I know this isn’t the place to debate this, but I’m having a spirited debate with a friend about who has the best hazy IPAs in Chicago. I said I’d take it an impartial audience of strangers. Who are your top three breweries for hazies in Illinois?
Phase Three the clear leader. At their best up with Tree House. Hop Butcher great but they can get repetitive. Don’t really have a third but Maplewood solid. Mikerphone can be great but lost benefit of doubt due to milkshake nonsense of years gone by.
Unfortunately IMO the hazy market in Chicago is lacking big time behind the east and west coast but if I had to pick my top 3 would be: 1. Hop Butcher (clear favorite and as @Sabtos said best reputation outside of Illinois for hazy enthusiasts) 2. Brothership (IMO these guys are extremely underrated for their hazies) 3. Toss up here between More, Phase 3, Mikerphone, Riverlands or Sturdy Shelter 4. Ignore all of this, acquire some Monkish and you won’t be disappointed
1) Gun Craft Beer 2) Gun Craft Beer 3) Gun Craft Beer Maybe some people hate the taste of freedumb...but for the rest of us, there's Gun Craft Beer.
1st is Hop Butcher. Even though they've expanded their lineup to Pale Ales, Lagers and Stouts over the last couple of years. The hazies are still their bread and butter. 2nd would be Pipeworks. They've had a pretty solid track record of brewing solid hazy brews over the years, NvU vs Haze being the best known. 3rd I'm going with a darkhorse and going to say Forrbidden Root. They're mostly known for their "botanical" brews but their OG line up hazies like Snoochie Boochie, Atomic Child, Radio Swan and Ghost Tropic can go head to head with any hazy in city. Honorable mention Old Irving. Beezer is a great hazy brew.
Lol, sure, sure. I remember sampling their brews at a tasting at the Oak Brook Binny's several years ago. Are they even around anymore?
This was close to my list. I was going to put Phase Three at #2 and was debating Pipeworks or Forbidden Root at #3 (mostly for legacy brews). People may remember that Forbidden Root was one of the first ones to bring some true hazies to Chicago and Pipeworks wasn't far behind. Although Hop Butcher did beat them all, of course.
Didn't Mikerphone do some of the first hazies here? I remember people lining up to buy a 750ml of hazy IPA from them in the early days. This would have been early 2016. What was Hop Butchers first hazy? I know Galaxy Bowl was an early one but can't think of what is first?
I think it was Galaxy Bowl. At least that's the first hazy I had from Hop Butcher (and maybe my first hazy ever?). I rated Galaxy Bowl in the fall of 2016. Not sure when Mikerphone started coming out with their bombers but I didn't get into those until later on.
I know we each have our own palates and tastes, but which beers should I try by P3 to taste the same thing? I had Turntable Tropics which was pretty solid, but idk if it's the best hazy ever. Had Full Frame 2 weeks ago and it had a pretty weird dark oxidized color and a very funky flavor. My buddy didn't like their Sixth anniversary hazy either. Aside from this, every time I try their Galaxy beers, they have hop burn. Same with their Vic Secret beers (which they cranked out a lot of in 2024), all had intense hop burn for me. Shaun is known for stouts so people hype the brewery, but their hazies are just hit or miss. Here's what I got: 1. Hop Butcher 2. Brothership 3. Maplewood HB beers are way too sweet sometimes, but the ones that aren't are amazing. Their consistency is great too. Brothership is underrated and Maplewood been cranking out the juice since Juice pants way back when. I think that was the first hazy I ever had.
Yeah earliest hazies in Chicago area I can recall are: 1. Mikerphone Special Sauce ~ March 2016 2. Maplewood Juice Pants ~ April 2016 3. Ram Brewing Juicy ~ May 2016 4. Hop Butcher Galaxy Bowl ~ September 2016 both Corridor and Forbidden Root started doing them in 2017 IIRC
Yeah I definitely had to "know a guy" in 2016 to get a bottle of Mikerphone Special Sauce and it was for sure the first local Hazy I had.
yeh - this has to be pretty accurate. Surprised Maplewood is quite that early, but Shaun at Ram and Mike were both before Hop Butcher. Galaxy Bowl was revelatory though!
