Original ’03 sampling found mahogany-hued porter-like bock bending distant mocha and roasted hops into fizzy off-dry peat malt finish. But better ’05 tasting brought bittersweet prune-raisin liveliness to bruised cherry, brown chocolate, and macadamia resilience, impacting fine barleywine continuance.
All posts by John Fortunato
NEW GLARUS SPOTTED COW ALE
Friendly yellow-cleared cask-conditioned light-body too mainstream and soapy despite zesty lemon tagline. Aromatic wheat straw wisp penetrates pallid corn-sugared cotton candy sweetness, mild perfumed fruitiness, and illuminating coriander seduction to soft biscuit-y recession. Closer to a white ale, but labeled a cream ale.
NEW GLARUS SOLSTICE WEISS
Satisfactory pale-hazed German-styled wheat beer brings sweet banana permanence to grassy-hopped pineapple-grapefruit tang and clove-coriander spicing. Bubbly champagne flow restrains vanilla-butterscotch snip.
NEW GLARUS RASPBERRY TART
Truly utopian Framboise-styled fruit ale with deep purple hue, bright magenta head and juicy aperitif design accrues rapturous ripe raspberry resonance. Musty rhubarb-pied red cherry souring, vinous dry-hopped yellow grape tannins, tart berry-cherry pucker and effervescent lemon-limed prickle pick up oak-vat acridity below syrupy raspberry-pureed slurp for uncanny sorbet likeness. 2014 re-tasting: voluminous candied raspberry tartness and soda pop fizzle accrued the same sweet-tart buoyancy.
NEW GLARUS NATIVE ALE
Silken prune-y copper ale opens with mellow chocolate malt waft, then balances red grape skin frontage with neutralized coffee roast, mild cocoa drift, dry fig-date fade, and prickly hop toasting. Bold finish depletes initial mocha sourness while retaining surprisingly accessible nature.
NEW GLARUS FAT SQUIRREL ALE
Mild English-styled brown ale blurs powdered cocoa, sour chocolate, and sweet caramel nuances into muted hazelnut-pecan-almond quagmire, causing subdued barley-hop roast to squander tenuous malt smudge.
NEW GLARUS EDEL-PILS
Shabby soured wheat bounty and putrid cabbage nose flaw citric domain. Mild lemony hop flow slides under carbolic spume. Bavarian yeast, brought in for Edel styling, does nothing to counter buttery astringency or sulfuric sniff.
(NEW ENGLAND) SEA HAG INDIA PALE ALE
Despite black-canned packaging, there’s no tinny metallic prompting diverting estimable IPA. Sugar-caned cereal-grained honeycombed malts invite tangy red apple, pear, apricot, nectarine, tangerine, and mango fruiting to brighten rosy floral zest countering lemony orange-peeled sourness. Muted piney bitterness may upset zealous hop-heads, but sweetly approachable nature will win over the rest.
NEW ENGLAND OATMEAL STOUT
Sticky lactic stout with tan-headed bronzed-mahogany hue compensates coffee-roasted maple mocha buttress with barley-roasted pale oats sugaring and sour-malted dried fruiting. A shade beneath stiff competition from comparative oatmeal stouts.
NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY ALE
Jaunty prune-hued tan-headed seasonal treat with sweet yeast waft, chewy plum flavoring and spicy clove backdrop brightened by oncoming berry brightness to efficient malted barley finish.
NEW ENGLAND GOLD STOCK ALE
Unobtrusive premium ale is safe bet for soft pilsner and light ale drinkers alike. Toasted graining, lemony grapefruit bittering, and zippy apricot-orange tang confront musty diacetyl backend. Cotton-candied floral-spiced carbolic fizz dissipates at wispy fruited malt finish. A safe bet for soft drinkers.
NEW ENGLAND ELM CITY LAGER
By 2007, New England Brewery had relocated outside inceptive Norwalk site. Tinny green-canned straw-hued light-bodied German-styled pilsner yields to defective metallic astringency and slobbered malt liquor mustiness. Mild lemon-curried grapefruit-pitted bittering and rotten orange-peach sourness debilitate white-breaded rye wheat base, but mineral watered crispness ups the ante a bit for crisply clean session beer.