Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

or is it so five years from now?

 

Agreed except I liked mine so much I drank the whole thing I did give a bottle to my drinking buddy though. I think this beer is just as good as the best stuff I've had in the NE. It has quite a bit of bitterness which I like in my IPAs. I thought it was very much like Foundation's Epiphany which is a good thing because that's one of my favorite beers.

 

As of noon today, they had:
Grizzled, Hop drink, Blueberry maigre, Cucumber & lime maigre and Henry in bottles.
They had several others on draft and were filling growlers of Cromulent, but no cans.

 

Thanks. I had cromulent and obligatory and loved them both. Cannot wait for more.

 

The RAM in Schaumburg had their Juicy DIPA release over the weekend. This is one of the best NE IPAs from around here I've had. Super smooth, low bitterness, hazy, and saturated with hop flavors and aroma. Great stuff

 

Nice summary. I sure hope I get the chance to try Juicy and hope Shaun will run another batch in the foreseeable future?

 

Shaun said in an IG comment "next up: Morning Fog. An all mosaic hopped NE style DIPA"

Sounds great to me

 

Last night I did a Hubbard's Cave Fresh IV vs Trillium Melcher St (both Mosaic DIPA's) side by side comparison.

HC seems to have figured it out. As previously reported, they finally fixed the carbonation issue. Great haze and head retention. A little more dank and bitter than the Trillium.

The Trillium is a little juicer and has a softer mouth feel.

Having brewed a few more thousand batches,Trillium wins the head to head battle. But HC isn't far behind.

When the Une Annee taproom opens soon, these guys are going to blow up.
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Likewise!

 

Any Chicagoan's want to start a crowd funding page to get this Shaun the Brewer guy a brewery in Chicago so we can keep the good beer in the city?

 

I keep wondering...how long is this guy going to stay at Ram?

If he's that good (keep in mind I've had 0 of his beers), I'd love to see him brew ONLY the stuff he wants to...

 

Driving back to the city on Saturday afternoon (and being somewhat salty at missing out by 5 minutes), I said to my buddy..."that's what I get for driving out to the suburbs to get beer".

If he's that good, talent finds a way to move up.

 

I know its not Chicago, but wanted to mention a newer brewery I stopped at in STL on my way back home yesterday, called Narrow Gauge, based on a friend's recommendation. Its a brewery in an Italian restaurant/sports bar in the Florissant that is brewing NE style hops (restaurant is called Cugino's Italian Restaurant). They had 3 offerings when we were there and all were on par, if not better than the usual suspects brought up in this thread. So just a head's up if any of you ever make it to the area, definitely worth a stop in.

 

I would really love to do a blind tasting of these (I know, I know...it was already brought up earlier). I honestly have a tough time distinguishing a lot of these style beers from each other, and would be intrigued to see how that plays out having them side by side and blind. There are times where I like one more than the other (or think I do), but it's comparing something I'm having at the time to something I had weeks or months ago. Unfortunately, they're all brewed so sporadically in different spots that it would make it hard.

 

I bet it was the same friend who suggested that to me. I was down in Soulard two weekends ago for a wedding. I couldn't sneak away long enough to make it to Florissant. Hopefully I can make next time I'm down there!

 

Are you trolling us by trying to get us to drink beer more than a week old?! That's madness!!!

 

Dudes, just poured a Nimbus and it ain't too bad at all IMHO....fluffy mouthfeel, minimal bitterness, moderately hazy, I could smell it immediately after opening, great aroma. I am gomna have to get me some more! Got a bomber of Hubbard's Cave V4 I'm going to open today, also...