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Years ago our mother and stepfather moved from Chicago and eventually settled in the town of South Wayne, Wisc. The town is unincorporated; it could quite literally be the middle of nowhere. But even the middle of nowhere has to be close to somewhere, and it just so happens that a few miles east of South Wayne is the town of New Glarus. Mothers are always smarter than they let on, and ours is wise to the fact that if we're making the trip to South Wayne, it's partly because we're loading the trunk with Spotted Cow and other wonderful selections from the New Glarus Brewery on the way home.
Spotted Cow's legal non-availability in Illinois has raised the beer — and the brewery — to the point of legend. As farmhouse ales go, it's definitely worth the hunt for a sixer. But we're big fans of New Glarus' "Unplugged" line of heavyweight, Belgian-inspired ales. We were re-arranging the pantry a couple weeks back and came across four bottles of New Glarus Belgian Quadruple we brought home from a springtime visit. One sip of this beer in New Glarus' tasting room was all it took for us to realize that brewmaster Dan Carey meant business when he brewed this beer. Unplugged Quadruple is a high-gravity (25° Plato) Belgian-style dark ale, twice aged: once in the brewery's oak lager tanks, then in bourbon barrels. Carey also uses a specially sourced Brett yeast in the brewing process, which adds a sour finish to the beer. Other characteristics of Unplugged Quadruple are sweet honey and nutmeg on the palate, a thin head with light rings of lace on the glass, and a deep amber color.
Autumn is a great time for a day trip, and New Glarus is only two hours away (if you drive the speed limit). The New Glarus Brewery is worth the trip; you could make it part of a whole day in "Little Switzerland." Just make sure to bring home some New Glarus Unplugged Belgian Quadruple, Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week."
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I'm going camping in New Glarus next week so I'll have to snag myself a bottle whilst there.
I need that in my belly, pronto.
An outstanding brewery - the Spotted Cow is indeed a great beer, but only one of several standout beers New Glarus produces.
It could be that, like so many out-of-state craft brewers, New Glarus finds our adhesionary state laws, which lock brewers into contracts with frequently incompetent distributors, to be more than it's prepared to tolerate just to sell beer to FIBs, as we're known.
However, my understanding is that New Glarus products aren't available in Illinois because the brewery can sell everything it produces without shipping outside of Wisconsin. Given the quality and price, this isn't surprising.
Please look up what "literally" means. Your statement makes no sense.
I visited New Glarus over the summer and we loaded up. Their limited run beers are great, a bit pricey but well worth buying a few and saving them for a special occasion.
I swear, though, that I have bought New Glarus beer once at Vas Foremost Liquors at California and Milwaukee, probably back in 2002 or 2003. No matter though, it's worth the drive to that part of Wisconsin and the brewery tour is interesting. Not sure what they feed their horses, but when we were there the two males were aroused beyond all comprehension. A nice photo-op became a photo-don't since we really were not into that sort of thing - and even if we'd only taken photos from the neck up, they just looked so sad to not have any female horses around.
Both are correct. The main reason they focus solely on Wisconsin is because of the size of the brewery itself. They make just enough to keep up with the demand of their accounts in Wisconsin.
New Glarus is currently building a newer brew plant that will increase their output, but they still have no long range plans of legally selling in Illinois. Even if they returned to the market, they'd be dealing with a new wholesaler. Their franchise rights were sold shortly after they pulled out of Illinois.
But I concur. New Glarus, even Kenosha, are close enough for a road trip for some beer.
How come IL has no local breweries to speak of? I mean, none that i know of anyway. Everything is from Wisconsin or Michigan - and even then we pale in comparison to such cities as Seattle or Portland.
"Spotted Cow's legal non-availability in Illinois"
all i will say on the matter is: go to The Burlington in Logan Square and ask for the "house beer". ;)
matty, Illinois really has nothing as far as I'm concerned (within a 3-4 hour radius of Chicago). I seldom make anything within this state a destination. Camping, for example - I know there are nice places here but 9 times out of 10 I'll point it to Governor Dodge State Park in WI or Muskegon State Park in Michigan, which is a completely awesome place.
Wait until you try the latest Unplugged, Bourbon Barrel Bock. I bought all i could get at 3 Woodmans last weekend.
Christ, matty. Have you conveniently forgotten Goose Island and Two Brothers for the sake of a broad generalization?
Follow this link to the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild. The member breweries all have logos linking to their respective sites on the page.
If you include the immediate tri-state area, New Glarus falls within reach, as well as Sprecher in Milwaukee and Three Floyds in Munster, which also has a tasting room/brewpub on site (joeM500 will proselytize at length about that).
Oh, and to #8: I believe Time Out Chicago outed the Burlington on that "house beer" stuff a few weeks back. It's about as poorly kept a secret as where to find Fat Tire when it was "unavailable."
I just came back from a weekend Camping at the New Glarus State Park. First off, Ranger Dennis is a great guy. But more importantly, they didn't have any Belgian Quadruple for sale in the brewery, just the Bourbon Barrel Bock.
Let me Highly Recommend the Dancing Man Wheat beer and Yokel. Yum, now I can't wait to get off of work and enjoy one of each...
Jesus, Chuck. This is the kind of stuff you just "come across" in your pantry? When I clean out my pantry all I find are old cans of vegetables and moldy bread.
I come across that, as well. But it isn't as interesting as a good beer.
Agreed w/ Chuck... I'm willing to call Three Floyds a Chicagoland brewer - they're less than an hour away, and damn good beer too.
The Belgian Quadruple is maybe my favorite beer. That's why I bought the last two cases at "the Pig" in Waunakee visiting friends this summer.
We also went on a brewery tour the same weekend, unfortunately they were out of Belgian Quadruple at the brewery by then - but I did pick up the Bourbon Barrel Bock and Enigma. I love the Enigma also, but understand not everyone wants a cherry beer.
Also some Spotted Cow, my new standby. At least that is regularly available on a trip to Wisconsin.
Please e-mail the brewery to ask for Belgian Quadruple to go back into the rotation.
DancingDavidE
Has anyone heard anything about Bell's returning to Chicago? I was at Sam's and overheard some employees talking about calls they were getting in regards to Bell's returning later this year under a different name.