Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

Hops on Hops from Shaun the Brewer was also quite good.

 

NE Slapper's the only one I had that I really liked. Juicy was good but massively over hyped and I wasn't big on Hop Slush or Morning Fog.

 

KEEP IT GOING!!!!!!

 

Greatgazoo stopped in today and provided some Treehouse samples. We sat down with:

Julius
Green
Haze
Bright

(all packaged within 2-3 weeks)

First up was Julius. It was very familiar to me. Reminded me of the last batch of canned Snoochie (6/13). Did it back to back. I would say that Julius had a slight edge due to me overdoing the chloride on Snoochie. But it was very close. Kinda surprised me how close these were.

Green and Haze were both good...but nothing that different/impressive to me. I kept getting a bit of light caramel malt aroma under the hops. I hate this in the NEIPAs. Hard for me to get over.

Green (w/ Galaxy) was more mint and anise than tropical. This, again, was disappointing. I love Galaxy and really was expecting this one to knock me off my chair.

Haze was good...but forgettable.

Bright was my fav of the bunch. Loved the creamy soft mouthfeel and lower carb. Got better with each sip. Great beer.

I went to the brite tank sample of Radio Swan (as it's carbing up) and I can honestly say that I prefer it to any of the Treehouse beers I had today. Our best beer by a mile and I would gladly take it over any of the TH beers I had today.

 

We have to stop this city/burbs divide. It's like the east coast/west coast beef of 90's hip hop all over again!

 

But I loved that era of rap. My favorite era of rap!

 

Could you be more vague?

 

I went back twice myself and ripped 5 crowlers. "Cosmic Gold"

 

Are we talking about the same Treehouse that sells out of beer about 98% of can days?

 

I took that to mean Mikerphone's IPAs haven't been keeping up with the other offerings lately.

 

To me, basically everything they do is forgettably mediocre to bad with nothing even anywhere near great. At $20 a four-pack, I'll be taking a very hard pass.

Corridor and Forbidden Root are more than enough for me, and I'll definitely be giving More and Noon Whistle shots in the near future.

 

Random Musings:

1. Tree House getting slammed by the Chi beer community today. Still waiting for ANYONE to let me know what specific Chicago NEIPA is better than Doubleganger, Very Hazy, Juice Machine, or King Julius? It's nice that Chicago brewers are finally catching up to TH's regular run of the mill offerings, but that's not where i set the bar.
2. Price Point - I'm sensitive to people's price tolerance, but some NEIPA's are double/triple hopped. Not surprising to see they cost more to the consumer since they cost more to make. That's prob why they taste so F'n good.
3. Current overall Chicago brewer NEIPA rankings: 1)Mikerphone - DDH & Say Uhh were stunners. Why do all the Special Sauce beers taste awful now?!?! 2) Corridor - becoming excellent and getting there quickly. Cosmic Juice & Van Hazen II were spectactular. They are really showcasing different hop flavors in their offerings 3) Forbidden Root - Snoochie cans were awesome. Still waiting for another new neipa offering that doesn't taste in the same neighborhood as Snoochie from them.
4) Tickled pink about More Brewing coming out guns blazing on opening day with 3 different canned choices. Yes!!

 

Sounds like you have only had a few of their beers.

 

I'd swap mikerphone with forbidden root and we are on the same page. May even put More ahead of mikerphone depending on this weekend.

 

One guy commented on Treehouse that he prefers his style of beer to Treehouses and suddenly all of Chicago is bashing Treehouse? I'm not foIlowing.

Price point is not that high for DDH/TDH. If it was, they would never be able to move them in retail setting because they would sell them for a massive loss after distributor and retailer got their cut....They are milking it...

 

Hold up there cowboy. No one is slamming TH beers. I simply said the ones I had didn't evoke as strong a reaction as I would have expected (based on the things I read in this thread).

And as far as ...

"Still waiting for ANYONE to let me know what specific Chicago NEIPA is better than Doubleganger, Very Hazy, Juice Machine, or King Julius?"

I was happy to compare their "run of the mill" options to my beers. Because both beers are using a similar hopping rate. Sounds like you aren't too impressed with their regular offerings either. Understandable.

To date, I've been hopping conservatively (well below the whales you speak of). I'll pull that trigger when I'm in a position to do so. You can't brew 8lb/bbl beers only. You'd go broke and you'd run out of hops. The moderately hopped beer sales give you the ability to go balls out every now and again.

 

Sounds like @BJP is somewhat confirming what @edbeerd suggested; dry hopping the hell out of beer is very expensive. Correct?

 

I love how crazy insecure people can get at any mere suggestion that another NEIPA just may be as good or better than the otherwise untouchable Treehouse offerings. Just because people prefer a beer over another doesn't mean they're slamming that other beer. I've had all of the Treehouse beers. And you know what, I'll put Corridor's or FR's best offerings up against any of them. And that doesn't make Treehouse beers bad or mean I'm crapping on them though.