Unfortunately I lost my phone between my visit and now, so there's no photos here...
That being said, I recently visited New Glarus briefly, and below are what I think every New Glarus fan should know about their brewery and tasting room:
The brewery is beautiful, both inside and out. It is in a Swiss-looking farmstyle building, situated in the hills above the actual town of New Glarus. The outside is stunning, and definitely worth a photo op. The brewery itself consists of two parts for visitors. The first is the brewery, gift shop, and tasting room (upstairs). When you enter, you're in the gift shop and tasting room. They sell lots of neat New Glarus, Wisconsin, and beer related stuff here, as well as have a small bar at the registers where you can buy their beers by the pint, or in tasting flights. Either way, you get to keep the glass. At $3.50 for three three ounce pours, the flights are a steal. They usually have five or six of their brews on tap, so I always get two tastings so that I can taste them all. When you purchase the tasting, they give you a wristband with little tabs they pull off for each beer. You can refill them at your own pace (more on this later). On both of my visits, they had their two most popular beers (Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel), a few other year round brews, and at least one specialty beer on tap.
The brewery tour is self-guided. It begins in the back of the gift shop, and then leads you through a small room with their many awards and medals on display (if Dan or Deborah Carey happen to read this, if you keep doing what you're doing, this room will need to move or expand in the not-too-distant future!). You then go into the brewery itself. While most of the equipment is either roped off or behind glass, it is all visible. The staff in the brewery are very friendly, and will explain anything you have questions about. You are free to walk around at your leisure and explore the brewery, beer in hand, and, since it's self guided, you don't have to pace your drinking to your exploring. When your glass is empty, you simply go back, refill it, and start where you left off.
The other part of the facility is their beer depot, located downstairs off the parking lot. Here you can buy their beer for consumption at home or elsewhere. It is minimalist and very functional, but the prices are great!
Pros:
- Friendly, knowledgeable staff throughout the building. They will answer your questions, and can answer both in depth questions or simple ones, without making you feel stupid.
-You're right in the middle of the action.
-It's beautiful. The equipment is well maintained, and the views from both inside and outside of the brewery are wonderful.
-Obviously, the beer.
-Prices: Great beer at amazing prices.
-Walking around on the tour with a beer in your hand
-Since it's self guided, you can time your flight as you'd like.
Cons;
-The self guided tour is best suited for people with intermediate knowledge of the brewing process. For those with little knowledge, there isn't any signage or information about what you're actually looking at. If you don't know what a mash tun, lauder tun, fermenter, bright tank, and packaging line look like, you might not get a lot out of the tour. On the other hand, since it is self guided and they can't have people in the way of making their amazing beer, if you have a more advanced knowledge of brewing, you are kind of far away from the action, and might not get to see or learn the intricate details you're interested in. Both of these are somewhat offset by the friendliness of their staff, who will all (even the brewers) stop what they're doing to answer any questions you may have (if you happen to catch one). I would suggest that they continue to offer the self guided option, but a) put up some signs explaining the brewing process and equipment) and b) offer guided tours with brewery staff for those more interested.
-There's not really a good place to sit and enjoy a beer. If you're shopping for souveniers or wandering around the brewery, this is fine, but if you're not done with your beer or flight when you're through with these activities, a couple of barstools would be nice. In all fairness, I've only ever been in the winter, and they have a great patio off the gift shop which appears to have plenty of seating, and even an outdoor bar, not to mention an amazing view. So maybe this is only a seasonal problem.
-With only 6 taps, and most of them with their more popular and/or year round beers, if you're already familiar with New Glarus, you might not get to try some of their more interesting beers before you buy them.
-The beer depot seems to be out of certain beers every time I've been. I guess this is a good problem to have. Also, the staff are very helpful with this. If you're looking for a particular beer, they can tell you if and when they will have it in stock again. Or, if it's a seasonal beer, they will make recommendations of places nearby that may still have some, since the brewery depot often sells out before other retail locations.
Overall: All of the cons seem to have a mitigating factor, so I would say this is a pretty great experience. Definitely something worth checking out once. Make room in your luggage or trunk, though, because their swag is pretty cool, and the beer is amazing, so it's hard to leave this place empty handed.
