365 different beers from 365 different breweries in 365 days with random musings on beer, food, music, sports, dogs and anything else interesting along the way
Day 300 seems like a great day to break out something from the rare beers collection. The New Glarus Brewing Company's Raspberry Tart fits that bill since it isn't available outside of Wisconsin, where it is brewed. Huge kudos are owed to our friend Nathan who was kind enough to gift us one of his last remaining bottles.
We are doubly fortunate because he also shared a New Glarus Belgian Red last year. Both the Red and the Raspberry Tart are outstanding sour beers. Unfortunately for me, they are next to impossible to get and the cherry crop in that region was devastated this year and that will have a deleterious impact on Belgian Red production. Oh noez!!!
The Raspberry Tart pours a hazy merlot color with a thin slightly off white head. As one would expect, it smells strongly of raspberries. The taste is very tart raspberry that give you that fantastic pinchy action on the sides of your tongue. There are faint hints of pie spice. The fruity sweetness is balanced perfectly by the amount of tart. If I had to pick one beer to drink for the rest of my life, this would be among the finalists.
New Glarus Rapsberry Tart is an excellent beer. Cheers!
Beer #292 Raspberry Tart / New Glarus Brewing Company, New Glarus, WI
I'm definitely beating The Cold, but he's not going down without a fight. Later this evening, I'll be having an awesome time watching David Byrne do his thing on stage! Yes, the former front man for the Talking Heads has kicked off a new tour, and we're catching the only (I think) Philly date. He's sharing the stage with St. Vincent, who I'm admittedly not all that familiar with, but honestly - if David Byrne was on stage with a tree sloth who played the bongos I'd buy a ticket.
Today's beer is the Raspberry Tart from New Glarus Brewing, out of Wisconsin. This beer was a great gift from a fellow beer geek and member of our PSU tailgate squad. Great gift, you see, because New Glarus really doesn't ship outside of Wisconsin, their home state. They recommend you pour this beer into a champagne glass, and once you do you'll find a dull ruby color and no head. There's a pleasant raspberry aroma, and the taste is tart and sweet, with fantastic real fruit flavor. A bit of carbonation, but maybe not as much as you expect from something in a champagne glass. Really amazing beer, and I'm quite pleased I was able to cross this brewery off the list!!
Pretty, and pretty damn tasty!
New Glarus was founded in 1993 by a husband and wife duo, and they're still going strong in the world of craft beer. For my Philly people who are all jealous because we got this rare beer and you didn't, inexplicably you can sample it this weekend too! Hawthorne's Cafe is hosting a fundraiser for the Pennsylvania Society for the Protection of Animals on Sunday, and will be pouring not only New Glarus but also Tyranena (also rare around here) as part of their dinner that night. Check the details here. Help animals in need AND drink great, hard to find beer? No brainer. Get on that, people.
Thing to Think About Today:
While thinking about raspberry beer, I realized I've already used Raspberry Beret in this space back in May - even though Prince is being a total jerk and yanked the video down from YouTube. Dick. So instead, let's go ahead and think about David Bryne (also not a newcomer to this space). I've come to realize that I'm completely drawn to music that appeals to smart people. Call me a snob, but music that tells a story, or has depth to it, or feels like artwork, or simply makes you think is far more appealing to me than.... well I won't name names here and hurt anyone's feelings. Obviously, the Talking Heads fit my criteria of "smart music" perfectly.
It seems the playlist tonight will feature most everything from Byrne & St. Vincent's new album,Love This Giant, along with songs from St. Vincent's past work and Byrne's incredibly good solo work. And, it appears there will be some classic Talking Heads in there, which is always a treat. CAN. NOT. WAIT! I don't expect to hear And She Was tonight, and I love it so I'll go ahead and drop it in here so we can all enjoy. Have a good night, folks!
We are doubly fortunate because he also shared a New Glarus Belgian Red last year. Both the Red and the Raspberry Tart are outstanding sour beers. Unfortunately for me, they are next to impossible to get and the cherry crop in that region was devastated this year and that will have a deleterious impact on Belgian Red production. Oh noez!!!
