During my recent visit to Wisconsin, a friend and I were able to take the new-ish Hard Hat Tour at New Glarus. To say this was an incredible experience would be selling it very short. I didn’t go into it with particularly high expectations as I’ve been on a lot of brewery tours in my day, but never have I been on one that allowed such access to both staff and space.
Our tour was led by Mike, a brewer at the original brewery (which New Glarus calls the Riverside brewery), who got his brewing industry start at the Star Brewery in Dubuque, Iowa. When he announced prior to starting that we should expect the tour to last at least three hours, I really thought he was kidding. Ninety minutes? Sure. Two hours? I could see that. But three hours? No way.
I was glad that everyone else wanted to wear their hard hats too!
One nice point about the Hard Hat Tour is that it is limited to 15 people at a time. Our group was relatively on time, and we grabbed hard hats and entered what used to be the gift shop of the Riverside brewery.
Now, I had taken the tour of the Riverside brewery a couple of times over the years, so I was expecting the same old thing, except with a live person instead of the handheld tour recordings. It took about two minutes to dispel that expectation as we entered the brew hall, and went immediately up the steps to the landing surrounding the kettles. Here we got a completely geeky explanation of the real life operation of these beautiful heritage copper kettles from the man who has worked them on a daily basis for years on end (including overseeing the production of Dan Carey’s gorgeous Unplugged Bohemian Lager).
While I’ve always been taken by the beauty and history of these brewing vessels, seeing them up close was a real treat.
I was very relieved to hear that this beautiful brewhouse continues to be operated extensively as the base for the New Glarus brands that do not sell at a particularly high volume, and for the Unplugged and the new line of R&D experimental beers.
Riveted by the rivets.
After soaking up the atmosphere of the well-polished historic brewing system, it was time to move further behind the scenes onto the Riverside fermentation and packaging floor. Here we again quickly moved beyond the gate that had stopped the previous iteration of the New Glarus tour, and got to look at all of the fermentation tanks and Riverside bottling line.
Our guide Mike (r) was very happy to not be dipping bottles.
Loyal employees were very hard at work on the day of our tour hand-dipping bottles of Belgian Red in sealing wax. The 750ml bottling machine is another gorgeous antique that New Glarus lovingly maintains because it works. The same goes for the amazing pre-WWII malt mill that our guide Mike personally looks after – fashioning new parts when needed – despite the fact that it takes hours to grind the grain for a batch, as opposed to the 20 minutes of the Hilltop Brewery’s state of the art wet mill.
We were also treated to an upclose look at New Glarus’ pilot brew system – complete with glycol cooling. Mike said that Dan Carey rarely makes use of it as Dan simply has the gift of creating recipes in his head and knowing exactly how they will turn out on New Glarus’ full-size brew systems.
I don't think Liz will let me get glycol even if I start calling my homebrew kit a "pilot system."
Finally, it was time to pile into our cars and drive the mile or so to the appropriately named Hillside brewery. Sitting atop a hill at the eastern end of New Glarus, the new brewery offers a panoramic view of the town and the surrounding (surprisingly hilly for those who have not been) countryside.
The brewery itself is built for ready expansion, with one of the exterior walls no more than a temporary feature of the structure. The brewery is a striking building that carries on the Swiss-influenced styling of the Riverside facility, but with lovely landscaping and beautiful public spaces. The gift shop and tasting room is a warm, welcoming woody space.
However, we were not limited to the public spaces. We passed right through and into the production facility. The Hilltop brewery was constructed by the Wisconsin-based Krones company, who recently merged with the Steineker company, a leading German producer of brewing systems. The result is quite simply, stunning. Everything seems very logically laid out and well-planned, with easily accessed stainless steel piping running throughout.
The brew house at the Hilltop brewery.
Now, I’ve toured quite a few breweries in my day from the incredibly large, to some very humble artisanal operations, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Despite all the obvious high end equipment, there was a very nice aesthetic too. This was a building where the team is allowed to produce art, but with the finest tools at their disposal. An example is the brew kettles – they’re big stainless Steinekers, but New Glarus went to the time and expense of having copper covers made that echo the brewhouse at the Riverside facility.
There were two big surprises for me on the remainder of the tour. The first occurred in the QC lab, where an enthusiastic Randy Thiel greeted the tour and proceeded to give an extremely engaging explanation of his team’s efforts, ably fielding the few geeky follow-ups that were asked following his thorough talk. Dan Carey was hanging out in the next office, greeted us and amiably took both questions and compliments from the assembled geekery.
Looking down into one of the open top wheat fermenters.
The second surprise was the wheat beer fermentation room. Yes, a dedicated wheat fermentation room, complete with stainless open tops with their own clean-in-place hookups and a special air management system to keep the wheat beer yeasties isolated. Very, very cool.
After we’d finished with the production part of the tour, we moved up to the hospitality area where six New Glarus beers awaited us (Raspberry Tart; Unplugged Cran-bic; Unplugged Old English Porter; R&D Golden Ale; Snowshoe; and Yokel), along with a nice selection of Wisconsin cheeses and crackers. We were left to determine what we’d like to taste, and invited to use the employee break room to rinse out glasses. Instead of being just tourists, we were really made to feel at home.
Deb Carey made an appearance to greet us, and answer any questions we might have. After three and half hours of Mike’s excellent tutelage, there were precious few that remained. Mike remained in the hospitality area until everyone had left. I saw him spend a good half hour fielding very detailed questions from a group of homebrewers, before joining us to reminisce about great New Glarus beers of the past, as well as to talk about some of the exciting things that the brewing team is working on for the future.
As I waddled to the on-site beer depot to load up the trunk, I realized we’d spent almost four hours on our “tour.” As amazing as that seems, the time really flew by quickly, and I left with an even greater appreciation for the efforts of Dan and Deb Carey, and their very talented team. A hearty thanks to all at New Glarus for a wonderful day.
The main entrance to the Hilltop Brewery.
Really, really big fermenters.
Part of the stock of Spotted Cow 1/2 bbls. conditioning in the cold room.
The Hilltop brewery is pretty on the inside too.
