Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

If you haven't had Society & Solitude 4 from Hill Farmstead, that alone would be worth a trip if you lived nearby (which we of course don't).

Best IPA I've ever had.

 

Yeah I'm a bit puzzled by people thinking Chicago doesn't have a good craft beer bar scene, we have great beer bars. We don't have the best brewpub scene but having lived in NYC I can say theirs isn't really that great either. You don't get everything anywhere to be honest. When I was in Portland I was impressed by the brewpubs there but disappointed by the beer bars.

Chicago is spoiled in so many different beer ways it seems silly to complain.

 

I'd definitely love to try some of their IPA's (or stouts). I've only had their farmhouse/saisons, which are nice, but didn't knock my socks off. I think they were a tad funkier than I like - the funk / flavor combo with those styles can be delicate, I've found. That being said, I don't usually get too worried about trying stuff that's not around here because I've done that so many times with Trillium, Treehouse, Heady, Modern Times, etc. that most of the time I end up saying, "That was nice to try (and I may have even liked it a good deal), but I don't NEED to have it - I have plenty of good beer accessible to me." If they were accessible to me, I'd certainly try them more, and maybe sing a different tune (although I've tried plenty of some of the aforementioned ones and not been impressed). In the end, I'm extremely happy with the beer I've got...but always willing to try new ones.

 

All of Grimm's sours, IPAs, and stouts. BA Biscotti, Michigan Maple Jesus. Oxbow saisons/sours. Night Shift. A ton of Crooked Stave sours. BA Bible Belt by Prairie. An Ale Apothecary sour. Westbrook's Gose. Modern Times.

Not to be a dick, but what do you like? They literally have everything covered.

There are literally 200 beers on their menu better than anything at Revolution.

 

We'll agree to disagree on Chicago having the best distro in the country. We have the most shelf turds, for lack of a better phrase, in the country maybe. But all of the other big cities have caught up to Chicago.

 

I personally have lived in tons of different cities and then traveled to a ton more for work. Chicago's distribution is insane compared to basically every other city out there.

 

When did you live in NYC? Their brewpub scene has changed drastically in the past year.

Sand City, Interboro, Other Half, Three's, LIC Beer Project, SingleCut. Yes, most of them are in Brooklyn, but they're all incredibly cool places.

 

Obviously that's your opinion, and there's nothing wrong with that. Considering I'd rather have Local Hero by Revolution than a Treehouse IPA, I don't think you & I will see most beers the same way...and there's nothing wrong with that either.

Sours aren't my thing, so I would've completely looked by those. I like mostly IPA's and BA stouts (shocker I know), but it's more about my post above where I referenced I'm extremely happy with the beer I have access to here. It's nice they had some of the local stuff we have here, but I'd rather go to Local Option and have a bunch of PW stuff on tap, as well as stuff like Speedway Stout, BCBS, etc.

And I know that visitors that come here and take our recommendations always seem to be pretty happy about places they can visit here and the beers we have available here. Plus, Chicago is just better than all those cities!

 

Yes, we get a lot more mediocre to shit beer than anywhere else. Let's celebrate that?

What do we get that blows you away? Odell? Bell's? Founder's? Shorts?

Shit man, I was up in Lake Geneva and picked up an Imperial Mexican Biscotti Break Cake. That's better than 98% of what we get here.

 

Well, we're in a NE-style IPA thread.

Everyone prefers what they prefer, but Local Hero over Tree House?

 

Yes. Considering I haven't thought Tree House beers were very good (and as I've mentioned before, others I've shared them & Trillium with have not been wowed), it was not hard to say that. There were some I liked, but overall they just didn't do it for me.

It's been about 9 months since I've had TH/Trillium, but I have had so many of our Chicago brewed attempts at NE style IPA's since then that I do wonder if my taste buds have adapted more to that style, so I'd be intrigued to try them again. But, it's not worth going out of my way for because I don't want to pay premium trading/shipping prices, and I've got plenty of good beer to drink here (my opinion, obviously).

 

Frankly if you're not flying to Boston this weekend to try the newest haze bombs then you're nothing but a beer peon, we at this site reserve the "Advocate" label for people who actually LIKE beer.

Now f off scrub

 

Noon Whistle will only have one keg of the pineapple Vortex. And we're (I work for em!) tapping our first firkin Friday as well. Vortex with blueberries. Along side with our first black IPA (Amarillo and citra)

 

Sorry, flight booked. Can I stay?

Back onto the topic of our area NE IPA's, I would like to get over to Noon Whistle to check out their stuff sometime. It's just a pain trying to get over there during the week and then things get busy on the weekends. One day I'll check it out...their stuff will probably be out of style by time I make it there!

 

I know. Same here. You and I live in same neighborhood-ish so from home to NW it's a haul. And from a work perspective? How about a 3 hour lunch? Can't happen.

 

Totally agree that it's larger here. It's just that I don't care about 95% (at least) of what we get here. I'd rather be able to find HF (NYC) or Russian River (LA) on draft than Bell's or Short's or Oddside's or Odell or Elysian bottles and cans.

Just a personal preference, but we're in a NE-style IPA thread. I would rather have access to a bunch of brewpubs and bars that carry that style than a bunch of other mediocre distro.

 

I definitely appreciate that. It has been added to our mexican/spicy stout blind share coming up. We've got something like 12 beers lined up. You would LOVE that.