Mikerphone Brewing (2020)

I’m sure all will walk away happy from the release process

 

they are throwing mikeee's in crowlers now. i mean, i guess why not? make a buck where you can. i am a pretty big mark for mikerphone. this seems like a bit much though.

 

Are they insulated?

 

not from our criticism.

 

I thought Apu was written off the show?

 

either of you try crushcrushcrush by any chance? crazy orange peel, first sip immediately took me back to special sauce mosaic. don't know what that says.

its a good beer. no super heavy like some of the milkshake bombs, goes down a bit easier. that orange is insanely similar.

 

Glad you brought this up because that why I made the post I made. I had CrushCrush for the first time and then Special Sauce Mosaic a few days later (which I had many times). But the beers tasted very similar to me. I really felt like there was a zest or something in Special Sauce but I don’t know that for a fact. I opened Spacebar tonight which was good with the caveat that Galaxy hops haven’t rebounded from what they’ve been before

 

this was my first time trying crushcrushcrush. like i said, first sip brought me right to SS Mosaic. pretty convinced now orange peel was used in some way on that beer. tad disappointing if thats the case and they arent advertising it.

 

Has anyone tried Bulletproof Cadillac? Thoughts?

I was thinking about grabbing a 4-pack.

 

I avoided buying any Mikerphone beer due to the inconsistent quality for a while, but decided to pick up a 4 pack of Mikerphone Check 1,2 since I was in the burbs yesterday and heard some good things about their recent releases. Cracked one open last night and goddamn I only regret is buying 1! Absolutely delicious citra NEIPA with tons of tropical fruit. Honestly reminds me of chasing down the 750mls back when each Binny’s would get 1-2 cases. Great stuff!

 

I'm starting to think more and more that the reason behind a sudden and substantial uptick in quality in the last few months is this:

It will be very interesting to see what happens to quality and consistency once we are able to return to some semblance of normalcy, and Mike starts traveling again.

 

Someone with greater knowledge of Other Half essentially eluded to this same thing in the OH drop thread in the GL Forum (i.e. with them focusing on their core staples and not one offs that brings lines the beers have seen an improvement). Reading their thoughts made me immediately think about @Quilentro post.

 

Damn I wish I would've read this before I bought the one 4 pack.

 

Maybe for the IPA's, but the recent BA stouts have been well received too. Those would have been brewed a long time ago and I am pretty sure Wrecking Machine came out before the plague.

 

So, based on my experience, I’m reading all of this as, Mikerphone had decent (but not great, and a bit overhyped) stuff initially, then things made a turn for the worse, and now they are back to where they started (decent, with a hint of hype)? Sounds about right.

 

Kind of I think it is as simple as going through a learning curve with new space, new equipment, canning, etc. The traditional IPA's (Non-gimmick beers) have been really good for some time now; it just takes time to overcome people's perceptions.

 

So if Mike is taking the lead brewing at Mikerphone, what are his two head brewers doing? Not buying it

 

Mikerphone Check 1, 2 is probably one of the best hazys to come out of Chicago. I haven't opened a can of this latest release but the last two batches have been stellar. Vintage bomber distro Mike.

Mike Drop, Mike Solo and Flagpole Citra have all been standouts for me recently. Since they got their canning line issues sorted out most of the straight forward no-bullshit IPAs have been really well done.

The over-adjunted berliners, stouts and IPAs may be a different story.

 

Said it earlier but I think the quality improved back in February and has been pretty solid since then, and that was before COVID lockdown happened. And this batch of Check 1,2 is just as good as it was in Feb so I'm glad they are going to keep churning this one out.

 

Can only speak to the stouts I've had recently from them but each stout has been pretty solid. Cafe Agogo was good, Little Less Conversation was surprisingly good, the BA Icky Thump had a nice barrel presence. BA Party Dress was good as well even though it was light on the barrel, but the beer itself I thought was fantastic.