If there is one American craft brewery that knows a thing or two about fruit beer, it would definitely be New Glarus Brewing Company out of (you guessed it) New Glarus, Wisconsin. They have two of the most celebrated fruit beers in their line up: Raspberry Tart and Wisconsin Belgian Red. Both are highly sought after beers in the trading world; Lord knows I’ve traded for them several times already. With the Raspberry Tart in particular, I can tell you that this is an insanely enjoyable beer – even with the very low ABV percentage. You would almost expect it to be a one dimensional beer with raspberry being the only aroma and flavor, but that’s just not the case. The nose, in fact, smells almost different than you’d expect. There is some winter spice and some maple syrup that almost masks the raspberries. When you take the first sip, however, the raspberries take center stage – and how utterly glorious they are in this beer. Wow! Additionally, there are the same winter spices and maple syrup that makes me reminisce of driving down a two-lane highway in autumn. Not a whole lot else to say except that it’s worth the work it takes to get one.
Check out all sessions of The Hopry here.
This beer can be found in Wisconsin only.
On the iPod: Sun Kil Moon “Australian Winter”
Brewery: New Glarus
Beer: Raspberry Tart
Style: Fruit Beer
Location: New Glarus, Wisconsin
ABV: 4%
Rating: 96/100
Posted by theReaper16 on May 5, 2010 at 11:48 AM
Lots of cuts in this session; way more than usual it seems. And did it really do a jump cut immediately after you say that “this is one take?” Funny.
Posted by thehopry on May 5, 2010 at 2:12 PM
It is definitely one continuous shot. I rarely stop the camera. But I tend to start editing pieces out when I begin to blab on too long or sneeze or God knows whatever else happens spur of the moment. It took me a long time to get comfortable with just letting anything happen and to just cut it out later…
Posted by Kelly on May 5, 2010 at 7:50 PM
Awesome to see that you liked it! It’s the best raspberry forward beer that I’ve ever had, and so drinkable!
I think it would be pretty cool if New Glarus would sour a version of this, it would be absolutely delectable!
Posted by thehopry on May 5, 2010 at 8:38 PM
That would definitely be an amazing beer. Thanks again for sending these to me a while back. I’ve been holding them for the right time.
Posted by Bob from Indy on May 5, 2010 at 9:08 PM
Definitely kicking myself for not snagging a few of these in Milwaukee in February.
Posted by Landshark67 on May 8, 2010 at 7:00 AM
I’m heading out today in search of this beer. Not sure if it’s available in MI or not.
There are a lot of Raspberry beer attempts on the market but few that I feel are great efforts. Maybe Founders will take you up on your challenge to match Cherise with a follow up Raspberry beer. I’ll ask my bud at Founders the next time I see him. -Shark
Posted by thehopry on May 8, 2010 at 8:30 AM
Hey Shark thank you for the great comments. I discovered after recording the session for Cerise that Founders actually does have a raspberry beer called Blushing Monk. Of course I have not seen it ever (only in pictures), but would buy one pretty quickly if I could.