Toppling Goliath in Chicago (2018)

Since they haven't been doing much in the way of drafts, they really are dependent on their retail packaging to hook consumers. That's the risk of not using kegs as a promotional tool

 

A bit disappointed in the bottle of King Sue I had. A shadow of what I recall from the first time I had it in 2016. This was an uncarbonated (ok, lowly carbonated) mess of juice. I enjoyed the Golden Nugget bottle much more. YMMV.

 

The last two batches have defiantly been what I would call "thin". I feel like they are trying to push King to look more like a standard NEIPA, and maybe they lost the special sauce in the process...

 

Yeah, I recall it balancing the line between a more traditional IPA and an NEIPA and having the best of both sides (imo anyway). Eh, maybe it's just dialing it in still at the new facility. One can hope. Cheers.

 

TG has a way of bottling and canning stuff. Not sure how they do it, but a buddy of mine had a King Sue that was over a year old, and he said it still tasted virtually the same. 4-5 weeks shouldn't have any impact on it. Transporting it from Decorah to Chicago presumably would have a bigger impact than 4-5 weeks.

 

Man how many fake accounts does Clark have...?

On a more serious note, hops oils are not the same after 1-3-6 months after bottling or canning. 1 year and same taste as fresh.... ya gonna call BS on that one.

 

This current batch of King Sue is terrific. A citra bomb all the way. There was criticism of the mouthfeel/thinness of the December bombers. I think this is an improvement on that batch

 

Bottle I grabbed today was 2/19/18 too.

 

Open Bottle got 2 day old Pompeii today which is very encouraging.

 

Anyone open the recent King Sue yet? On one right now. This one is a completely opaque haze bomb. Huge citrus aroma, big hop bite. Basically back to my prior experience with KS. This is different than the one I had in Dec for sure. In a good way IMO.

 

Just shared a Mosaic golden nugget. Very nice! Great balance, aroma, and flavor. Had a Maine Lunch after it and was totally underwhelmed.

Rounded it out with a Prairie Apricot Funk, a Doible daisy farmer, and scratch barrel age black cherry.

Friday night ahoy!

 

Grabbed KS, Hopsmack and MoNug (?) from Binnys Grand Wednesday. FWIW, KS was good, Hopsmack was very good and MoNug was awesome. Based on these batches and assuming no changes in format or price (bombers @ $11-12), I would not buy KS again, might grab Hopsmack again, and am currently looking for more MoNug.

 

MoNug just derailed my 2018 TG high and streak of mind blowing TG beers. Had great fruit aroma upon opening, but then was just a hazy, piney West Coast'er....

 

Good to hear. I didn't care for the December batch either.

 

You clearly intended the opposite but this reads as high praise to me, and is exactly why I loved that beer.

 

If you're still looking for Mosaic Golden Nugget I was in Binny's Grand yesterday, handful of them on the shelf next to a handful of DDH Sue.

Cracked the Mosaic Golden Nugget yesterday and I have to say this was a beautiful beer. Really incredible.

 

Capones has some left a well. What flavors did you get from this?

 

Open Bottle has plenty as well. It's gone full NEIPA though with some bitterness like Pseudo has. Nice mosaic showcase though it's got the IPA body. Looking forward to Imperial Nugget getting here eventually.

Picked up some 3/6 Pompeii yesterday. For me, this might be on its way to my favorite always available shelf beer in Chicago

 

I found it to be earthy and fruity, tons of mosaic. Maybe my bitterness detector is wrecked cause I didn't find it as bitter as I was expecting from the comments here? Didn't seem to have as intense of a bite for me as Fire Skulls Money or Hopsmack, which both gave me some levels of hop burn on my tongue and throat by the end of the bottle. I drank Mosaic Nugget way too fast which I usually do when I find something to be juicy, but maybe it was just the trick of the mosaic. I might go look for another bottle after work today because I liked it that much.

 

Damn. Mine was not fruity like FSM and I was expecting it to be. It was a pine bomb.