Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

Great post right there.

I had snooze juice and snoochie boochies yesterday. Both great.

 

@BJP
Are you intending the tap takeover to be a multi day event starting on the 25th and lasting through some of the weekend? Or will it be Thurs night only and all guest beers taken off the taps on Friday?

Thanks for the good and candid post and the cool event

Cheers

 

I'm only getting a 1/6bbl from each brewery...and based on the popularity of the style I'm guessing most of them will kick that night. If any are left over, they will stay on as guest drafts until they kick. Our beers are served directly from the brite tank...so ours will be on throughout the weekend for sure. It's my goal to keep one pale, IPA and DIPA on at any given time.

 

Thanks for all that information @BJP ! I think people tend to forget about the Vermont type when comparing Chicago brewers' attempts.

Hoping I can go to the May 25th event.

 

Nice post man. I appreciate the input. I think that most Ne style IPA is referring to Treelium as I like to call it. I do agree hops are delicate and I'd love to know the single Hop beers you say are the 2 you loved. I'd guess one was TH Green. To me it's galaxy perfection and the single greatest regularly produced IPA out there.. Monkish has produced a couple of fantastic all Citra IPAs as well.. and tho not in the NE I think they may be the best IPAs out right now besides Tree...

I'm enjoying the banter and conversation in this feed as well.

FYI I was the one you awesomely gave some TrllBomb too the other week at your brewery! Cheers..

 

Oh, hey there!

I'm a skeptic about "single hop" commercial brews. I know too many out there that are widely advertised as SH but are, in fact, not. It just doesn't make sense to do it for all the reasons I mentioned above.

Now, I may have had many wonderful single hop beers without actually knowing it but I'm only including the ones that I know were definitely single hop. They were both from the Mikkeller SH series 5-6 years ago. They were Citra and Nelson Sauvin. Both of these hops have changed quite a bit since then. Citra is still great but has up and down years. Nelson, on the other hand, has never come close to being as fabulous as the first year of it's commercial availability. Thornbridge Brewing - Kipling uses Nelson and when it first came to the US and was relatively fresh, it was a total game changer to me. Two things have changed since then: Can't get fresh Thornbridge here anymore and Nelson has changed for the worse. I really miss the funky white grape/gooseberry character of that first year. It's still a fun and odd hop...but not one that I think is worth selling plasma for.

 

Like I said - I think this is completely missing the NE style from Vermont. Alchemist was doing a hazy IPA ten years ago that was totally different from a traditional IPA. Tree House and trillium didn't even exist then.

 

Wow, thanks for popping in BJP. I think you'll find this a positive venue for getting info about your brewery out. Ignore the trolls (but not me! ). I was very impressed with Forbidden Root, but think you guys are flying under the radar. That event sounds like a step in the right direction. I wonder if being a "botanical" beer place is detracting from people's perception of you, you put out a wide variety of amazing style beers. That cake stout, NE style beers, and others are solid if not spectacular. Forbidden Root has been a pleasant discovery, filling the void that GI Clybourn has left behind with a wide variety of quality style beers. Hope others realize you guys are the real deal.

 

I agree it was first.. it's evolved and most people are trying to the TH/Trill route.. simple as that to me..

 

I really enjoyed the last 4 beers from HB. However I agree that BO is no where near NE style. As for some of the metallic tang I have always felt that if you give them 2 or 3 weeks for some of that tang to get cleaned up you end up with a fantastic beer. Same was true for Cliffs. Very very good day 1. Outstanding after 3 weeks.

Also. Topanga Gulch was awesome.

 

Damn Half Acre and their often releases of excellent beer

 

I had the same experience with Destination Moon and I Want To Believe. Had both Friday and liked it way more than the first time I tried it the weekend they got put out.

I also agree with Topanga Gultch being great. HA puts out awesome IPAs, and those nachos are awesome too!

 

Yes for sure. But when a brewer makes something more in the Alchemist / HFS vein - it's not wrong to call it NE style.

 

Appreciate the clarification. I'm fairly new to the craft beer scene and nailing styles is like describing the subtle nuisances between a Phase One Camera and Hasselblad digital cameras. It's simply un-simple.

 

Craft beer and high end photography are both great hobbies, but I would stick with the one that isn't going to costs you tens of thousands of dollars and stick to photography.