New Glarus - Chocolate Abbey

Not to be made into a liar, my journey through Wisconsin continues with an extended stay in New Glarus.  This review for their Chocolate Abbey may have been inspired as much by my wife as myself.  I am always excited to get my hands on a few flavor of New Glarus, but when my wife saw the word "chocolate" on the label I knew that this review would be written sooner than later.  Besides, let's be honest, how amazing does a Chocolate Abbey beer sound?  I know.  I thought so too.  Let's pour!

Picture is my own.  Label art used without permission for educational purposes.

Aroma 12/12
There is not a lot here to balance out all the sweetness, but with an aroma this good you might not want it.  It starts out with an amazing cocoa powder and banana blend, almost like a bananas Foster without the alcohol.  Amazing!  As the beer settles, a bubble gun aroma overtakes the nose and does not let go until a cream and chocolate pair dance into the scene and steal your attention.  As the beer warms a cherry aroma develops and its origins are a mystery.

Appearance 3/3
What initially appears as a matte brown ale, actually turns out to be a wonderful dark copper when it catches the light.  Ruby highlights abound and are capped by a pale tan head.  The head's retention is excellent but slides down the glass easily and leaves no lacing.

Picture is my own.

Flavor 18/20
This is a much more subtle beer than the aroma would imply.  First in the mouth is a brief cherry like tartness before mellowing into a backbone more true to the Dubbel style.  It is uncertain how cherries came out in the flavor (and aroma) as no cherries are mentioned anywhere on the bottle, but their presence is unmistakable.  The backbone is a muffled, dark cocoa, a balancing amount of earthiness, those mysterious dark cherries, a hop bitter on the back on the tongue, a taste of alcohol (but not the true "warmth"), and Belgian yeasts struggling to be heard in the background.  The finish returns us a bit more to the aroma with a moderately dark chocolate, a slightly sour bite perhaps from our hop friends, and a bitter that combines with the chocolate note to make a lovely coffee bitter several seconds after the beer has left your mouth.  Just let that flavor develop and pay attention to it!  It's very tasty.  You may also catch the revival of the Belgian "bubble gum" aroma on the occasional exhale.  Not much to speak of in the finish, just more of the cocoa and a light hop bitter which leaves the mouth neither dry nor watering.  A slurp reveals the warmth that has remained all but hidden.

Mouthfeel 4/5
The carbonation in this beer is perfect right down to the very end.  It is never out of character and its smooth nature only enhances the drinking experience.  Full bodied and thick, it is never syrupy, but fairly filling for just on 12 oz bottle.  It does remain a bit slick in the mouth.

Overall Impression 9/10
So much of this beer is excellent without being over the top - most notably the chocolate.  It provides an amazing aroma, but truly allows other ingredients to shine throughout the rest of the beer.  In fact, the chocolate was quite modest; it could have stood to stand out a little more.  However, this mature use of ingredients that are often heavily leaned upon by lesser beers is another fine example of the brewers' skills at New Glarus.   Excellently crafted while reigning in some traditional large flavors, this beer is an exercise in discipline.

Total 46/50

This score just goes to show that not just big beers can earn high marks.  Sure, this beer could be bigger!  They could blast us with chocolate and mocha flavors while making the Belgian aroma strong enough to think our noses are septum-deep in a freshly picked bunch of bananas.  The alcohol could be more apparent and strong in presence.  But you know what?  Not all music is a rock concert.  Not everything needs to be played at ear drum shattering levels.  Sometimes some Frank Sinatra is required.  This is a beer that has tamed all of these ingredients and whose nuance has apparently even added mysterious "overtones" in the form of cherries.  I still have no idea how those got there other than a possible combination of sweet yeast flavors, a slight hop sour, and dark chocolate notes.  I swear there are chocolate-covered cherries in this.  This is a technically superior beer that happens to be pretty darn tasty too.  I'd probably choose some of their other Thumbprint series over this one (Hello, Imperial Weizen!), but this is definitely worth trying.

