Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

Just look how this thread has progressed since august of 2016. I'm pretty certain this city is going to have a multitude of NE style beers dialed in by 2018. Some will figure it out faster than others. I'm just pumped that we have a ton of folks out there grinding to figure out what the market likes. Good for the consumer.

 

I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out, not only in Chicago, but within the national craft landscape as well. It is exciting to see new breweries popping up and existing brewers attempting new styles, but it's also creating a shift in me back towards established breweries and their more consistent lineups. Being a continual beta test subject isn't sustainable for me with all the options available and the seemingly rising costs of beer. I love trying new beers from new, or new to me breweries, but eventually the hits have to start outweighing the just OKs and hopefully the hits aren't just one-off batches.

 

I just had some on Tuesday. Was a pretty solid effort. Very good look to it. A little heavy on the bitterness and not a super soft mouthfeel, but a damn good representation for their first NE style. Also carb seemed a bit low on my growler. Look forward to future attempts after trying this one. Keep your eye on Tighthead.

 

This is exactly where people with tap rooms and smaller batch systems have an advantage. They can mess around with something and if it isn't exactly awful, put in on draft. HB is at a disadvantage because they don't have a tap room where they can try something out and get consumer feedback on a small batch. They have to go all in, and when they contract a batch of something like Blazed Orange that doesn't knock people's socks off, they can't just eat the cost and not sell it.

 

Totally agree. Chicago's distro model is definitely not the ideal setup for this. Frankly, it's outdated and hopefully new breweries stay as far away from this model as possible.

 

2. Heady Topper came to be because John Kimmich didn't give a fuck about styles.

3. Chicago is progressing MUCH less quickly than NYC or LA, the two most comparable cities. I'm sure legal issues play a part in that, but whatever it is, we're lagging pretty far behind.

 

I'm assuming they do test batches of these beers? Presumably they have some idea on what makes a 'hazy, juice bomb' which people are craving.
It's a fair point you make but with the way the haze craze is, it doesn't seem to matter. Even with its less than stellar feedback, is Blazed Orange sitting on shelves anywhere? At the scale HB is at, anything labeled as NE style is going to sell through due to how rabid folks are. And even if a release is not all that great, the next one will be scooped up regardless. The only incentive they have imo is to keep releasing new beers labeled as 'NE Style'.

 

That's because Chicago's market matured before they really got into the game. Look at someone like Grimm, they started in Chicago and moved to a newer market since Chicago seemed to be oversaturated at the time.

 

Oh, I totally understand that. LA was a black hole for locally brewed craft beer 2 years ago. So was NYC.

 

How long does label approval take? What if they are submitting them weeks before the finished product and thus something they hope will be hazy and juicy just doesn't turn out that way, but they can't wait weeks for a new label?

 

I don't know the timelines. But that doesn't prevent doing test batches before the entire label process occurs. Or how about just labeling it as a pale ale on the can if they have no clue how the beer is going to turn out until it's packaged? They can they twitter away that it's a NE style pale ale then.

 

You make good points.

I still don't have to like where some of the experiments go, and it's OK to get a little butt-hurt when a brewery you're rooting for puts out a few stinkers, but you're right.

 

Heady is also a fantastic beer (not to everyone, I understand that) and was a brand new style of beer that opened up people's eyes. These Hop Butcher beers are mediocre at best and are takes on already created styles. You can go out and get countless other beers similar enough to I Want To Believe.

Yes, since Mikerphone started making them the scene has been improving, but that's still a year or more behind those other two cities.

 

Obviously there's a number of different variables that dictate what to brew, but it seems the more successful attempts are the ones with a similar base and rotating hops that are released with relative frequency. Then maybe start experimenting with different yeasts, grains, adjuncts, etc. Especially if you don't already have a core lineup of successful staples. To be a brewery trying to focus primarily on NEIPAs and still in the playing around with your yeast phase, seems like you're gambling that the newness and enthusiasm of the style will continue to outpace quality (relative, I know) until you get it dialed in.

 

I'm curious to know what people specifically mean when they say Chicago is "behind" other cities.
You mean in terms of quality of NE style?
How consumers are able to purchase NE style?
Number of breweries doing NE style?

I have to say I just moved to Chicago, been living here a week now, so maybe I'm not the best person to provide insight into this.
But my brother lives in L.A. and hearing from him how he has to wake up super early and go stand in line for hours to grab a 4 pack of Monkish NE style IPAs for 20 bucks or whatever does not sound appealing to me at all. And yes, I've had the Monkish NE IPAs and double IPAs. ::shrug::

First, I don't have a car and second, I'm lazy.
To be completely honest, my mind has been completely blown that I am able to just walk to Binny's and I'm able to just easily buy stuff sitting on the shelf that seems pretty decent in terms of quality for the NE style. I don't have to wait in line for hours to get something, that to my taste buds at least, is reasonably comparable. That's great.

So far, I am absolutely loving Chicago.

 

By behind we mean we are spoiled and that we don't have the hype we once did. If you want great beer it is still here. If you want to convince outsiders there is great beer here, there isn't anything new to support the been there done that crowd.

 

I think this is an important distinction (although we probably shouldn't pigeon-hole everyone looking at this style as "been there done that"). There are plenty of outsiders (and insiders) to Chicago that come here and enjoy what we have, but there is definitely a large, growing crowd interested in this particular style. It is certainly easy to see by glancing at trading forums that people are yearning for this style, and the ones being sought after aren't from here. It's all a matter of tastes, and as been said before...this is a NE IPA thread for Chicago, so the focus here is going to be on that style that we have lagged behind a bit in terms of top notch stuff.

It's OK to fall into either camp...as long as you're happy with what you're drinking. If you're not happy with what you're drinking, put it down and try something else...there's plenty out there.