The Half-Acre thread (2018)

Still have no clue how to post pics here, but tables 2 & 3 are what ya want

 

Check Josh Noel’s Twitter

 

I believe Monkish is first station out of beer

 

Casey and Tired Hands next.

Only SP with a ridiculous line.

I arrived 90 mins late and ticked Boss Tycoon, Mexican Achromatic, BA Dilemma, Recency Effect, and everything else with NO line.

 

Yeah seems like Casey and Side Project had the longest lines but dont sleep on the Modern Times beer or the Tired Hands Guava lavender milkshake IPA

 

Ran into @ croush and was good to catch up and share a couple of beers with him

 

On the red line home now - no lines no waiting for at least a dozen new ticks. So good.

 

The noon session was unreal. I had every beer that I wanted to have that I had in my mind as essential, and then was able to try multiple things I didn't even expect I'd be able to try. Thank you Half Acre, I hope you will do this again next year because this was incredible.

 

Wow what a great fest

 

FML that shit was amazing

 

Good to hang with you again!

Half Acre is undoubtedly the king of Chicago for this. I ran into plenty of people I know and saw lots of local brewers there.

The beer was amazing. Fellowship of Xul was the tops for me. So much good beer.

 

Was quite a well run event by Half Acre. This seems to be on par for how they run these kinds of things.

Couple of quick comments on beer specifically: Maman (stout), DDH Broccoli (IPA) and Scuppadine (wild ale) were my favorite for the styles.

Biggest disappointment (not to be confused with worst) was honestly Derivation 10. It was the first beer I had at the fest so it's not like my palate was wrecked either. Maybe my expectation was too high but even with some roasted coffee and descent mouthfeel, a lot of it tasted leathery and like a cigar box. Just didn't quite cut it for me as far as what I expected.

 

I agree with this, I was lucky to be near the front of the line for the evening session. Grabbed Maman first and then got D10. Thought Maman was a lot better. D10 had an amazing nose but overall taste didn’t live up to the hype for me. Maybe it was the rum barrels that didn’t do it for me. Without a doubt the longest line of the day.

If I had to narrow it down (way too many good beers) my personal favorites were probably Maman and Velvet. Bale was right behind, never had a beer express that much peanut butter aroma and taste.

Overall was worried it would be overcrowded given the space but lack of lines was ridiculous in evening session. Space was never an issue and walking up to SARA, Other Half, Casey, Crooked Stave, Holy Mountain, Modern times, Tired Hands etc etc with no wait was crazy. Once the initial line died down, there was no real line for perennial and they still had Maman.

Kudos to Half Acre for the great event and hope this becomes an annual occurrence. Quality and quantity of breweries and beer made this the best festival I’ve been to in some time.

 

Amazing event, but I feel the venue was a bit to small and got way too crowded. Would’ve hated to see how chaotic things would’ve been if this thing had sold out.

Velvet was my best in show! So many insane options I was a bit bummed I couldn’t cross everything off of my list lol

 

Amazing event. I don't even think much more needs to be said. To tick that many boxes with no waiting was outstanding. So much good beer.

As far as Derivation, I'm with the others. It was seriously overhyped imo. Just didnt like it very much. Didn't do anything special for me. It was the 2nd beer I had, also, so like others, it's not like my palate was destroyed either. I liked Maman better. My favorite was probably vanilla benthic. A small husband wife brewery from Jersey had a great hoppy ale called Hi, Chicago, and I went back for that multiple times. Was amazingly smooth. There was just too much good beer to really single out more than that. I think I had one beer the entire night that I poured out. Everything I had was good to great. A++ to HA for a great event.

 

What was everyone's surprise brewery that you didn't know about before but were impressed by?
For me it had to be The Referend. They blew my mind.

 

I didn’t get to tick any of the unknown breweries unfortunately, but some no-hype favorites were Allagash saison gratis, Forest & Main Dochter Saison, and Holy Mountain King’s Head. I did also like the Troon (t?)IPA as mentioned.

 

Yeah, I wasn't at the event, but having had The Referend, they'll be big.

 

Nice to see 2 breweries local to me (less than a 15 minute drive to both), Troon and The Referend , getting some Midewst love

 

Interesting to hear all the takes on Derivation. I actually enjoyed it - got a lot of coffee out of it. I was more let down by Maman. I thought that was a disappointment.

I’ll second the love for The Referend. I wanted to check them out, and only got a chance to try Tender Buttons, which was delicious. I wish I’d tried the Berliner they had as well.