolly rancher than I got and I’m happy that that isn’t so much the case. What can I say, plenty of fresh apples a nice zing of tartness overall just a wonderful little beer.

Aroma. Wow. Aroma. Yeah. It has one of those. Lots of sweet apple, flowers and honey. Taste is bright, sweet apple. Like a Honey Crisp apple had sex with a flower. Straight up apple. More apple. No alcohol in this bitch. Finish is clean, slightly dry. I would love to have this in a juice box in my sack for lunch. Yes.

Bottle, a gift from Daknole! Clear copper with scant white head. My first sniff is Jolly Rancher apple candy. But it makes me want to drink! Has far more complexity than first greets the nose, too. Beneath the candy is some burnt caramel, a nice brown sugar/butter blended fresh in a hot pan, or apple butter. Also tartness and from the fruit aromas. The mouthfeel is prickly and champagne-like. This is a dessert-like beer with an addictive vanilla fudge-like finish that adds complexity. Very sweet but good. It’s well-constructed brew that transcends its sweetness, even if I do need to wash my mouth out with hops afterwards!

Pours a clear light copper with a small white head. Strong aroma of apples, cinnamon and apple flavored hard candy. Taste of apples and cinnamon. Like drinking a candy beer.

Pours a clear glowing darker golden with a odd big bubble white fizzy head. Smells like sweet apple candy. Wow! Tastes like apple candy as well. Sweet, tart and very pure. Definitely the best apple beer I’ve ever had. Has an authentic mashed apple flavor that tastes like its in hard-candy form. Apple Jolly Rancher... its identical. Not much in the terms of "beer" flavor. One of these is enough as it accomplishes its desired intention. Medium/light body with big corse sharp carbonation, appropriate for flavor.

Bonus bottle from Nobelsquirrel. Thanks! Pours a clear copper with a small, white ring around the glass. Aroma is apples...apple cider is what I get mostly. There is a candy sweetness also. Has more carbonation than I expected. Very lively in the mouth, but still a little thin and watery. Flavor is mostly sweet apples. Not my thing but pretty good.

Tasted 2/18/09. 12oz bottle. Even from about a foot away, I could still smell the apples as I poured. Filtered with a copper hue. Trace ring of off-white head. Aromas of apple juice and a slightly musty note. Medium bodied and super sweet. Zesty effervescence. Moderate malt backbone, but the apple essence overpowers all else. Trace bitterness in the finish. This is better than most ciders I’ve had, but still a little too sweet for my tastes. I’m sure this is wonderful in the summertime.

bottle. unplugged series. pours golden with white head. nose of fresh green apples. flavor has a nice balance of tart and sweet green apples. tastes like a great cider but really not my thing.