New Glarus Native Ale

Formerly brewed at New Glarus Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
New Glarus, Wisconsin USA

Don’t know if I’d call this an Amber. Dark malts employed and a nutty slightly smokey character to it. Palate a bit thin for what I like, but considering the style appropriate. A decent session beer, but nothing extrodinary.

bottle - Pours a pale brown with only a ring of foam around the edge of the glass. Very little aroma, but what there was was sweet and nutty. Palate is thin and goes down without giving letting you get a real taste. The sweet yeasty flavor is there more as an aftertaste. All in all not a bad beer, but I’m not sure I’d buy it again. New Glarus makes better than this.

From a 12 oz. twist cap brown bottle with a blurb on the right side of label, no bottled/freshness date. Poured a cloudy dark cola brown with a fizzy head that quickly settled into a fine lacing. Not much of an amber ale nose, a light toasted nuts and dusty, powderygeneric sweet cola scent. Low carbonation and a smooth, watery medium bodied mouthfeel, no real crispness. Bland and watery tasting, a sweet cola- like flavor, a powdery taste that could be nuts or chocolate, and a sweet watery finish This was very disappointing, had no real amber ale qualities, the low carbonation and bland taste made this pretty undrinkable for me.

Late 2005 bottle from StewardofGondor consumed on 5/31/06.
Large light beige head eventually fades to ring, with very light lacing. The liquid is dark chestnut brown, with a medium-high to high clarity, settling out to a rusty-auburn-orange.
Very nutty aroma, tired and toasty, with heavy sourish tones and just a bare bit of chocolate sneaking in to provide a hint of sweetness. Some pale grains seem mostly attenuated, leading to little sweetness in that department. Old coffee and crunchy graham crackers linger on the finish. No alcohol and rather weak overall in strength.
A touch more sweetness, with some light almond and walnut notes mixing with a touch of pale sugars. Crunchy, sourish, toasted malts dominate though, with some DMS notable at first, souring things even more. Very light bodied, quite highly attenuated and with some weak coffee and hazelnut flavors. As it warms and breathes, the body continues to loosen, with very low carbonation, but the sour and vegetal flavors recede, allowing a more dry chocolate and light cream flavor to emerge. Nutty and rather earthy, it certainly is drinkable, but the slight astringency from the toasted malts and light roast might prove to much in larger quantities. Watery, somewhat, with a lightly grainy texture and no alcohol noted.

I drank it from the bottle, so I didn’t get into looking at it. It really doesn’t have to be pretty for me to enjoy it, though eye appeal is a plus. It smells kind of like coffee, and tastes just fine. Kind of watery, but in a refreshing way. Fairly flavorful. It seemed to have a plain honest flavor like a homebrew coming from someone who knew pretty well what they were doing. Because of this, I felt like the name "Native" fit the brew, but you never know, it may because I saw the name "Native" that this thought of it being like a homebrew came into my mind in the first place. Marketing, you know. For whatever reason, seems like an enjoyable quality brew to me, which I would have no problem drinking another 6 pack of sometime soon.

Pours a dark, iced tea color. Smell prunes. Tastes sweet at first, then the malt comes in with little hints of spiced tea and a fruity bitterness ant the end. A little water down too but still good.

Dark, brownish red body and cloudy - nearly no head at all. Tea, spices and sourness in the aroma, which are all also evident in the flavor. The sourness seems a little too prominent. Roastiness and some cherries in the flavor too, but overall the flavor is thin and watery.

I didnt think this brew had a brown look to it, its quite dark i think. Very smooth going down for a dark ale though, not to much snap to it, which is good. I would say the color is more of a light chocalate...