Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

I kind of hate you guys for hyping Lunches, Brunches so much; could not have cared less when it originally came out, and now I'm on the "omg when will Mike make it again?!?" bandwagon on pure curiosity.

My SoJ was pretty hazy (at least one of the two bottles; I didn't get through the second), but yeah, it was definitely not at all what I expected. Maybe they need to roll out a "Father of Juice" DIPA; that'd fix at least some of the issues I had with SoJ.

If that were a beer with nothing weird added (including fruit juice), I'd be all on board!

 

I was wondering about this myself. With that being said, weren't the last cans of Cumulus 8/20 or so? I'm pretty sure I had them at least within the first week (I'd had 2 cans by the time I posted on the 29th), which I assume means we should be seeing Stratus...this week?

Don't quote me, but that's my guess.

 

That's actually super exciting to me, because I've been wanting to try their stuff in general (I'm thinking about picking up their hallertau blanc-hopped saison this week). Good catch!

 

I was this close to posting on their Instagram, "so, can I buy this today, or tomorrow?"

 

In their defense (I haven't had their beers, so I'm just playing devil's advocate), Chicago is way too crowded to just succeed without luck. I mean, Sixpoint makes great beers, and yet they've pulled out of our market due to oversaturation (and speaking of which, they released a delicious, hazy/unfiltered version of Resin, "Puff," which is fantastic). Likewise, I meant to try Atlas, never did, and now it's Burnt City. Both Burnt City and their art catch my attention more than Atlas, and Hop Butcher sounds more interesting than South Loop, so I can't fault them.

You're right about the NE IPA thing, though. I'm as guilty of perpetuating this as anyone, but that's definitely a way to get your name out there. On the other hand, if they do a good job, they have a new fan. So maybe that's a good thing?

 

I wasn't clear what exactly caused the issues, so thanks for clearing that up (I checked their site, and it was vague enough that it told me only what I already figured).

 

I enjoyed a tour of Finch's a few years back, although I always got the feeling (based on things I'd heard) that it was run by a dude with money who just thought "it'd be cool to own a brewery." I commend them on the fact that they've acknowledged how badly they've played Chicago in the past, and hope it changes. And as a fan of the now deceased Homaro Cantu (iNG), I'm hoping to check out Old Irving either this weekend or next.

But you're right, you need to do something either really interesting, or really well to stand out, currently. I think it's not completely a surprise that newer/smaller breweries are the first here to really jump on the NE IPA bandwagon; they've got the least to lose, and the most to gain. Mike/Mikerphone is basically known at this point as the "Special Sauce/NE IPA guy" (I mean, all his stuff is respected, but this is really what's put him on the map), and while I've loved Hailstorm's Vlad the Second for a year or two now, their cloud series is what has really opened me up to their more common offerings. And for breweries like Maplewood and Hubbard's Cave (well, projects like Hubbard's, I suppose I should say), this style of beer is what made me try their products in the first place (because again, it's a differentiator).