Chicagoland NE IPAs (2018)

yup you can run there early in the am, check out olive park right next to navy pier if you have few minutes, u can see the skyline looking back into the city from there, also I work nearby, feel free to message me near the end of March and I can try and grab ya some NE IPAs that are out that week or the week prior. If our schedules line up I can meet ya up to get them to ya, but yeah Binny's grand otherwise is your best bet, head in go to the left for the beer section.

 

In fairness, the reason this discussion has come up is because people have seen drop off on some beers in this style. If you go back and read this thread - people have at some point talked about Galaxy Bowl, Reply Hazy, and Morning Fog all "falling off". I've had a few of those "later on", and didn't taste any falling off, but that's where the discussion has come from.

 

It's pretty much a drain pour at this point. HopButcher's IPAs have literally no shelf-life.

 

Wish is Granted is still very good to me. Maybe just the hazy ones...

 

Yeah, there seems to be differing opinions, which isn't surprising. I haven't had a ton of these at the 4-6 week mark, but I haven't thought there's been a drastic fall off with any of them. I do wonder if there is a quality difference in terms of shelf life for some of these versus the NE breweries with a longer track record, though, even if I haven't experienced it myself. Or, maybe it's just palates being palates, and some of the folks here experiencing this fall off would say the same thing about the NE versions.

 

Lol, that's why they were designed to fly off the shelves...

 

Oh, I understand why he said it. I just wanted to point out that when this style is done right, it should not and does not "fall off" so quickly.

Also, beers will change over time. I think some people are too quick to say something "fell off". I won't speak for the Hop Butcher stuff, because I don't really enjoy any of it as it is, but I had Juicy 5 or 6 weeks after canning and thought it was pretty damn good.

 

My guess is that a majority of this is related to palettes more than anything. I've had most of these beers fresh and with a few weeks on them and the differences are barely noticeable, if at all.

It's just something for beer nerds to get all psyched up about for no real good reason.

 

Went into Noon Whistle today at opening for a few pours and crowlers. They said they tell everyone that crowlers stay fresh for generally 2 weeks. Of course being an NE IPA this will change a bit but they have had crowlers a lot longer than 2 weeks remain fresh.

4-6 seems damn short. Aluminum holds up. They can it just like you would anything else.

 

Great point on GalaxyBowl, man that beer really fell off.

And, I haven't been scouring this thread, so I apologize in advance, but did anyone get ANY haziness from Reply Hazy? It had the look of a golden IPA with plenty of transparency in my glass.. Still tastes nice, though, for a brewer throwing attempts out at the NE style, their West Coast Your Wish is Granted is probably their best beer.

 

Look like the same process to me- fill up the can, the fluid and the escaping CO2 from the beer push out the oxygen, then you cap before the foam resides and the oxygen can settle back in..

 

Are you saying that knowledge of the canning date colors our perception?

Sorry, it's around this time on Fridays that I veer into Dad Joke territory. Back on topic, I do think there's something to the idea that local brewers don't have these fully dialed in as well as the NE breweries, so it wouldn't necessarily make sense to extrapolate from what TH/Trilium say. I think that Morning Fog had quite a drop off since it was released. On-tap and the first couple of cans were absolute juice bombs. I cracked my last one a couple of days ago and it definitely wasn't the same. Haze was still there, but taste and mouthfeel seemed off. I got a lot more rind and pith, and it was missing that fluffy/pillowy quality. My buddy, who'd never heard of it, got the same general notes I did, so I don't think it's just our beer geekery at play.