Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

It's always interesting reading people's opinions on these beers. "No fruit." "Not bitter enough." "Too bitter."

That's all good; after all, the quality of a beer should be subjective. But it also underscores that there's still no clear consensus on what this "style" is supposed to be.

 

Anyone have a review of Galaxy Bowl B3?

 

You nerds kicked everything I wanted before I got there. V rude.

 

Agreed. As I said it was the biggest disappointment of the night. Liked the rest of the stuff they have put out.

Best of the night was stay lit. Second was new snoochie boochie batch. Third was check 1,2 and a huge shoutout to sketchbook for their first offering.

 

Any guesses as to how long growlers of snoochie boochie should continue to be available?

 

I'm sure this has been a busy thread. I'm going on vacation tomorrow and haven't had time to catch up on the last few days activity.

Corridor - Reign on Juice - good smell, clean finish, needed more definition. Turns out odd. Sometimes I was like "oh, there it is" and then itd be gone for another 5 minutes. The Hawaiian Punch thing never came to fruition.

TDH Special Sauce - on tap at Beer Cellar - perfect balance. Great aroma. Beautiful flavor. Flawless finish. (Number 1 factor for this style) one of my favorite from Mike... worth the TDH cost?... Not sure... but one of the best on Illinois.

Gummy Appocolapse - Nice aroma, could be bigger, an appearance that hazeheads would kill for, and a nearly perfect finish. This is beautiful beer. If they get the aromatics up, theyll potentially find their beers being traded nation wide. Happy for these guys. They should be proud of this one.

Galaxy Bowl - this beer is 8 or 9 days old and it's brilliant. Drink it soon. Perfect finish. I'll say this about HB beers, even if some show Belgian flavors, I never got a chalky finish like I have with other breweries trying to sell this style. Chalky beer is the worst to me. Anyway, this batch is right up there with Unwind you Mind & GB b1. I expect great things from Hop Butcher going forward. Last few batches seem to indicate they've found a sweet spot. Looking forward to the next batches. (Also, Falling Coconuts is fantastic)

Last beer is Van Hazen - lovely. Aromatics similar to what I experienced with Noon Whistle, also a similar finish. Motueka didn't shine. It was there, but I'd guess most people will find this to be "Citra forward". Motueka is there, but hidden behind its counterparts. Most won't find it

Great week for the style, huh!?!

 

This is very on point. I couldn't drink most of these when the trend started because I like my IPAs to be bitter. But I've come around. And my opinion is different than most on here. So no one should take my word on these. Its such a perplex style and we all have different palates. But once I've had one I like, I will keep trying. And poo pooing those I don't

 

To me, there is so much stuck into this beer because of the style... and I really appreciate the beers that finish clear, despite their haze.

Hefeweizen does that even though it looks hazy. And the best IPAs do this despite their added Hop content.

Yet, I predict half of the hazy USA beer culture is creating hazy beers that finish with a chalky taste

 

Didn't do FR event, but walked in and grabbed the crowlers of Reign and Van Hazen I was hoping to get yesterday. Cracked the Reign tonight and though, wouldn't crown it king, it was very enjoyable and interesting for what it was. Very drinkable, some fruit flavor from the juice, some complementary juice for the hops and then some good bitterness to balance it out with a pillowy mouthfeel. Refreshing and solid.

 

Absolutely loved van hazen and reign in punch and they stack up well to any ne ipa (and Ive been to trillium, treehouse, tired hands, alchemist, hill farmstead, brew gentlemen, foam, prison city, other half etc etc)

 

Me too. Which is why I'm so much more excited about Beer Hates Astronauts next Friday than I've been with any of these NEIPA releases.

 

The pendulum will swing back and forth until the right balance of NEIPA and 'old school' clear-lightly hazy IPAs is reached eventually. The purchasing habits of the consumers will make this happen with time as people get sick of one and go back to the other. For some time there were no NEIPA offerings in Chicagoland and people were craving it quite a bit. The breweries responded and now there is a large abundance of them.

Although in my opinion, Chicagoland breweries in general are still not quite to the level of quality of Tree House, Trillium, Bissell, Veil, Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, and a few others as far as that style. There are a few really good hits from select few breweries as far as the NEIPA style beers but many are still figuring it out and trying to dial in their offerings. Will they eventually get there? Maybe. But for now, 'we' are still in catch-up mode.

All in all, there will always be a special place for the ol' midwest style IPAs of Three Floyds, Half-Acre and Pipeworks for me. Still love their unique qualities. In my opinion, we have the best Midwest IPA styles offerings in the country.

 

Forbidden Root was awesome last night... mic Check, Stay Lit, and the new Snoochie Boochie were by far the best... I didn't have a VH Bc I had 3 the night prior... but most important it was just a great time.. BJ was a great host.. staff was good.. our table in the front was perfect...

 

This is absolutely true. I've said before but this craze for haze has just left me in a place where I'm buying a bunch of mixed sixers and man do we have some great IPAs here. I just had Space Station Middle Finger last night for the first time in a while, just great. Not to mention Lizard King or Daisy Cutter or any of the other staples.

 

didn't make it out to Forbidden Root last night unfortunately. But I did have two beers of this style from two of the heavy hitters out of southern California, "Most Definitely" by Mumford, and "Foggy Window" by Monkish. Now it's been a long time since I've had a Tree House or Trillium beer, but the top of the line NE styles from here (Corridor "Squeezeit" / Forbidden Root "Stay Lit") definitely hold up against these two heavy hitters from the west coast in my opinion, which was great to have as a taste comparison and got me even more excited for the NE styles coming out here.

 

anyone headed to tighthead for the pitcher of nectar can release today? Also anyone know what time they are releasing it? at open?

 

My reservation was for 8:30. When we got there Stay Lit, Check 1, 2, Pitcher of Nectar, Marz, Corridor, Noon Whistle and Sketchbook all kicked. I was a bit unhappy, but I had a great time.

 

Just called Binny's Grand.

"Hi, I was calling to see if you had any Hop Butcher's Gala..."

*cuts me off*

"No."

*click*