Hop Butcher (2019)

What market do you live in?

 

For those who care: no HB at the Craft Kave as of today

 

You’d think this stuff would stick around a bit longer considering the team is in the leagues bottom 8 in attendance... who woulda thought

 

If it weren’t for the Kraft Kave or the Rev taproom in left, I wouldn’t have gone to any games in the last two years to watch this god awful organization.

 

Hold my Hop Butcher...

 

in the city, usually hit up beer temple, bitter pops, and binny's LP.

when i peruse the shelves looking for a second 4 pack outside of HB, I come away empty more often than not.

 

Looks like we can expect Skrap Metal this week.

 

Ya know, like the carl sandburg poem. #fortheworld

 

How do you know what’s good if you aren’t buying anything but hop butcher?

 

Thoughts on the recent drop:

Super Deep In The Groove: best of the bunch, and a continuation of their recent hot streak of NE DIPA's. Fruity, smooth & easy to enjoy. Not their best ever, but certainly worth a 4 pack purchase in my opinion.

Galaxy Bowl Riff: yeah, too heavy on the passionfruit. This was OK, but was neither their best take on the milkshake style nor even close to a strong batch of Galaxy Bowl. Worth buying a single.

All the Marbles: total drainpour for me. Anyone here who "missed out": you win. To me, this tasted like a pine cone drenched in honey with some cheap table sugar dumped on top. I barely got through 4 oz before the sink enjoyed the rest.

Just 3 opinions from 1 idiot!

 

I thought All the Marbles was extreme white wine grape.

 

Can't disagree, it's the closest to Trillium I've had here - reminded me of Dialed In

 

Having tried enough of the local offerings over the years and trusting the opinions of those on here who mirror my own preferences outweighs the necessity of trying every single beer to know if it's good or not.

if i'm missing out on a bounty of hidden gems collecting dust, then so be it. However, i think we can all admit that hype is typically not sustainable if the products are shitty.

besides HB, i enjoy corridor, more, and maplewood, but they aren't producing cans with any sort of regularity.

 

I'm not saying I disagree on preference here, but I feel like our options have at least semi-objectively increased exponentially over the last year or so. We've got Noon Whistle constantly on shelves, Brickstone has some solid stuff, Hop Nawi is decent (although I'm not a huge fan of their milkshakes), PW is putting out more and more NE-style beers, Transient is showing up more and more, you could argue TG is in this mix, Phase Three is now an option, etc. Hell, Mikerphone is finally moving to cans!

Corridor is my #1, and Hop Butcher is probably still my #2, but I can't say that I'd have a hard time finding a hazy IPA to drink if I rolled up to Binnys on a random day. I think your general point about HB is fair, but I also think there's a lot of stuff around now (and a bunch of options I'm probably not even thinking of).

 

Will be in Chicago for first time next weekend. Is Hop Butcher normally available at bottle shops? What are my best chances in downtown area?

 

It goes very quickly usually. This is a single release week, I think, and a repeat, so maybe can find one? Best bet would be to call a place, explain your situation, and see if they’ll hold one in back for you (or have a friendly BAer grab you one).

 

HB usually distro into the city at the end of the week after canning earlier in the week. Skrap Metal is this week but odds are they will be gone in most downtown stores by next weekend. If ya arriving on Thursday or Friday next week then ya have a pretty good chance to pick up next week's cans. Depending where ya staying downtown there should be a store nearby that they deliver to.

 

I remember last summer they made so much Skrap metal it was sitting on my Binnys floor for a while.

 

Definitely follow them on social media as they are pretty timely about which stores they are dropping off at and when. Specifically their Instagram and Twitter pages. If you look at their historical posts (and the comments in the posts as well) it will give you an idea of what days they hit certain stores so you can plan accordingly.