The story of New Glarus Brewing is very interesting. Dan, the brewmaster, attended several brewing schools and worked in several breweries. His wife, Deborah, raised all of the capital to start a brewery as a gift to him, making her the first woman to open a brewery in the US. She does everything with the brewery except brew the beer; in turn, Dan gets turned loose a couple of times a year to make a beer that he wants to make. Scream is part of that series, called the Thumbprint series. Most Thumbprint beers are only brewed once, so this is a special treat that we obtained in a trade as New Glarus does not distribute outside of Wisconsin.
Admittedly, we are trying to squeeze in a couple of beers that we know are amazing before the end of the year. It's a rainy night here, so a beer that has been sitting here for a couple of months should make everything toasty and right with the world. While most normal people are frantically getting ready for Christmas, I decided to boycott it this year. My kid did something atrocious to warrant not getting any presents, and I think it might make the first holiday season without my dad just a little easier to bear. We will be spending Thursday with Nathan's grandmother and yes, brewing. Instead of wrapping presents, baking pies and cookies and whatnot, and the last-minute scramble of shopping, I am sitting here enjoying some damn fine beer. I couldn't be more Scrooge-alicious if I were sitting on a mountaintop with the Dalai Lama after receiving a three-hour massage whilst flipping off Santa Claus. It's a pretty fucking zen state here.
So, there is beer to be had. I'm in. This is a lovely medium golden orange color that had a couple of fingers of barely odd-white head to start. Like my enthusiasm for Christmas, it's nearly nonexistent now. The aroma on this is very promising: grapefruit, passionfruit, some boozed-up lychees like a lychee martini, and a hint of pine are all noticeable, with perhaps a hint of cracker-y malt. All of the flavors in the nose are present, plus a big KAPOW of mango and pineapple. As this has sat longer than intended, I think that some of the hops are starting to die off... or did they use copious amounts of Amarillo hops in this? It's kind of like the difference between Five Finger Death Punch and, well, any other quasi-metal band: Who can tell? What I can tell is that the malts in this are barely noticeable except for in the mouthfeel. It has a light- to medium body and finishes sticky sweet yet crisp.
New Glarus is often noted for their fruit beers, which I wouldn't mind trying sometime. This is a pretty solid IIPA, even if it wasn't as fresh as I would have liked (that is fully our fault for sitting on it for two months after receiving it).
4.2/5 caps
-Jennie
I'm in a relaxed state myself now. After a short, but grueling work week (NEVER WORK IN SHIPPING AT A FACTORY!), I now get to enjoy a stint of 5 days off. With the daily duties of not setting a building on fire after locking all the doors, I get to relax. Ear buds in, rocking out, I sit back in this worn but comfortable leather chair and stare at a screen. Huh...is that relaxing? Where have we fallen as a human race that constantly being connected through electronic communications is leisure time? Oh well, as Dylan said "the times they are a-changin'."
We have obtained all kinds of beers this year that we can't purchase in-state (traveling and friends). As we wind down this painful year, we look forward to a better one next year. Year after year, we hope for the next year to be more prosperous and less shitty than the last. Human nature, I guess. Enough pondering. Beer. That is all.
This has had time to warm as Jennie took lead on this. I enjoyed a shower to help with the beginning of the relaxation that is within the near future. With this new found, clear mind- I look at this beer, which isn't quite as clear as my mind. Although a nice clear medium orange color, not see-through like American Piss Lagers. A bit of white head lingers with a bit of lacing on the side of my trusty pint glass, giving memories of Bob Ross (happy little clouds). The aroma on this is worth a swan dive from 90 feet into a vat of this. Tropical fruit, grapefruit, fainter hints of pine and even fainter notes of malt sweetness make it nearly irresistible to not have this in my mouth right now (that's what she said). A juicy hop bomb washes over the taste buds. Like a tidal wave crashing on the rocks, the flavors blast my tongue in a refreshing burst of lychee, passionfruit, mango and pineapple. As the wave breaks and rolls back, there are grapefruit and pine flavors that take hold with a slightly resiny residue with some sort of off flavor. I understand where Jennie said she wasn't sure if it was Amarillo or hops dying... Are we the only ones that have this problem? The mouthfeel is medium, and honestly not as resinous or bitter as I'd expect from an IIPA with 85 IBUs. Oh... I seemed to have finished my half of the bottle before I was finished with the review. Bollocks. At least we've shared our first tasting of New Glarus with you dedicated readers who always read to the end of the reviews.... Right?
4.3/5 caps
-Nathan-
Food pairing: Thai pepperpot soup
Cheese pairing: Stilton
Music pairing: "Found Out About You" Gin Blossoms
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