Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

Anyone heard of or think a place that only does growlers would fill two howlers if I brought them in?

 

I'm sure most that fill both would do that. The question is would they charge you the same price as a growler or two howlers. I'm thinking the latter.

 

Seems like something which could be easily confirmed by calling the particular establishment ahead of time.

 

As for the new HB beers.... Grid is decent and Unwind is a big miss with me. Still has that ester/ banana flavor going on like most of the others. Not sure if it's the yest or something specific they are going for while fermenting? Buy these two at your own risk and discretion.

 

Until they start calling these saisons I'm still calling bullshit on their marketing.

 

I appreciate the thoughts, but the last 3 or so HB beers I've had I immediately thought "saison".

Now, my palate is not the most refined, and I fully accept that this criticism may be off base, but it is coming from an honest place. I think they are brewing mildly hoppy saisons.

We can at least agree that neither of us likes saisons.

 

I don't think I'll ever understand how someone can't like a saison.

 

The real tragedy is that it's not even the worst part of my personality!!

 

I guess when it comes to their stuff, I'm looking for the flavors they had with Your Wish, Alemerica, and the first Galaxy batch. And like @SeanBond said, maybe they just missed their mark with me on some of their previous beers, but I will continue to purchase their stuff in the hopes they get back to that flavor profile which had me looking forward to their next beer/s.

 

I was just there about 20 minutes ago! Got a glass and two crowlers. It is on par with Squeezit.

 

Stopped in tonight and tried First bloom and thought it definitely worth trying. Also had the Breakfast big time and will probably have to stop in time and again at Ram to sample some more of Justin's Brew's.

 

I think that banana thing is in your head. The "Belgian" flavor people were finding in older batches was from a different yeast than he uses for this beer from what I understand.

The can of Unwind Your Mind reminded me of cumulus with a different hop profile. Maybe not quite as perfect a finish as recent batches of Stratus and Cumulus, but pretty good stuff. I thought it was his best NE style product in quite some time.

Grid, on the other hand, wasn't for me. At least not the first can. These beers with hop dust just aren't my cup of tea so far

 

Went to Corridor last night. Salute Your Simcoe is awesome and on par with Squeezit. Confirms to me that right now Corridor is making the best NE style in the Chicagoland area for my tastes. Dangerous how easy to drink it was and the aroma on it is great.
I ended up having four 16oz and one 10oz and my wife had three 16oz and one 10oz and we left with two crowlers if that tells you anything about how good it is, or how easy to drink it is, or both. Awesome job again Corridor.

 

If you believe this, I have a saison I'd like to pee in for you.

 

I hope they get this figured out by either going full time into this endeavor or bringing in a full time leader who can better position Hop Butcher to succeed. The competition that is popping up isn't going to allow success for people who are putting 50% effort in. It's a full time gig.

 

How drunk were you? lol