New Glarus Raspberry Tart

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

750ml bottle curtesy of Naven, thanks for bringing this gem. Beer 4 of the Bartzilla’s Death Metal Beer Tasting 1/12/2007, consumed with many great beer drinkers including Bartzilla, Naven, as well as Lee creator of Arrogant Bastard, and a really cool guy. This is a fantastic fruit beer, it is sweet and sour and really evokes rasberries almost better than the fruit itself. I’ve been really excited to try this beer for a a while, and it tastes great. While we were drinking this someone said it tasted like flinstones vitatmins, and really it sort of does, it has a taste that resembles that but it is not chalky or concentrated in any way, it is a really fantastic brew that I feel lucky to have had.

Like all NG, this one is way overrated. Everything about this beer is artificial. I know they use real raspeberry, but sure dont tsate like it. Tastes like flat redpop. MMMMM, faygo. I agree, similar to Lindemans crap.

First of all, a big thanks to mwsf for this bottle. Massive raspberry flavor. Pretty tart as well. A little chocolate. Clearly a hell of a lot of fresh raspberries are used in this. It’s sweet and with a delicate sourness. Similar to a flemish sour, but with a ton of fruit. I enjoy it until the pure raspberry flavor in the finish. I guess now’s the time to point out that I’m not a huge fan of raspberries in general, but I’m still enjoying this.

A lot of sweet beers, like well made framboises and krieks, are exceptional at capturing the natural flavor of the fruit they represent. Despite a very meticulous protocol of processing, thermal shock and movement they end up tasting like pure nectar bleeding straight from nature’s dulcet vines. The lesser variants tend to taste like they were made from syrup spewed out from an industrial complex, smokestack and all. I never knew until now that there could be mediation between these two ideas. New Glarus’ Raspberry Tart has shown me the way. As I peer down into the glass of this luxurious drink I see a roseate head that could easily be misconstrued for a fancy strawberry cake. Meanwhile the body of the beer is murky and quiet with contentment, deep with passion, and as dark red as cardiac muscle. It sits with a silent Bacchanalian joy that whispers alluring, sweet and aromatic poetry from its top. The smell instantly transports you to a sunny, verdant farm where you’re jarring raspberry preservatives in their rawest form – seeds and all. The sweet, fruity sugar packs the nose all the way to the sinuses, almost shoving raw natural fructose down your throat before your lips have had a chance to satiate themselves. The taste is matured, and not as bitter as the more organic fruit beers tend to be. It’s more processed, but only insofar as a compact and colorful tart or an immaculate cake is processed. It’s not industrial, but artisanal, being fashioned from a craftman’s hands rather than a moving line of metal hooks and blades. It feels capacious with expression, boundless but narrowed in its type. It feels a shame to categorize this beer into any one identity, because at the first sip it feels like it transcends names and identities. It merely becomes “fruit”. At least, that’s all that was on my mind. Pear and apple join the flavorful fray a bit later, and with a bit more degrees (Fahrenheit) acting on the beer a bit of confectioner’s sugar comes to play. With all these sugary flavors it might seem a bit much. It really pushes the boundaries, but New Glarus’ Raspberry Tart stays a hair short from being cloyingly sweet. That doesn’t mean you should go paring it with savory dishes like filet mignon or salmon. It’s simply moderate enough that it won’t crystallize your blood with excess sugar granules. Take it for what it is – a very sweet, still fruity and opulent beer fit for richness.

From trade with brewblackhole. Poured a deep dark red. The head was medium body and pink. The aroma spelled strongly of raspberry, very tart, sweet, and some spice. The flavor had the same attributes, very big tart/sweet flavor. The palate had harsh hints from the tartness and a lambic effervescence. Excellent fruit beer.

Im one of those annoying guys who reviews a style that he doesn’t like to begin with, so i apologize up front. Either way I am a resident of wisconsin so it is my duty to review new glarus. Tastes pleasant but is typical for a frambriose. lacks the the unique complexity of the other lambic (Belgian Red) they produce. However if you are a fan of the style I reccomend that you try this one.

Deep garnet/red in color, topped with a first class pink raspberry mousse. Aroma of raspberry, vanilla and oak, like the world’s next award winning ice cream that will astonish and captivate the audience on Rachel Ray or Oprah. Deep in flavor with lemon, orange, and a honey-oak middle admist the raspberry goodness that frames it all. Like Belgian Red, it tastes irresistably fresh, and it just barely can be classified as beer, even as one that is infinitely more sweet and sour than it is bitter or robust. Still, for me, it reaches for transcendence and nearly gets there.

Rapidly succeeding the tremendous effort New Glarus named Enigma, Raspberry Tart was this time where all my long-standing expectations of the brewery lay. It might be useful to remind of my near fanaticism for raspberries, the zeal those tiny plump fruits muster in me, seemingly disproportionate but merely the product of countless beautiful memories. A passionate scarlet juice draped in fizzy pink cloth reflects liquidly the quiddity of the fruit. Little more can be said of the nose which seems to capture in a concentrated form the essence of raspberries, decupling every nuance and raising the soul to a veritable apotheosis. Sugary marshmallow, cherry, grape and oak add to the experience, suggesting a certain depth while raspberry continues to dominate the bouquet. The sumptuous flavor is assumed and appears in its natural form enhanced by sticky grape juice, fig, caramel and a slight sourness. What worries me is that New Glarus has simply reproduced my mother’s raspberry jelly in liquid form. Not that it’s facile, but perhaps... unnecessary. I need a beer that reconcile its status as a beer with the bully raspberries can be. Leave the quintessence to my tartines, I need something with complexity and balance that takes advantage of beer as medium.