New Glarus - Thumbprint IIPA

OK, so I have had this beer for a while now and watched other reviews "scoop" me and talk about this beer. I have really been trying to hold off (and spread out my New Glarus reviews) on reading them so that I can be totally surprised.  Today, I can hold out no longer!  It is FRIDAY, Untappd.com just celebrated their millionth check-in (that should appropriately date this post), and I am ready for some fantastic beer.  Very excited to say... Let's pour!

Picture is my own.  Bottle art image used without permission for educational uses only.

Aroma 10/12
Clean, nonastringent citrus notes are first to the nose and primarily feature grapefruit aromas.  White grapes(?) can also be detected as well as a peppered, piney sidenote.  It seems like this paragraph should be longer with all the goodness happening here, but it is a very simple, yet beautiful aroma. The malt is in there somewhere, but my "beginner's nose" is not yet able to discern it from the greenhouse-full of hops.

Appearance 3/3
A vibrant, "Lux Aurumque" fills my glass.  A slightly aggressive pour yields tons of ivory colored head (see picture) that still covers the surface halfway through the pint and leaves spots of lacing as well.  The head appears soapy through the sides of my pint glass, but looks foamy and cloud-like from the top.  Very appealing!  I was surprised to see how clear this beer was for an Imperial, let alone one that is bottle fermented.  There is a bit of translucence, but it is far from cloudy or opaque and much closer to transparent.

Picture is my own.

Flavor 19/20
The beer only rings in at 85 IBUs for an IIPA, which is lower than some IIPAs & DIPAs but helps New Glarus achieve an amazing balance in this beer.  Initial flavors are the hop grassiness and malt in a keen, but hop-leaning balance.  As the beer is held in the mouth and the backbone flavors grow, the true balance (and talent of New Glarus' brewers) becomes wildly apparent.  The backbone allows the malt to really step up and counter a lot of the hop bitterness, but not the hop flavor.  That means you are drinking an IIPA that is becoming steadily sweeter, yet still maintains the grapefruit/citrus flavors.  The bitter is never absent (and it should not be!), but it definitely lets other flavors do their thing.  The finish gradually becomes more bitter as the hops contact the back of the tongue, but still does not let the sweetness become overwhelmed.  It even hints at a bit of the warmth that has been so well camouflaged until this point.  Aftertaste, in the beginning of the pint is remarkably clean.  Yes, I said a clean finish in an IIPA.  However, once the mouth becomes more saturated with flavors toward the end of the pint, the aftertaste shows the peppery hop notes from the aroma as well as a non-overwhelming hop bitter.  While not truly clean toward the end of the bottle, I am guessing that this is as clean a finish as an IIPA is ever going to get.

Mouthfeel 5/5
How is a beer this lightly colored this full-bodied?  This is not a bad thing, in fact it is remarkably appropriate for the imperial style.  The carbonation tends to peter out a bit toward the end of the pint, but with the spiciness on the tongue any more carbonation may have easily been mistaken as prickly.  The warmth in this beer is all but undetectable and wondrously hidden.

Overall Impression 9/10
This beer has it all: stylistically accurate, technically sound, complex flavor, insane balance, and a robust "exbeerience." (TM)  What else is there to say?  You know it is impressive when even someone who is hesitant about hops (*ahem*) sings its praises.


Total 46/50
I'm not going to say that this beer is going to convert any "hop haters" out there or drinkers unaccustomed to the bitter "grassy" taste of a hop abundant brew, but I will say that those who are on the fence (or getting there) NEED to try this brew.  The balance is remarkable and the flavor features things IN ADDITION to hops.  Unfortunately, this is still a novel idea to many brewers that could be making ridiculous brews if they so chose.  Very clean, very crisp, very refreshing.  There is no way I would have guessed that this beer as a 9% ABV.  This is truly a treat to anyone that has the opportunity to try it and is the reason I keep drinking New Glarus beer.  Kudos to Dan & Deb!  You two are heroes.