New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red

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

I like this beer. It was the most different brew that I’ve ever had. Very strong cherry taste and aroma. Hints of malt and not a trace of hops. Great brew to have at the end of an evening,with or in lieu of a desert.

750 ml bottle

This is a revisit of an early rating that was really lacking. I am actually amazed it took this long but with something so plentiful as Belgian Red, there were always other things to try. This is New Glarus’ flagship beer for a reason - it is excellent in all aspects. If you need a good gateway beer, get a bottle and share it. Just stock up next time you drive through Wisconsin.

Aroma / Appearance - There was the obvious scent of tart cherry but along with it were doughy notes, as if someone had melted down a fresh hot cherry pie. I also got some background scents that reminded me of the smell of a fresh paperback novel. The body is a deep mahogany that leaves thin trails of clear lacing. The initial pour gave a pink head, which reminded me of the fizz from Cherry 7UP.

Flavor / Palate - This is where the beer truly shines. Several beers have a pleasant nose, but then follow it up with a taste that is either too one-dimensional or too mouth puckering sweet. This one is just as it advertises. It tastes like liquid cherry pie, hot from the oven with a dash of sugar glaze on top. It is slightly sweet but a nice tartness balances that well. Hiddden in the background are very faint peach notes which last for only a second before the cherry takes over again. If it were just a ’cherry beer’ this would be a 3 at best. It is the additional complexity which makes this one shine above the others.

750ml bottle. Deep dark cherry red color. Nice head that fades out after a minute or so. Light faint cherry pie aroma. This has some of the most solid dark cherry flavors of any beer I’ve ever had. Practically cherry juice with a slight bitter edge. Absolutely delicious, the kind of beer I can sip on all day. On a side note, I think its funny that a beer like this is so revered and highly rated whereas Lindemans and other sweet Lambics get bashed and dismissed as non-authentic.

Dark ruby red with a light white skim of a head. Aroma is sweet cherries and cranberrys. Flavor is sweet and candylike, slightly tart. Lip smaking good. Very Very good and a nice change of pace...good shit!

Easy enough to make a sweet fruit beer enjoyable, and this certainly was enjoyable. Nose of sweet cherries and tart fruit; people with me kept saying cranberry juice. Lovely hazy reddish color with a small head. Taste of sweet cherries, lightly malted, could use more offsetting bitterness, and a sourness that might also have come from the cherries or some lambic activity. Average mouth feel, not cloying or syrupy as I had feared. Maybe a bonus point for being low alcohol. Easy to get a high rating with a sweet fruity beer, but this one was nice.

Rating # 500! Cloudy garnet pour with off-white, pink/orange-tinted frothy head and great lacing. A pleasure to behold. Nose was very reminiscent of the kind of cherry topping typically served on top of cheesecake or cherry fruit roll ups - something I’ve never been too fond of, but admittedly, this still smelled pretty good. A bit syrupy and similar on the palate, but a bit more tart and I kept getting notes of pineapple juice as well. A tasty beer, but I’d take Raspberry Tart over it any day.

@ LCRBM 2009. A hazy orange/amber colored beer, with a beige little pink head. The aroma is very fruity. A lot of cherries cold morellen (Dutch). Very sweet with hints of sour. The taste is sweet, a lot of cherries, it’s stickey. In the back notes of sour. The aftertaste is very sweet.

tap at GABF. cranberry hazzy pour with thin head. cherry cobbler aroma. very tart, huge cherry, sugar not over the top. nice fruit beer.