Half Acre Brewing Co (2022)

Gotta say I'm really bummed to hear the mixed reviews on Galaxy DDC. When I was last in Chicago I brought home a bunch of Southern Hemi DDC. Ordered a pour not even sure if I'd get it to go at all...and was blown away! Thought it was an incredible breath of fresh air to the DDC series. It's hip to blame galaxy hops for bad IPA's over the last couple years, but I hope that's really the issue here and not a divergence in their approach.

 

Fair Point

 

That does bring up a broader issue I have with Double Daisy in general though.

Its become just another hazy beer in their line-up, and one that isn’t as good as the many others they release.

It used to be so crisp and clean, and a really special beer that I looked forward to every quarter.

 

I feel the same about Dungeons. I want the dungeons from 2017/18 released every year. But they hazed it up and increased the ABV. At least we still have BHA

also, bring back Preen!

 

Benthic is widely available in finer Chicago-area shops. I've re-up'd.

 

I stumbled upon it in Philly last weekend and am looking forward to trying it.

 

Hoarders! Re-up yours!

 

Saw Benthic in a social media post for Casanova Liquor in Hudson, Wisconsin. Was kind of surprised to see it.

 

Excuse me while I WHAT THE FUCK



I haven't seen a ton of chatter about On & On part 2 but good god damn this is an absolute masterpiece of a beer.

Tis all.

 

There was chatter, but on last year's thread.

Damn good beer, for sure!!

 

It really is spectacular. And I'm totally fine with almost no hype around beers I love.

 

I'm really surprised it's averaging under a 4.5 on here. It's damn near a 5/5 for me!

 

Speaking of HA’s barrel program, has anyone heard any chatter about releases besides Benthic this season? I think catch hell and DB catch hell where released in January 2020 and 2021.

 

Drank my last can of Galaxy Daisy watching the rumble last night, and it think it’s improved. Either that, or my palate was screwed up. It’s still not the magic Galaxy from days gone by, but it’s lost the odd flavors I was finding early on.

meanwhile, I need to by some fresh Hallow and do a side by side with the new DDH Nelson hero I’m drinking right now. HA has always been the standard for Chicago IPA in my eyes, but Rev has truly upped their new school hops game over the last two years. I’m curious to compare/contrast two great beers that showcase Nelson

 

In case anyone missed it, Balmoral now has a shop (a la Lincoln) that’s open, meaning it’s not in the taproom. Also: growler and howler fills are back, which is rad.

 

I think HA still has the highest ceiling - nothing Rev does is close to smoking gull or a few others - but they may be more consistent.

Now, that may be because they make more stuff, but when a beer like DDC is a miss, it’s disappointing

 

I realized my previous post referenced “Balmoral”. Hopefully that’s out of my system now.

 

Man, I really dug Hallow when it came out. I liked it so much, I actually went and got another 4pk next time I was at the brewery, but it was actually a really bad batch. It was super dark orange and was lacking any sort of hop flavor. It felt very oxidized to me, despite a recent can date. Maybe they were going through new equipment transition or something...

I haven't bought too many cans of their IPA's since, but I did really want to try the Galaxy Daisy. They're like $18-20/4pk though. Hard to justify when Hop Butcher is $15-16.

 

https://twitter.com/HalfAcreBeer/status/1490837927743664133?t=LJ_K3g3llIVKjYxsCc-HNA&s=19

 

Looking like triple barrel catch hell? I need it!