Chicagoland lagers (2020)

Metropolitan Magnetron
Dovetail Czech Dark Lager
Spiteful Dark Lager
Pipeworks Select Schwarzbier

Can't go wrong with Magnetron, it is really great and often overlooked. The Spiteful is really nice too.

 

Magnetron is year round and a world glass beer

 

Confirmed: Dovetail Maibock's relationship with fire is "more than friends."

I finally got to try it this week, and it's really, really good.

 

Picked up Urban Renewal's Zwickel, anyone had experiences with it? After that Bells Leaves of Grass lager I've been trying to find and try more in the style.

 

Awesome, thanks for the tips man! I know I can always rely on you for these.

 

Yeah, I’ve mentioned the Urban Chestnut Zwickel before, it’s excellent. But I haven’t seen their stuff on shelves in a while (or at least haven’t noticed them). Are they still distributing up here?

 

Shout out to a newly opened brewery, Art History. They launched a Helles Lager that is pretty much immaculate, and a pretty nice (albeit a tad fruity) Czech Pils.

no clue what they’ll be doing in terms of footprint but it’s proper beer so far. Also had a really good classic pale ale, and a west coast ipa that was fine with. Reminded me of a smaller version of Founders Double Trouble

 

32oz howlers currently. The owner said they do plan on canning some beers on a very small canning line they purchased.

 

As part of the "Beer Hero" scheme, I went to Urban Renewal a week ago. I wanted to buy its Porter, but it was out. So this became the contingency. Since it is a Zwickel, it went instantly into the refrigerator when returning back.
I am likely comparing it to Metropolitan Brwg.'s Zwickel. I'm getting mostly a lager mouthfeel and taste.
It is OK. But I'll try another beer from Urban Renewal before getting this again.

 

I've always been disappointed by canned Zwickl biers, they never come close to comparing to having it on tap. I think they need to pasteurize it when canning, and they typically are unpasteurized on tap.

 

Agreed, I was not very impressed by their Zwickel. Willing to try other stuff from the brewery thoguh.

 

Maybe a small number of very large breweries are doing this, but you’d be hard pressed to find pasteurization happening otherwise. The equipment is very expensive, and most breweries have small enough footprints that it doesn’t really make sense.

 

My mistake then. Someone told me that pasteurization was the reason they taste so much different from a can, but I guess not. I don't know the explanation then.

 

If I had to guess, the kegged stuff gets tapped much more quickly by the bar, whereas cans may languish on a shelf (maybe even stored warm). Plus, generally speaking, kegging is a more reliable form of packaging with fewer variables vs. canning.

 

I saw a note on social media that Dovetail has alt in stock. I’ve never had it. How does it compare to Metropolitan’s?