New Glarus Brewery

It's perched on a hill south of the small Green County community of New Glarus, named after the town in Switzerland where the first European settlers here came from.

The New Glarus Brewery is famous in Wisconsin for the fine variety of beers it creates.  It's famous with beer aficionados around the country for the reason that their beer is only sold in Wisconsin.

Dan and Deb Carey opened the brewery in 1993 and there have been multiple expansions since then.

My introduction to their beers came sometime ago, but it was more of a passing introduction.

Just a few weeks after moving back two years ago, we checked out the place, their gift shop, and beer depot and took some home.

It's good as advertised.  Spotted Cow is their most popular offering and one of seven available all year from this good sized, yet considered a craft beer maker.

Local micro-brews are pretty common now all over the country, and in Wisconsin and elsewhere there are a large number of small scale craft breweries enjoying success because they are not Budweiser or Miller.

You can take the self-guided tour any time the brewery is open to the public - which is 10am to 4pm most weeks of the year.  There isn't a a huge amount of information, but getting a close view of the kettles, gleaming stainless steel, and bottles rushing past from the filling station to get labels affixed is very cool.

Even though this was my sixth visit, it was the first time I walked back into the area where the beer is made.   

It was especially fascinating to see how quick the bottles were filled, sealed, and rushed through a wash and dry then labeled and boxed and ready to ship.

Where the bottles were getting filled, a worker was carefully pouring out a bottle as part of their quality control process.

That's one of the reasons the brewery limits sales to the state of Wisconsin; it allows them to control their product.

I've never been a big beer drinker, but I'll enjoy one from time to time.

Because it's a local product and one the state is known for; there is some home-state pride in the beer made by fellow cheeseheads.  They've received national recognition for beer quality and innovation, and have become a drawing card of their own for tourists to check out Green County and New Glarus.

If you follow this blog closely, you know that New Glarus is a trailhead for the Sugar River State Bike Trail and just a few miles west of the Badger State Trail that rides from Madison to Monroe and on to Freeport, Illinois.  Throw in a visit to Monroe for some of the local cheesemakers and that's a great get-away weekend.

In the mix and match six pack I took home, I included a couple of Pumpkin Pie Lust.

Pumpkin flavored beer is popular around the harvest and the New Glarus Pie Lust stands strong.  It was a nice compliment to this year's Thanksgiving dinner.

They also make some variety of fruit beer - and I'm still sorry I didn't select a bottle or two of Strawberry - Rhubarb.  My favorite pie as a beer?  I need to put that on my "beers to drink" list.