Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

Yeah, Dank Meme is always so reasonably priced. It's great and I'm spoiled to have all their stuff so readily available. Hope you all start seeing them regularly. Unfortunately, RDM was retired. It was one of my favs and my wife's favorite from them. It was replaced in the rotation with Join the Circus, which is a different beer.

 

sorry it is in St, Charles. A few cases left as of tonight

 

That’s interesting. Do you know why? Just weird to see a 4.12 Untappd beer retire unless there are Hop issues or something like that

 

Wouldn't want to speculate. @3xAnthony may care to comment. I'll let him make that call. What I can say is that I had it many times on tap and in cans - never had a bad one. The reality for me has become that they are consistently cranking out good to great beers that are always available locally, that it ultimately hasn't mattered much in the end.

 

I was tired of going into bars/restaurants and ordering a Dank Meme and getting a RDM instead or vice versa. It happened to me enough times, I can only imagine how many times it happened to people who didn't know any better.

DM/RDM were our first attempts. Dank Meme has been steadily tweaked over the years, but the beer has largely remained the same. We often also release a beer called Sweet Jumps which is like a Dank Meme 2.0 using all the lessons learned. RDM got replaced by a RDM 2.0 styled beer called Join the Circus. We don't brew it as often because a) I'm not always impressed with the Mosaic hops we get and b) there is another IPA in our lineup called A Wizard Is Never Late that isn't so temperamental when it comes to specific lots of the hops it uses.

We'll try and get some of our bigger/bolder/hoppier stuff up to Chicago soon as well... Dank Meme is the lightest, least hop forward of the haze we make now, and that puts it in a tough spot on most review sites. But I like drinking it, so we keep making it.

 

So my local liquor store told me Old Nation is going to start distributing to Chicago next week. Is this true and why am I just finding this out, you slackers?

 

my buddies in Czech Republic get to drink M-43 (granted it's like almost 10 dollars for one can out there), so finally it is coming to Chicago lol

 

LOL, I just traded for some old nation. Oh well.

 

I want to see what the hype is about too and got excited, but I don't see anything on social media or Old Nation's site about this which would give me pause. I'm growing skeptical now. Anyone with insight about it?

Edit: looks like Southern Illinois Binnys have M-43 so maybe this isn't such a leap

 

The hype mostly has been the ease of getting Old Nation. It has become grocery store beer in Michigan.

 

In Chicago area Son of Juice is the only grocery store NE IPA, right?
(if you don't count foggy geezer or pseudo sue).
I would love for some more solid grocery store NE IPAs.

 

I'll save you some time and money: trust my palette and ignore M-43. While it's good, it's not in the same class as local stuff--I'm thinking in particular of FR and HB.

 

After reading these it sounds like the best question would be what's the price point going to be? If it is comparable in price with SoJ or PSue, then it should do be fine in the tier of solid NEIPAS, but if it is priced like the top local $15 NEIPAs then it may struggle due to not being as "flavorful".

 

I've seen Marz ChIPA/Overhaze on occassion.

 

Yea I have searched and found nothing of them coming to Chicago as of yet, anyone

 

I think M-43 is better than nearly any beer either of those 2 put out. The only beers in the style I consistently think are better from Chicago are Corridor's.

That is obviously just my palate, but thought I'd mention it, as our pals here that have yet to try it could have an experience similar to either of ours.

 

Happy 2 year anniversary today to this thread.

From the first page the early NEIPAS contenders were:

Mikerphone
Maplewood
Hubbards Cave
Hailstorm
Ram Schaumburg
Transient

Funny how the landscape has changed. Missing the greats:
Hop Butcher
Corridor
Forbidden Root
Marz