new glarus brewery, wisconsin

If you ever end up in Madison, Wisconsin with a couple hours to kill, go here. New Glarus Brewery is in (duh) New Glarus, which is about 20 miles southof Madison. If you are from California, it is almost just like Solvang, except instead of being a Danish tourist trap, its Swiss. Therefore, almost every building/hotel/restaurant is really tacky and named "Pumple's Olde Tavern" or something like that. They are also obsessed with painting plastic cows.

There is a gem though, and that is New Glarus Brewery. It is situated in rolling green hills about 7 minutes down the road from the main part of the town. When you go there, you can pay a few bucks and do 4 tastings. My favorite is definitely the Raspberry Tarte , the Belgian Red ale is also amazing, which is made with local Door county cherries. Their other famous ones are the Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel, which are both solid beers. You can go on a self-guided tour of the brewery, which is shiny and very clean. The best part is watching the guy fill kegs, because it looks really funny. New Glarus is one of my favorite breweries that I have been to because it is really beautiful to sit on their patio and overlook the driftless zone of Wisconsin. Also, it was the first craft brewery to be opened by women! woo hoo!

"beer has dispelled the illness which was in me"

So last week, there was a great reunion of both parts of c and c in New York. Landing on monday, I naturally made Crystal go with me 3 hours later to the Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg. We took their tour, which is $8 per person, and is very worth it, as you get to taste almost all the beers that they have on tap, some of which never leave the brewery. Crystal's favorite was their summer seasonal, the "Summer Ale". It was really light, and would be perfect for a hot day, as it was that day, and pretty much the whole time in New York. My favorite was their current "Brewmaster's Reserve", "The Concoction". The brewmaster'sreserve is a beer that Brooklyn Brewery produces that is only available for a short time, on tap, only at the brewery. This particular one was very potently gingery, and there is almost no way you could drink more than one bottle as it was so flavorful. Almost too flavorful, but it was really good to me. I think our tour guide said he hated it. Oh well, more for me!

Then we went on the tour, where what we saw was what is pretty much your standard craft brewery. They weren't bottling that day, so there was none of the cool whizzing equipment that you see at a brewery that was up and running. After the tour, you can go back to the bar, and with "tokens" that you buy from them, you can purchase beers and hang out for an hour before they let the regular joes in again.