Keeping the Beer Sabbath

This past Sunday The Dulcinea and I left Madison for parts west and south: Mt. Horeb & New Glarus.

Mt. Horeb hasn't changed much from previous visits. Unfortunately it was Sunday morning and most places were closed for the day or opening later. Neither Dick's Meats nor the restaurant/bakery cater-corner from it were open which meant ixnay on the lefse-scray. However, the Mustard Museum was accepting patrons. We walked out with a jar of raspberry-habenero mustard which is quite tasty. A sign in the window noted that the museum will be moving to Middleton in late October. Mt. Horeb's loss is my gain as I won't have to drive quite so far to get my exotic mustard fix.

Before leaving town and heading south, we stopped in at Sjolinds Chocolate House. There were many chocolate bars available including some nice-looking single source varieties adorned with photos of the Juan Valdezes of the cocoa world. We had some coffee along with some pastries. My sweet cravings were satiated with a very good banana-chocolate muffin.



From the Trollway we maundered through the hills to New Glarus and a stop at the fancy new brewery.



The New Glarus Brewing Company's new expansion was quite nice with its Swiss village/Wisconsin farm motif.



There was even a bit of running water at the entrance.



Tours at the brewery are self-guided and I guess you can get a set of headphones or download an MP3 or otherwise get an electronic audio copy of a tour guide's spiel. I know the basics of brewing so I didn't really need a guide.

The place is big. 75,000sq ft big. This expansion adds the capacity to brew 100,000 more barrels of beer on top of the 30,000 at the original brewery. Arguably this pushes New Glarus beyond microbrewery to minibrewery or some such classification. All of the beer brewed here is distributed in Wisconsin (well, most of it) which is a tribute to our state's drinkers and its much-maligned "culture of alcohol".

Before you get into the area with all the vats and such, you pass by the beer lab where top secret formulas ferment before your very eyes.



The main brewing area is quite a sight. No doubt many a homebrewer has walked through and found him- or herself quite jealous. Stainless steel vats litter the joint and are connected via what must be miles of pipes. And there are the beautiful copper kettles that host the boiling action. The place smelled of bananas, i.e. – esters, which made me wonder if the pipes above me were like pulsating veins of weiss beer.





Aside from tourists like us, the place was very mellow. I can only imagine that it would be a hive of activity on other days when there's wort to boil, fermentation tanks to be cleaned, beer to be bottled, etc. Brewmaster Dan Carey and Director of Quality Control Randy Thiel would probably be wandering around with clipboards and such in a frenzy. In addition to the large open areas filled with brew tanks, there were several smaller rooms with access restricted to brewers only. For instance, there was a Yeast Propagation room where I envision Dan Carey in one of those hazmat suits like you see in The Andromeda Strain hunched over a table full of friendly yeast spores. Another door led to what I assume to be ground zero for NG's ultra-tasty Black Wheat – the Weiss Beer Fermentation room.

Having seen the how, we were ready for samples. It was a hot, sunny day and I was disappointed that there was no Yokel on tap so I settled for a Dancing Man Wheat while The D opted for a Crack'd Wheat. NG's fine beers could be enjoyed in the tasting room or alfresco. The D and I chose the latter which offered a nice view of the surrounding countryside.







Before we left, we stopped that the Beer Depot, a large room with case after case of New Glarus nectar for sale. I bought a bottle of Golden Ale, which is available exclusively at the brewery and only in half liters. From there it was over to the Glarner Stube, which only has New Glarus beer on tap, for an afternooncap before heading home.