Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

Hubbard's Cave is excellent.

 

I was at Binny's to buy some wine today and couldn't help myself from grabbing some of the new Hubbard's Cave due to all the good comments. Almost bought Stratus as well, but showed some restraint (but did grab a couple Rye Hipsters as well). I'm looking forward to trying the HC next weekend.

 

Came here to sing the praise of this batch of Hubbard's Cave. Glad I grabbed two, wish I had grabbed a third.

 

Ah, you're right. My bad. That slipped past my radar.

 

I must say, SqueezeIt by Corridor was fantastic. Way better than their last NE OPS. Can't wait to see if they continue with the style more frequently.

 

Reading through some of the post here I really have no clue on what's going on with your NE style IPAs in Chicago. I'm looking to buy one or two 4pk to take back to the room to enjoy. What 2 or 3 NE styles would you recommend? I have had most of the NE styles from the east coast and west coast.

 

We can better answer when we know you are coming?

 

Flying in next Sunday for 3 nights. Staying around Mikerphone Brewing area. No car. Walk, bus and Uber.

 

Just stay at Mikerphone. You won't regret it.

 

Not really much public transportation out by Mike. It will be almost exclusively Uber. Someone else can speak to the bottle shops in the area, but unfortunately a lot of our best offerings don't come in 4 packs. The majority are either still bottling (bombers) or growler/crowler fills only at the brewery. Mikerphone does 750ml bottles, for example. Noon Whistle does crowler fills. Une Annee is in bombers. You will probably be able to find Stratus and/or Cumulus by Hailstorm in 4 packs. You can always set up some IP trades as well.

Also, Mikerphone is closed Monday and Tuesday so get there on Sunday if you can.

 

Was able to have it yesterday...outstanding. Bought a crowler of it. Also, food there was fantastic as well as we had the Chorizo Brussel Sprout Pizza and the Duck/Squash toast.

Overall very very pleasant experience and even all the flight beers were top notch. Extremely easy to get too as well as it's a block away from the Southport L stop.

 

Only problem there is that Mikerphone is closed on Mon-Wed, and only open on Sunday until 7:00.

They may be open those days for takeout, though I'm for certain on that.

 

Yeah I know it's a dead zone area. Been there 4 times for training. Thank god for Mikerphone opening a tasting room nearby. It was a year ago or a little over when Mikerphone was making a name for themselves in Chicago. Glad for them. Brought back bottles of Special Sauce and one other I don't remember.
Im going to Mikerphone that Sunday for sure. Monday morning I'm going to Binney's to buy cans to box up and ship home that day. Then it's off into Chicago to do a little pub crawl. Tue and Weds is training all day. Will probably hit up Kuma's on Algonquin Tuesday after training. Is there a Johnnies Beef near there also?

 

Picked up two bottles of the Hubbard's Cave yesterday, insanely insanely good.
I ended up drinking both yesterday and also wish I had gotten more.
It's on par with the heavy hitters in the style. Reminds me of some of Monkish's best stuff (Foggier Window, etc.) So great. Hopefully bottles last and I can get some more during the week, if not then I'm glad I got to try it.

 

Hailstorm's NE IPA's, Cumulus and Stratus, are sold in 4 pack tall boys and make it into distro. Also there's a place around the corner from Mikerphone called Lively Liquors.

 

Yup, been to Lively Liquor before. Right next to Lou Malnati's Pizza joint.

 

Yeah glad you posted Bc of Mikerphones hours- I'm pretty sure bigbys ar close to you and usually have some really great tap lists...

 

Glad to hear it, last year the Fresh series were my favorite IPAs in the area. I'm just waiting for him to do version 4 again.

 

I was checking out Bigby's on BeerMenus and it does look good. Right now they have 6 beers on tap from Noon Whistle. Not sure if they'll still have NW beers on by next week. But it'll be one my places for Tuesday.