Toppling Goliath in Chicago (2018)

According to the tweet there is a beer run in Chicago on October 15th, and they are bringing King Sue

 

http://www.makingabeerrun.com Fret not, fellow beerthletes. It appears there is a 'beer fest only' registration as well.

 

I hope one day it'll make it here. Then we can see if all those tg hops are all they are cracked up to be or if homers are being homers

 

I love TG, but they're not better than what we've already got in Chicago. They're a great option, but definitely not the be all/end all.

 

Agreed they are good, but I think the pipeworks fish series is better than 99% of the IPA's TG makes

 

I've yet to have a TG beer that I found to be better than the best offerings of Pipeworks and Mikerphone. Some of the TG beers are really good, but none have impressed me the way my first sips of Square Grouper and Special Sauce did. Admittedly I've yet to try King Sue, so that may change my opinion (if I ever get a hold of one).

 

I've had lots from both. I am a huge PW fan but King Sue is amazing and the real Psuedo Sue (brewed in Decorah and not FL) is equally amazing. I give the slight hand of King Sue over Spotted Puffer (very slight). Both are amazing.

 

Cheers! I'll definitely have to get some King Sue. I love the debate about FL Sue vs Decorah Sue. I fall into the camp that the canned FL Sue is (now) just as good as the Decorah bombers of old, having had the Decorah bombers (including some of the last bombers pre-FL), the initial glass bottle four packs that WERE sub-par, the latest cans and the newer dry hopped variants. The shame is that I've seen Sue dying on shelves in Iowa while Zombie Dust moves so fast around here. I've drank them side by side and literally cannot decide which one I like better.

 

Sue all day, for me. Either way though, I'm a big TG fan, so I'll gladly add another brewery to crowded Chicago distro list.

 

Have had several TG IPA/APA and that Double Dry Hopped Pseudo Sue is top notch. But I agree Chicago already has plenty of beers on par for APA/IPA, if not better. Now that doesn't mean I won't buy TG beers when they show up in Chicago, heck ya I will. Hope they bring some imperial stouts too.

 

When Zombie is on, it beats Sue hands down....it's just seems that only once every blue moon (not the beer) is Zombie fresh enough to have the optimal balance.

Chicago has some great hoppy beers, but outside of the one summer Half Acre's taproom was restricted to brewing on site only and they couldn't bring in cans from the new place so they bottled a new hoppy beer in bombers every week to sell, we don't have a place that does so many top notch hoppy beers like TG does. They seem to put out a new (seasonal) top quality hoppy beer each month. Half Acre has about 3 that are up to par with TG's, but TG roll's about 12 great hoppy beers deep.

Outside of Lizard King, for world class hoppy beers Pipeworks really only makes DIPAs. My personal opinion is this is kind of like being the king of t-ball, yeah you do something exceptionally well, but you are also playing an easier game. High abv beverages that basically have three notes- sugary sweetness, alcohol and hops isn't too hard to do. I'd love to see them make more non-fruit added ipas and pales to see if they can strike gold outside of Lizard King.

It's hard to take Mikerphone seriously when it's like a nano brewery that only a few diehards can get their hands on. Would love to see this stuff hit mainstream to see a more diverse opinion on it. TG is easier to get in Chicago and they don't even distribute here.

With TG you can be sure you are getting a high quality, hoppy product that has more hop flavor than most of the stuff we have on shelves here.

 

It would feel weird to visit my relatives in Wisconsin and not visit Ray's Liquors and/or Tenuta's to pick up some Toppling Goliath.

I would probably only grab Sue and GN occasionally, but I would be all over any bombers that showed up just like every other beer nerd in the city. God forbid any of their stouts make it across the boarder, that might be truck-chasher Armageddon.

 

It's weird to say this, but I prefer the bitterness of PS to the balance of ZD (weird because I don't particularly love bitterness in my beers).

I agree with you that TG (supposedly) has an entire catalog of great beers, but I've never had the chance to try any of their non-hoppy beers (except their lager, which is fine), and don't realistically think I'll be grabbing Assassin or SR-71 anytime soon. So TG = more hoppy bears in Chicago, to me (TG, please prove me wrong!).

I'm one of the few people that thinks PW is overrated; I agree that their hoppy stuff is top-notch, but most of it gives me exactly the same feeling, so I never feel like I'm missing out, if for some reason I don't purchase one of their fish series. Even so, just the mere fact that I can grab one of the fish beers whenever I need a great DIPA makes it harder to worry about other breweries in a pinch.

And hell, now that Navaja is canned and easily accessible (and now that I've warmed to the drastic change in its profile), my DIPA needs are pretty solidly filled. I can usually grab Mikerphone stuff if I want to scratch my "NE" DIPA itch, and a bunch of local places are now putting out very solid hoppy beers (Hailstorm's cloud series, Brickstone's lineup, Lizard King as you've mentioned, hell, now Maplewood's Juice stuff, etc. etc.). I'm more of the "variety is the spice of life" type than the "loyal to one brewery" type, so while I love my TG (and look for it every time I'm in Wisconsin), it probably won't change my drinking habits too much. However, I would love to get canned PS a little more often (and a bomber of King would be amazing!).

My only fear is something like what happened with Sixpoint happening to another brewery I like; it seems like Chicago is starting to reach a saturation point with what can actually sit on shelves, and I don't want TG moving in to cause something else I'll miss to move out. I'm now having to shop in Wisconsin to pick up Sixpoint's Puff, and it would kind of blow to basically trade another brewery for TG (no matter how great TG is).

 

Dude, Tenuta's is awesome enough that you should still go there even if their beer section disappeared completely.

I'd love a bomber of the Iowa-brewed PS, just to put the can vs. bomber debate to rest.

 

I did a side-by-side of the bomber and can with a few friends maybe 3-4 months ago. Perhaps the cans have improved, but at that point, they were not remotely the same beer. I have had the cans from 4 or 5 batches, and been consistently underwhelmed.

 

Yeah, I've heard this more than one place, which I find weird (weird that they can't brew it in FL).

I want to try them for myself because I've been let down so many times in the past based on others' tastes (Hopslam, Zombie Dust, Enjoy By, KBS, etc.) that I want to see if the difference translates to something my palate actually appreciates.

 

I would love to be able to do this comparison. The last bombers I was able to get were the Citra and Galaxy dry hopped variants, which dropped a few months ago.