Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

I have always said that Tree House is somewhat overrated, and I've always said that all their beers have a weird maltiness to them (and I've had them within days of canning). This doesn't really surprise me. I don't think they make bad beer by any means, but I prefer basically all other NE producers, especially Trillium and HF.

Mikerphone being number one was a bit of a shock since everyone seems to be down on them lately (I haven't bought one for a while due to the format so I can't speak to it).

I also agree that Forbidden Root is better than Corridor, but that's just a preference thing, though it's interesting that they found Corridor's offering to completely lack bitterness and be too sweet, an issue I hear a lot of people having with FR rather than Corridor. That said, Night Moth is a really weird pick for this since it is, as they call it, a sore thumb.

The M-43 experience they had is mostly in line with me. It's a good beer, but it has some sort of weird notes that hang around in the back, though the age will matter to some (I found it was basically the same over a month drinking a four-pack). I haven't had any Juicy Bits, but I'm surprised to hear how green it is, which makes me interested to try it.

 

What's the consensus on Chicago vs. NE area NEIPA's now? Clearly there has been a siginificant pull-up from where we were 4-6 months ago. I've had a few Treehouse/Trillium/etc. offerings but never have done a side-by-side and don't trust my memory enough to make a fair judgement.

 

Where do you stand?

 

I'll weigh in. Note my sample size, especially from Treehouse and Corridor, is minute, and that I'm not providing any rationale or justification whatsoever.

Treehouse > FR >>> Corridor

From TH: Julius, Green, Doppelganger, Curiosity . . . 22 maybe? Curiosity and DG were amazing, Julius very very good and Green very good.

From FR: RS, SB, NM, GT. RS great, GT really good, NM . . . interesting, and SB good.

From Corridor*: SYS, CJB, Ryders. CJB was between OK and good, the other two were flat out bad.

*I hope I was able to remain objective and not factor in, for example, that the label on Corridor's crowlers is literally a mustachioed hipster.

 

Hopefully 16oz cans in the near future too. I'm a big guy with big hands and these 12oz. cans remind me of my daughter's sippy cup.

 

These kinds of rankings always come down to preference and what you expect out of the style. The quality of offerings out of the most of the breweries mentioned are all high which is why it's a preference. I think everyone can agree that some place like Tight Head's offering of NE IPA isn't up to the par of the offerings from the breweries in the rankings, but most things like Corridor, FR, MoRE... they all put out high quality for the style by most people's opinion.

 

From what I've seen, they are making more IPAs with less bitterness. I wouldn't say they are making NEIPA. But they made a beer called dorado which had hugeness aromatics, was pale in color, and lacked almost any bitterness. It was lovely.

 

Anyone drink a Hubbards Cave V6 lately. A friend told me it's even better now than it was fresh.

Think HC is on to something recently. Saw v8 came out this week. Hopefully buying two

 

If only we could get them to follow Mikerphone down the format change rabbit hole.

 

Marz Splash APA was hazy as hell and on point. Very juicy with a slight amount of bitterness. Was very surprised at the amount of flavor coming out of this apa.

 

Is this in regards to the new cans?

 

Had a can of this last night. I liked the mouthfeel for an apa, and agree about the amount of flavor, but I did get a rindy bitterness on the backend that was slightly harsh for my taste. It was canned on 11/1, so I'll likely try it again over the weekend and again next week. Like Over Haze though, another enjoyable, fresh, shelf option when walking into a bottleshop from Marz.

 

I was in Boston last week and had some fresh Treehouse for the first time in about 6 months ... Green, Haze, Julius, Sap. To me Julius is by far the standout (same as what i thought 6 months ago) and the beer i think is driving the hazy, fruit forward, pillowy mouthfeel movement more than any other beer ... to me this is the one beer Treehouse makes regularly that is a real difference maker.

The others are all very good but nothing about them makes them special in my mind. I actually prefer Trillium's more 'standard' IPAs and DIPAs.

As far as Chicago goes, i think FR Power Trip and Corridor OG Squeezit are the only two beers i've had that can give Julius a run for its money for that particularly style ... but i can find many many other local IPAs/DIPAs that compete well with both east and west coast standards. NvU, Deep Space, Hubbard's ... 18th makes frequently comparable batches.

The challenge is that so many of the local breweries that make the best beers do such small batches and so infrequently that there is minimal consistency from batch to batch.

 

I'm actually more interested in breweries doing this style with different hop combos and newer hop strains. I don't need any more citra/mosaic/galaxy combos in my life. Sure, it's a great great combo and as you said it's definitely more likely to be a hit and it's a tried and true method.
I like how Marz Over Haze used Idaho 7.

And I'm really really impressed by Forbidden Root's Frame & Canvas and the hop combo for that is interesting for this style (focus on Chinook). I'm hoping to get my hands on a can of Tree House Sap soon so I can do a side by side with Forbidden Root's Frame & Canvas as both heavily feature Chinook.

 

They're not all that similar tasting to me. Both are very good beers, but very different. Sap is drier and pinier, though not piney compared to old school and west coat IPAs. It's still got that soft mouthfeel but due to the drier, pinier profile it doesn't have that juiciness of TH's other offerings (outside of Bright). F&C is definitely juicer than Sap, IMO.

I've got about 6 cans of Sap left in my fridge, but they're from almost 6 weeks ago. They do still taste great though so if you want one, let me know if you can meet me in the loop or Old Town next week.

 

Try and get your hands on Bissell Brother's Reciprocal. It's Summer, Ella, and Vic Secret (before they were cool) hops and it's phenomenal. I was always amazed at how they used 3 less popular hops and still made such an amazing beer. Props to them.