Hop Butcher (2022)

Yep. This has definitely been a thing on this thread for a few years. Lots have commented on it.

How was Triple Grid and the recent BO (non-milkshake)? I have a place I can buy singles here in town and may grab them. Between Triptych scratching my local hazy itch, buying a lot less haze in general, and the calm before the stout storm, I'm buying with restraint these days.

EDIT: also ISO hazy itch cream.

 

Good catch. They only listed hops on the label

 

Picked up Double Snorkel Squad And Hoppy Thursday and thought both were solid. Snorkel Squad is probably my favorite of the hazy revolving brews they release.

 

Got the weekly Newsletter from HB and noticed they're releasing what I'm assuming is another riff on Tavern Cut called Double Pepperoni. May have to check that one out since Tavern Cut is one of my favorites.

 

HB does Vic secret, I buy

 

Just had my other can. Did you try it?

It appears all the passionfruit character is coming from yeast. These hops don’t normally produce passionfruit flavor this distinctive. This is not exactly the same as good 2017 Galaxy, but kind of in the realm. It’s all fruit esters to me, nothin stinky. Feels hops and yeast are nearly equal in intensity.

 

Rumor mill time...supposedly they are cleared to open, and are now hiring / training staff.

The theory goes that until they knew they were ready to go, they didn't want to hire people with no actual start date.

Did I hear this from someone from Hop Butcher? No, I didn't. But it's someone "in the industry" who I assume wouldn't make this up.

And no, it's not the person I know who was present at the Bourbon County tasting. Basically, I'm extremely plugged into the Chicago beer scene.*




*I truly don't know shit.

 

Private opening was last night. They should be announcing grand opening details this week!

 

Hopefully there’s still some chimichurri potatoes floating around in the taproom somewhere.

 

Looks like Thursday!

https://www.chicagotribune.com/dini...0221107-qbgy7sfqurcdfksu3vs4lsvsfu-story.html

 

Can see a line up already

 

From their email announcement:

This has been a long time coming. And to say an immense amount of time, patience, hard work, resources, help from friends, creativity, luck, thought - and the list goes on - went into all of it would be a drastic understatement. To exist as a brewery without a place to call our own home for nearly seven years was it's own unique exercise, but to finally stand here in that home and be ready to open the doors to all of you - is the ultimate pinch-me moment.

Thank YOU. Whether you just started buying or trying our beers or you've been a weekly heat-seeker of our cans, thank you. Your enthusiasm is what keeps us going and your support is what allows us to keep going. And we as a brewery - with all its humans within - will never forget that or lack appreciation for it.

At 11:00 am this Thursday, November 10th, the doors on Lincoln Avenue open. Beer will flow from the taps, music will flow from the speakers and our friendly staff will be at the ready. We have a lot of fun stories to share with you along the way about this beautiful space - about what we did and what we didn't do and why, but first, let's finally have that beer in-person! See you all on Thursday!

Missed it by two weeks @eppCOS

I've only been there for to go and for a single beer (left because it was very crowded). The Balmoral Ave. Spiteful/Half Acre Duo was my preferred location, but look forward to checking out Hop Butcher's space soon.

 

Hard to believe it’s been a year and a half since they first announced this. Happy for them, but won’t be visiting anytime soon. Would have been there on the regular 2-3 years ago, but can’t drink their stuff anymore for whatever they load in excess into the beer. Just a friendly reminder/jab to Pipeworks it’s been what, 10 years and there still isn’t a sit down taproom or brewpub?

 

i think people will be pleased with the amount of variety they find at Hop Butcher.


“the Lincoln Avenue taproom will serve “a full drinking experience,” La Rose said. In addition to several hazy IPAs, there will be a saison, an extra special bitter, an Italian-style Pilsner and a hefeweizen on tap.“We still love IPAs, and we’re making a ton of them,” Zimmer said. “But we were brought up on all styles of beer,” La Rose added. “Our tastes can vary, and we’re excited from a brewing standpoint to lean into that.”

 

I'm sure there will be variety but frankly I've never had a good lager by them.

 

This really needs to be an all hazy taproom with a light lager as an alternate for those who get dragged along. That's what built the place and their calling card. For those who want traditional styles they are better off walking a few blocks to Dovetail and for those who want a high quality breadth of beers going the 1.6 miles down the road to Half Acre.

 

Hard disagree with this. If anything the taproom should be the place where they get crazy experimental and not have to worry about having shelf turds on the retail side of things. The main criticism with Hop Butcher (asides from their use of lactose) is that their hazy IPAs are so similar to each other. Who wants fourteen taps of the same tasting beer?

 

I get it, I just don’t see enough from them to trust them with anything outside hoppy beers. We’ll see how their variety shakes out. As for who wants 14 taps of the same tasting beer? Probably the same people who have been religiously purchasing the same 100 similar tasting beers they’ve been putting out in the past 5+ years

 

I saw some labels for Watch for Falling Coconuts, which is exciting to see an old school beer come back when they open the taproom. They also mentioned that they're brewing a bitter IPA and a Centennial pale ale on Instagram a few days back.

To me, those are fun different beers to offer in the taproom that may not fly off the shelves.

 

Line update?