Where to get spotted cow in chicago

Yeah, I just said that. Enough pale ale lines the shelves of the average craft beer store that I presumed Moon Man would qualify as not worth the drive. But then I opened one. This beer smells surprisingly and appetizingly sweet — an unlikely intersection of butterscotch, cotton candy, mango, kiwi and orange.

Moon Man is similarly sweet on the palate, but less intensely so. The hops seep through with very little bitterness, hewing toward a soft and gentle tropicality before landing with a clean finish. At a mere 5 percent alcohol, the approachability and unique compositon of this pale ale make it one of the very best. Pilsner has become a stealthy hit in the craft beer world in recent years; Sierra Nevada, Firestone Walker and Goose Island have all introduced them, while Victory Brewing's Prima Pils is a go-to for many savvy drinkers.

Two Women is arguably better than all of them. Well, let's call it a tie with Prima Pils. This extraordinary pilsner is rife with breadiness and a gently sweet maltiness sort of like Moon Man.

Unlike many craft pilsners, there is virtually no defining hop character to this beer. It's just a simple, clean pilsner that's obviously made with quality ingredients. The bar to recommend driving all the way to Cheeseland for a pilsner should be high, especially with a decent selection on our shelves and a primo lager-focused brewery — Metropolitan Brewing — in our backyard.

But Two Women is that good. In a more sensible world, this would be the New Glarus flagship, not Spotted Cow. If you are a habitual Spotted Cow drinker, give Two Women a try. You'll thank me. Worth the drive? Yes — especially in summer, when a cold pilsner from the bottle tastes just right. Imperial IPAs have proliferated to the point that I find half of them quite good and the other half undrinkable. I count this one in the good half.

But if any beer depends on freshness, it's an imperial IPA, and who knows how fresh the bottles are just over the state line. I say this because I've been wowed by some bottles of this beer and shrugged off others. I'd pick up a four-pack at the brewery if I planned to drink it relatively quickly. Try instead: Pipeworks' Ninja vs. Unicorn, or whatever Half Acre hop bomb just came out. Apple Ale fruit beer. Other than Spotted Cow, New Glarus is probably best known for its fruit beers.

Among them is Apple Ale, a brown ale that gets an addition of pressed Wisconsin apples. It's a simple concoction that tastes simple — a bit too simple. Apple Ale is fresh and lively, but one more dimension would do wonders, whether a more robust beer base or a bit more earthiness or tartness. I'll stick with the burgeoning cider world if I crave the intersection of apples and alcohol.

Also, I'll be curious to check out Virtue Cider's Chicago relaunch in early Granted, this is a "Wisconsin framboise," which means it is intended to be sweet. But it is so very sweet and lacking an important component I was expecting based on its name: tart.

Raspberry Tart does show a trace of tartness and earthy funk upfront, but both give way to an incredibly long and sweet finish that makes this beer a bit too reminicent of soda or, as we say here in the Midwest, pop.

New Glarus suggests drinking this beer "very cold," which does suppress the sweetness a bit and ups its refreshing character. Actions Facebook Tweet Email. Chicago Cubs busted 'smuggling' Spotted Cow beer back to Illinois.

By: Tess Klein. It looks like the Chicago Cubs are fans of Wisconsin. Copyright Scripps Media, Inc. Likely looking to drown their sorrows after losing 2 of 3 to the Brewers, the Chicago Cubs appear to have been busted smuggling New Glarus' Spotted Cow across the Illinois border on their team bus. Carrying the "Wisconsin Only" brew across the border after buying is fine, but bar owners outside of Wisconsin have actually been charged with felonies before for secretly selling the beer across state lines.

We'll just take this as tacit acknowledgement that Wisconsin beer is superior to those brewed in Chicago. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.