Leave it to Dan Carey to build a better pale ale. The Midwest’s Michelangelo of Mashing scoured the Pacific Northwest for the perfect blend of hops to create a bold-yet-balanced pale ale to mind the gap between tongue-numbing West Coast-style IPAs and mind-numbing session lagers. Another beer named after a Carey pet, Moon Man No Coast Pale Ale aims to hit that sweet spot between full flavor and drinkability. Unfortunately, it comes at the cost of losing Hop Hearty IPA from the New Glarus year-round line-up. A solid pale in its own right, lets hope it isn’t gone for good (thankfully, Dan is a gracious brewmaster known to resurrect old favorites). Blast off. Next stop – the pale side of the moon.
New Glarus Moon Man No Coast Pale Ale
Style: (“No Coast”) American Pale Ale
Vitals: 5.0% abv; 5 varieties of (mystery) hops, dry-hopped with 2.25 lbs of hops per barrel
True to style, Daniel took his time ensuring this ground breaking brew is exactly what it should be. He personally oversaw the hop harvest in the fields of Washington. He spent over 6 months painstakingly perfecting the hop blend alone. Finally utilizing 5 varieties of hops, of which three are not commonly used in American style ales. “Moon Man” is dry hopped 2 and a 1/2 times as much as is commonly practiced in dry hopped beer (2.25 pounds per barrel). It is powerfully aromatic, and pale golden in color. Like most of New Glarus Brewing Company’s brews, it is bottle fermented the old fashioned way, meaning there is no artificial carbonation. Don’t let this one lay around, it is brewed to be enjoyed today. Bold and engaging without pretense, because in Wisconsin you do not have to be extreme to be real. Just be. -newglarusbrewing.com “
My take: pale amber in the glass under a foamy white, lace-leaving head. Nose is rife with citrus and herbal hop notes and husky pale malts. Late hop additions leave a dry, herbal hops impression on the palate with a crackery lingering maltiness. Drinkability is off-the-charts in a way that even style-standards such as Sierra Nevada Pale Ale can’t replicate. A highly-engineered session pale ale for nearly any occasion.
Hi there,
My name is David Kaye, and I am the executive producer of an upcoming documentary on Wisconsin Beer for Milwaukee Public Television. We are in the final stages of editing this week, and have some great stories about Moon Man Beer. However, we realized we didn’t get any good shots of the beer itself. I googled for images, and was wondering if you would mind if we used your great picture of the Moon Man for our show?
Thanks,
David
Hello David,
You may absolutely use my shot for your show. I would love to view the final documentary if there’s any way you could inform me when it airs or how a Madisonian might be able to view it. Best of luck.
Prost!
Travis Reinke
Thank you so much for your help. It will be on the air in Milwaukee, but will be posted online on the website for Milwaukee Public Television as well. I will let you know when it’s up. We visited three breweries in the Madison area, so we’ll be trying to get it to a lot of people out there.