3 things you (probably) don’t know about Spotted Cow

New Glarus Brewing Company’s Spotted Cow is the best-selling craft beer in Wisconsin, but how much do you actually know about the contents of that famous green bottle?

According to Dan Carey, head brewmaster at New Glarus and creator of Spotted Cow, the beer is mildly sweet with a somewhat sour twang–“a subtle fruitiness of peach, orange, apricot, and banana.”

Here are 3 things you (probably) don’t know about the Wisconsin-born beverage:

🐄 Its name inspiration doesn’t come from a local cow.

The name actually came to Carey during a family trip to England to receive an award for their Wisconsin Belgian red ale. Dan’s wife, Deb, was amazed at how many sheep she saw and started thinking that Wisconsin tourists probably have similar thoughts about our cows. She thought it’d be funny to put a cow on a beer label and “maybe even name a beer after the animal’s appearance.”

🐄 Spotted Cow, which is notoriously only sold in Wisconsin, was once available outside the state.

From 1998 to 2002, the beer was also sold in Illinois. But the company struggled to meet demand in both states. The brewery’s beer finder shows 400 bars and restaurants that serve Spotted Cow within 50 miles of Wausau alone! New Glarus doesn’t ship either. And don’t even think about reselling it across state lines–that could land you prison time!

🐄 The beer is in a category all its own.

Spotted Cow sometimes is labeled as “cream ale.” Other times, it’s a “naturally-cloudy farmhouse ale.” Carey said he thinks of all his beers, including Spotted Cow, as “our beer” and not in terms of any defined style–like a musician that doesn’t want to be confined to a single genre.