Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

If cans last that long I'd say go for Forbidden Root. If you can make it further north, Corridor will have one of our favorite local NE IPA's, SqueezIt. But heading more down south from Midway won't yield anything great in that style of beer.

 

5 minutes? Google maps says 18 minutes by car. It's about 7 miles.

 

You know someone is from Chicago when everything is 5 minutes away haha

 

Alright, you ballbusters. It's 15-20 from MDW to Maria's. It's 20-25 from MDW to FR.

I wasn't saying "go to Maria's first," I was saying "take the extra 5 minutes and go to FR instead of Maria's."

Sheesh.

 

Cubs game tonight so there's a potential (maybe unlikely) monkey wrench for driving around tonight

 

i'll buy a snoochie 4 pack for the first person who can get to Forbidden Root from Midway in 20 minutes.

 

If it's 5 minutes from Maria's to Forbidden Root, maybe I can get to Bell's in Kalamazoo tonight from Chicago in a half hour.

 

Have Hopbutcher cans hit Binnys yet? I miss their stuff so much now.

 

Not yet at Binny's South Loop for Hop Butcher, will try near home at OakBrook tonight. Sometimes they have it

 

Naperville Binnys just got Hop Butcher. Only 2 cases each.

 

spent way too much on beer the last two days.

18th street dime - clear winner right now. delicious. hazy with an incredible mouthfeel. tropical as all hell. both the aroma and taste are on-point.

noonwhistle gummysicle - delicious. wish the mouthfeel was a bit more "full", but it is damn tasty. vanilla shines as it warms up, you 100% get orange creamsicle.

marz chiPA beer - good. think this might need to sit a week or two. fresh I preferred overhaze.

*bonus* lagunitas born yesterday - delicious as always. clean. slight opacity. cant go wrong with a 6-pack of this for $10.99.

 

Had a Noon Whistle Gummypocalypse at Link's yesterday. Absolutely not a NE IPA. No haze, just a tropical ipa. Is this par for the course from them? Starting to think the suburban brewers are way behind the city brewers at the moment.

 

No. Gummypocalypse was brewed a WHILE ago I think, I feel the keg probably had some age to it. Noon Whistle does a good job with the haze. I drank Gummypocalypse fresh and it was a solid take on the NE style. Gummysicle definietly has some haze to it.

I wouldn't say they are on-par with Root or Corridor, but they do a damn good job with their offerings.

 

FR and Corridor made an obscene jump in a short amount of time....Again, just look at the beginning of this thread- they weren't mentioned. Their progress was incredible. I'm surprised the other places with larger head starts still haven't caught up to their level. By the same token, maybe this was all FR since Corridor poached a brewer with the NEIPA development knowledge from FR. If I'm these other IL small brewers, I'd be reaching out to any hot NEIPA assistant to the assistant to the assistant brewer or higher level on the East or West Coast and offering them a gig to bring that knowledge over.

 

I will give Noon Whistle another chance. But they are 0/2 after this and the messed cans of Gummy Banter they sent to the city a few months back.

 

I tried Middle Brow's Sells Out Vic IPA the other day. It was hazy and had a great NEIPA mouthfeel, but flavor of a more traditional West Coaster and some weird aroma/notes of sewage....Not overly familiar with Vic hops, but I really hope that flavor came from the hops....The beer was solid, but again, the aroma and one of the flavor notes left some questions. I could see them putting out a good NEIPA soon if they can blow up the beer with fruity hop flavor.

Also, Middle Brow, if you monitor this, your web-site isn't helping you. I went to look up the name of the beer (Which I don't even recall seeing prominently on the can) and not only is it not on your website, but you don't even have pictures of your other cans on your site as reference.

 

Did the same thing yesterday at Oakbrook Binny's and Noon Whistle. 3 4pks of Gummysicle (one for a mate of mine), both Hop Butcher 4 pks, both 18th St 4pks, Surly Wet (was debating to get it because of the price, but I've never had it) Plus tonight Buckledown is releasing their collab with DryHop Release the Haze at $10 a 6pack....sign me up!!!

 

no way they are using a mobile canner, are they? they put out cans on the regular