Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

Had morning fog, good, but definitely RH is light years ahead.

 

Always nice to see folks focusing on what's really important when it comes to beer.

 

This is why a difference in opinion is great for the beer scene! I tend to agree with beerbelly_mike, I think Morning Fog is hands down the better option over RH. To the point where I'm currently trying to trade off all of my remaining 6 cans of it for more Morning Fog or JiL

Everybody likes something different, and that's a good thing!

 

Just want to add some thoughts on the Transient situation as an outsider and as someone who has spent time in the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast, and frequented those BA forums before moving to the Great Lakes region recently.

1. First, the beer (Juice is Loose) is totally insane good. I'm not a big fan of the NE style IPAs having just spent 6 years on the West Coast but I've had this beer two days in a row and I'm blown away.

2. With that said, it's really unbecoming on everyone involved to engage in these discussions about pricing etc. in the open forum when they become discourteous and uncivil.

2a. As a new member to this forum, it makes me less interested in contributing in the future.
2b. Everyone has a right to post what they want and if we're not going to talk about beer (which includes beer pricing) here then where will we? But again when that all too familiar back and forth between brewer and salty BA poster starts, yuck. Full disclosure: I've been the poster in this scenario before and it went nowhere over and over again.

3. More generally, and I don't mean to come off as holier-than-thou, but everyone needs to take a f-ing deep breath and remember the "community" part of this whole thing. The Pacific Northwest forum has this down and there's a lot to learn there from how they run things in their BA forum and even more so offline in their beer community.

Sorry about the long post and happy new year.

 

Another outlier in the "unfiltered IPA" scenario is Lagunitas Born Yesterday. Not a NE style, per se, but shares a lot of characteristics.

Side note: I generally dislike Laginitas' stuff but I thought Born Yesterday was above average.

 

This a weird paragraph. I know you trade a lot based on other posts, and there isn't anything wrong with that per se, but what about enjoying a beer?

 

Born Yesterday is fantastic. And grabbing some requires about the right amount of effort.

 

Now if I hear someone bring up "secondary market value" I'm going to puke... Haha.

 

Tried Mellotron last night. Was very good for style, but won't have again because I'm not a DIPA fan. When the Midwest figures out how to dial in NE IPAs at actual IPA abvs I'm going to be a lot more excited. Most of these beers we see are 8+ abv. I do miss the effervescent carbonation like flavor or hop bite of a traditional IPA when doing these NE style ones.

 

You should try Snooze Juice at Forbidden Root. NE style pale, 5.3%

 

Marz's NE MDW bottling tomorrow. Missed it on draft so I'll seek out a bottle version

 

Tonight I had all three in order: Juice is Loose, Morning Fog, and Reply if Hazy.

The night before I had in order: Morning Fog and Juice is Loose.

In my opinion I thought Juice was Loose was the best followed closely by Morning Fog. I thought they were both considerably better than Reply if Hazy though.

With that said Reply if Hazy was better than Mellotron and Galaxy Bowl #2, and possibly GB1. I thought it was the best of all of the NE IPAs from HBFTW.

I was surprised at how good JiL was and I was super glad I was able to pick up some considering I was a day late in hunt.

 

After putting together a side by side of JIL, Morning Fog, and Reply Hazy...i give the edge to Reply Hazy. Even with the different hop profiles which can be difficult to judge, I appreciate the slightly less balanced and tropical notes I think Hop Butcher delivers into their beers. JIL is good but I just didn't like it as much as the other two, felt it wasn't as flavorful to me.

Again it's hard to compare different hops but this is the closest I got. These were all three tasty , and the stuff coming into Chicago lately is standing up to the other heavy hitters.

 

Anyone done a study on calories in a NE DIPA vs regular DIPA?

 

picked up the 12/21 Hailstorm Stratus tonight. completely different beer than when I had it a few batches ago. the beer has drastically improved.

 

I had Marz's NE MDW DIPA on draft tonight. I think it captures the NE style better than every local version with the exception of Juicy. So drinkable for 8% and hazy/juicy. JIL and Galaxy batch 1 are great beers but in terms of style Marz has attempted the Trillium style nearly as well as anyone in Chicago

 

Agreed! I feel that almost all Chicago attempts at this style have a distinct bubble gum taste to them that you don't get from the likes of tree house and trillium. Didn't get this MDW at all. Can't wait to try the bottled version.

 

I was at both NE breweries last week and it struck me that nobody can capture the mouthfeel that Treehouse gets. Even Trillium right down the highway. Did you hear the bottled version will be have some alteration in the hop bill for MDW?