Pipeworks Brewing Company (2020)

Yea, but Ubiquitous was found everywhere.

 

I bought dozens of pipeworks beers right off the shelf at the Schaumburg Binny's just strolling in at lunch on random days in 2012. Think my first one was like July/August 2012. I also remember walking into West Lakeview in 2012, and right on the front table there were 5-6 different pw's selections. I never did get any of the waxed abductions.

 

In the fall of 2015, my local Binny's and Sav-way (before the craft slashies popped up) would run out of the Lizard King and NvU 4 packs fairly often.

 

Yeah, I remember also having to keep a close eye on when Lizard King was going to be available as it would sell out pretty quick.

 

2014 and 2015 were also tough times to track down Senita/Heyoka which would become Gone Away. I remember it being held in back and having to do the whole befriend a Binnys employee run around.
How spoiled we are

 

I have a friend who has worked at Oskar Blues for awhile now. We ship beers to each other quite often, and I remember when all he was asking for was Zombie Dust 6-packs and NvU bombers. That one random batch of ZD that was in bombers had him shitting the bed - he sent me some crazy beers in return for a few of those. Our Pliny for NvU 1:1 thing was pretty constant back then - I do miss that.

I don't remember the Elmwood Park Binny's ever keeping PW stuff behind the counter, but the NvU bombers usually went pretty damn fast.

 

Yeah man, I got into craft beer a little before then, and it felt like it was a pain in the ass chasing down EVERYTHING. Zombie Dust took me like a month to find, I'd rush out to West Lakeview as soon as a new PW Ninja hit (especially citra), etc., etc.

One of the best things hazy IPAs did, imo, is take the spotlight off a lot of the better non-hazy options; the d-bags who only chase stuff down because it's popular have already moved on.

 

So true, most of the beers that I want to drink are now readily available AND I enjoy them more than the popular beers that people are chasing. This actually goes for visiting breweries as well. There is never a line for a release at the closest brewery to me (one of the bigger craft breweries in the suburbs) solely because they are not pushing out sweet NE IPA's. It is a great thing for me

 

Reminds of the time I setup an IP trade in Paris when vacationing. When I messaged the bottle shop and mentioned I was from Chicago they instantly wanted Lizard King. Brought them the freshest cans I could get and they were blown away.

 

I can only imagine; I don't even like wine, and in Paris I basically resigned myself to "Kronenbourg 1664 or wine, if I'm sick of it."

 

Edit from my last post, it was West Lakeview Liquors not beer temple. but, it still stands that the first couple of beers put out for distribution were in small batches because they were brewing on a seven (?) barrel system. I don't think any of those releases made it out of the city. Gerrit was making deliveries with his VW hatchback. The first beer they distributed was NvU in March 2012, even though it was labeled batch 4. To compound matters, FwB's got first dibs sucking up a decent amount of the bottles. It wasn't until they got the minivan that they started distributing outside the city around the same time they were able to expand production. Maybe six months after the first release?

TL; DR: distribution was limited in the first six months due to production capacity and distribution capabilities which caused hype and truck (hatchback) chasing.

Come at me bro!

 

You guys aren't lining up for NvU anymore???

 

Ya'll weren't kidding about Sure Bet being amazing.

Hopefully I can find some more.

 

You might have some luck at Trader Joes. I picked up another 4 pack for Super Bowl Sunday. The inventory unfortunately was getting low at the Arlington Heights location.

 

Whoa!!!! You totally sidetracked this wistful walk down memory lane.

 

UPDATE: went random liquor store to kill time and they had three 4 packs of sure bet on discount $18.

Yes I bought em all.

That is all.

 

Spritzy GT

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8RonyOpwMS/?igshid=1kwed1giyq3dw

 

I have to say, the APW 4-packs seem to be disappearing pretty quickly.

 

La Cave à Bulles?