Latest Pipeworks Releases and Updates (2018)

The Revolution brewpub was at least 8 months behind any kind of anticipated schedule that Josh and crew had in mind when they cracked 2323 N. Milwaukee open, and dumped some million odd dollars (of investors money) into it to get the Revbrew ball rolling for what is currently the second largest production facility in the state, and whose brewpub also serves as the main stick in the craw for a former state board commissioner who is being a butthole and using it as a reason to shut down nearly every single breweries options and dreams to have a taproom / brewpub altogether. Shit happens, especially when you piss off the wrong people. If you care for real about good Illinois beer, write these people with power and aim your bitching at them. Until then. Sit down, and plug your hole (with some locally made beer.)

 

Mostly Norwegian, but fully on point.

 

North & Western is a winner. Can that, please?!

I would imagine that will be a base beer for many experiments in the future. Awesome stuff. Could easily imagine that with Brett in there

Also this puts me at 55 different PWs beer I can remember drinking.

 

Damn and I thought lebron had mad hops

 

Agree on North & Western. That's a thing.

 

Latest Pipeworks Release and Update via twitter. ISO: Unicorn is the Ninja

 

wahhh

 

you guys have come a long way since you two gave a little speech at the cbs homebrew meeting on thirst fursday at goose island. thats awesome and keep it up!

 

Wasn't there but ya, Gerrit and Beejay are doing work.

They are doing most of this without a huge financial supporter. Growing a small business is a lot of work. Anyone who doesn't understand this is an idiot.

Pipeworks is succeeding. Just be patient. It's clear what their goals are. Hell, they've expressed their goals on this forum and have been completely transparent about what their goals and limitations are.

Not every brewery can do everything they want to do right off the bat like a Prairie Artisans. It takes TIME to make the money necessary to reinvest in a company. Good news is PWs has a great fanbase that is willing to invest in their current lineup as they take each step necessary to transition towards the ultimate goal.

 

a little preview of the cans...

(no they aren't 11% abv, just place holder text, and also no not finalized on the logo update)

 

This made my day!!!!!

 

Love the way this is looking. Been pretty good about collecting all of the PW bottles I drink (up to 68 I think) and now I'll have to add a place for cans!

 

Can't wait for some canned PW!! Logo looks awesome and hopefully these are available sooner than later.

Keep up the good work guys!!

 

1. of course. at the moment Binny's said they would still be able to do FWB for our Barrel Aged stuff, but nothing more since we are tripe and quadruple batching everything and very few people were actually coming during the hold week. they were kind enough to do that for us for 2 years while we got our shit together and we're thankful they did it for that long!

2. i don't think we'll apply any FWB stuff to cans because each week should see about 5000+ 4 packs of NVU (for example) we hope... so cans will be readily available

3. we WILL at some point have the retail shop open and we can then hold for FWB anything they want including cans... (say coming from out of town or wanting shipped). the latest word on that is the tenant will be out September 1st and we probably won't get that licensed up until after the new brewery is functional, so looking at early next year for the shop.

 

@Pipeworks do you know what you're bringing to Naperville Ale Fest? I had fun taking down a bunch of NvU and Coffee Break last year.

 

I am drinking a Toasty Nut abduction from the latest batch (Batch 383-385) and something seems off. I had one from the original batch and it was great, so I don't think its me. The nose is kind of funky smelling, and there are some strange off flavors. I am drinking this one with my wife who also agrees something is not right. I'm sure I lack the vocabulary to accurately describe what it is, but has anyone else tried the latest batch and can confirm this? I bought two bottles, but now I'm worried the other ones going to be bad as well. Its disappointing because the toasty nut is one of my favorite abductions.

 

It's you. I had one last night and it was great. I did get more coconut but I wouldn't necessarily consider that a strange off flavor... Split it with a friend an we both enjoyed it more than the previous batch.

 

I'll throw this wrench in the debate since it's already out there and unanswered: Opened up a bottle of this batch on the 4th. First stout on a palette that had only tasted two sours. ZERO coconut. I wouldn't say it was 'off', but just chocolate bomb vs the bottle of the first batch of TNA back when it came out, which had lots of coconut. Not one of the 7 people who took a pour could decipher any coconut characteristic at all.

That being said, while I would like to expend energy towards a full-on rant, I'm trying to NOT be that guy, so I will see my way out after this: less adjuncts, more consistency. I'm positive there will be some excuse as to how/why this batch was different from the first, explanation on how going forward the next one will be nailed down, yadda yadda. How many times has this happened? Pretty sure I have bought my last to-be-consumed bottle. Good thing is the stuff makes good trade bait. The bad part of that? I know full well I am uncertain of the quality of the beer I'm sending out, only that it has this hot, up-and-comer name behind it, and while it's nice to have these full disclosure posts amongst these threads where a rep indicates the excuses exampled above to refer people to, it's not only the PW reputation that's out there, but also that of anyone who sends out these inconsistent batches to friends, family, random trading partners, etc. I did say I wasn't going full-on rant right? I'll stop here.

 

Devil's Advocate here - Prop, one of the most highly regarded coconut stouts, is well known for having very inconsistent amounts of coconut. The first bottle I tried literally had coconut shards in the last few pours, the second - a week later - lacked almost any hint of coconut.

Perhaps coconut is just a difficult adjunct to nail down, it's possible that the weight of the coconut makes it congregate towards the bottom of the bottling vessel, so the first few bottles that are filled get the blunt of the flavor and the coconut character decreases as the bottle count rises. I'm just speculating though.

Regarding consistency, even when brewing with the exact same quantities of the exact same ingredients, you can wind up with a pretty different beer. There are so many variables that go into brewing which can affect your batch that it's almost impossible to control everything. Larger breweries blend batches for this reason to create the illusion of consistency. With a smaller operation like Pipeworks, they don't really have the means to save portions of old batches for blending with the exception of something like NvU which they've been brewing consistently enough that it becomes feasible.

Do we harp on other breweries when their non-year-round releases are different than they were the previous time they were released? If it's a shit batch (see this year's BCS) then yes, but for the most part people like to discuss the differences between batches and speculate about which was the best vintage, etc. Yet when Pipeworks releases a new batch of something that was brewed previously and it's remotely different, shit hits the fan.

Seriously, can we give these guys a fucking break? Pipeworks isn't even three years old yet, they've completely redefined the Chicago beer scene, and there is a copy-cat popping up seemingly every month, they've been expanding pretty much non-stop, they have a new facility opening soon and a tap room in the works, but people feel the need to harp on them for every little thing.