Heavy Gem

You're reading into it too much. Craft beer companies are known to be eccentric and quirky, so those IG posts don't surprise me. Go try the beer and see if you like it...then decide if you want it. If you don't want to try it, then either buy it without knowing or just keep your money. None of those are really that hard.

 

I'm here. No benthic yet but it's "next" as croush said. They have tired hands hop hands as a guest tap and a firkin called cantina and.
Star Wars = cool

 

Whereas most collaborations are typically one-offs, HA and TH likely wanted to do more frequent collaborations, hence the Heavy Gem moniker. Nothing likely more than that.

 

My friend knows Jean from TH and they said they expected to probably release collaborations every few months.

 

Left around 7:00 after hanging out for a few hours in hopes that benthic would go on. Asked right before I left, and the bartender said it likely wouldn't go on until tomorrow despite the fact it was printed on their menu and the bartender telling me it would be "soon" after checking the keg a couple of hours earlier. A little frustrating as I waited around and had a couple more beers than I typically would have solely waiting for benthic.

Overall though, it was a great experience. The nachos are ridiculously good. The Kentucky Common w peach tea and mint was amazing. Got to try 2 hazy Tired Hand brews which were both phenomenal. And they had a version of navaja w/ grapefruit and spruce tips which was solid.

Humanimal Stasis was really solid for a standard DIPA. Better than Navaja IMO. The sour saison was pretty good too. Not $23 good, but I would pick it up regularly at <$15.

 

Wait, are there two Tired Hands beers on tap now?!? I know HopHands was on tap, but what is the other one?!?

 

Hop Hands blew, so they put a different beer on. Not sure what the name was as they never posted it anywhere, but it was great. Tasted really similar to hop hands though.

 

lol. I love Chicago peeps. Hop Hands was great. Half Gentleman, Not Beasts was next and the 3rd keg was even better,

Daisy Cutter FTW!

 

No chance of any Tired Hands being on tap tomorrow I suppose?

 

made it out to the Half Acre store today. They still have plenty of Humanimal Stasis DIPA and the Virga saison as well as the really cool Heavy Gem teku glasses.
After tasting both Humanimal Stasis and Virga I decided to buy both. I think Humanimal Stasis is really good and the aroma is incredible. I thought the Virga is really really great. The guy giving out the samples behind the counter said that the Heavy Gem project was planned to be more focused on wild funky/sour/oak aged beers with some IPAs here and there and that the Virga is more representative of what the project was planned to be about.

 

Grabbed one 4 pack of Humanimal Stasis, guy at counter asked if I sampled it. Not realizing they had it for draft on sample I asked to try it. Left with 2 4 packs. I recommend it.

The Virga is excellent. More like something to come out of Off Color, but can't drop $30 on a 750ml of a ba saison I can find similar for cheaper.

 

Picked up a 4 pk today. Humanimal Stasis is slightly reminiscent of Navaja to me. A bit lighter but has some of the Navaja flavor in the finish. Great IPA imo. I could drink this all the time. Had a taste of the Virga and it too was very good. Passed on that due to the format and price. It was a bit humorous seeing all the Heavy Gem merch at the store, especially the shirts. A moment of, where did Half Acre go?

 

I totally agree that the Humanimal Stasis was reminiscent of Navaja. It had a similar hop dankness, but with a more complex malt profile. A solid beer.

And I thought the saison was great. Tart and bright and delicious.

 

I'll chime in - the Virga was awesome. Tastes more like a wild ale than a saison to me. But it was great either way

 

At Half Acre now...enjoying a Topanga Gulch and fiancé is enjoying a Wicca which I really like. @dwduncan2 Benthic is on tap.

Tons of both Heavy Gem beers in the shop and plenty of swag.

 

Hmmm interesting, seems the Tired Hands version of Humanimal Stasis is maybe different than the Half Acre version? I'm only guessing, it looks different in this pic, plus also the mention of Mosaic which wasn't mentioned previously? As well as oats, rye, and spelt... hmmm....
I wonder if each brewery is doing their own recipes of the beers?
I have no idea. Just a guess though.

 

Not sure if you can confirm over there, but I heard Wicca was just a new name for Juice Man because Half Acre got tired of dealing with "juicy" questions regarding it.

 

I was told heavy gem brews are supposed to be the exact same thing just brewed in 2 different places.

 

I've been told the only difference was Half Acre's was filtered and Tired Hands was not, hence the cloudier beer in Ardmore.