West Coast IPAs in Chicago

Yeah, I always preferred their lagers to any other style they did. I never tried Get Set and I’d like to. The other IPL they did (Dirt Party) I enjoyed.

 

I had Ale Smith's WCIPA last night and it was pretty good but the mouth was a bit soft for what I like in a WCIPA. Flavors were pretty on point but I wish it had a bit more edge to it.

Not bad though.

 

Tighthead Brewing - Longsnapper IPA

 

Modern Times Blazing World is very good if you see fresh cans.

the AleSmith IPA is also quite nice.

 

The hop profile of Blazing World looks

 

Buckledown Belt & Suspenders is pretty underrated. Won't blow you away but its solid and a great price point.

 

OK so I'll ask then, what do people consider to be the best regularly available WCIPA in Chicago? I'm looking for something particularly piney.

 

If I can find it fresh, I like Union Jack.

 

My favorite seasonal local pours are

10/9 Bike Messenger Appreciation IPA
Phase Three Terrazzo
Misktonic West Coast Wizard

I too am interested in a year round pour that can match the above.

I didn’t list non Chicago area pours, but Amalgamator and Pliny the Elder are my two favorites. FW Union Jack, AleSmith IPA and Lagunitas IPA are my three favorite national brands available here.

 

God this category has declined so much in the past 3 years from local brewers going further hazy and the national/ regional stuff not being fresh anymore. I'm just going to go through brewery by brewery:

Not long ago I would have said "anything from Half Acre" with both Gone Away & Vallejo being excellent. Daisy Cutter does the trick although its technically a pale ale. Bodem is good but more of a hybrid and took 2 of the best single WCIPA's off the shelf.

Pipeworks: Lizard and NvU are West Coast but neither are single IPA's. If you want a Pine fix right now I strongly recommend PipeWorks Unofficial, but I wouldn't consider it west coast!

FFF: The more I think about it, Zombie Dust maybe the true answer to your question (aside from the Pine). FFF just likes to call their single IPA's - APA's. Crazy to say but there have been some freshness issues with Zombie Dust lately!

Revolution: Anti Hero is pretty lame IMO. . They have done something that I have always wanted - experimenting with different hops in a West Coast style, but frustratingly did it on a pretty lame base and they just won't let it go. They seem to never have mastered what Half Acre did so well- massive hop flavor and solid bitterness with little malty flavor. They need to switch it up a little bit and drop this hero shit IMO.

Spiteful, Buckledown, & Lexical Gap all mentioned above are very good, and good values. Penrose Taproom IPA is very good, not sure how far out of the western burbs that gets.

 

Anyone try Maplewood's new WCIPA The Sound?

 

The Sound didn’t do it for me. Hops are too rounded out for the style imo. It doesn’t have that crisp hop presence I want in a true WCIPA. I actually dislike it.

 

Union Jack is great, but Sculpin is still one of the best of the style imo. Green Flash IPA was also excellent, but haven’t had it in a few years (and I think they pulled out of Chi when their financial issues kicked in). Stone IPA still holds its own as well.

 

Excellent post. I forgot about Navaja after picking up a bunch this winter. Goneaway is OK, but not in the same league as Navaja. I hope HA doesn't "haze Navaja up" as they have other offerings. I like NvU, but don't consider it particularly piney.

You're Revolution comments reminded me of a solid WCIPA base they brewed for their NEIPA collaboration with Hop Butcher called Superstructure. The base beer was released separately as simply Base, and I liked it much better than Superstructure. Wish they would come back with that one.

Will look for Pipeworks Unofficial.

 

I agree The Sound was a letdown. It thoroughly tastes like a hazy brewer’s idea of a WCIPA, very soft and pillowy. It actually would be passably decent if they hadn’t set that style expectation.

Pipeworks Unofficial was very enjoyable, I’ll probably grab more soon.

 

On Tour's Asteroid Crashed is the beer that most reminds me of a late-2000's WCIPA. Pine, resin, grapefruit, not much malt presence, bitter hop wallop on the finish.

Totally agree that good local examples have been hard to find. For West Coast, I might swap War Pigs Lazurite for ZD. It might have a bit more body than a classic WCIPA, but I think it features more pine & a pithy citrus taste, whereas ZD is more of a bright citrus. Then again, I'm drinking more Lazersnake than ZD these days, so I might be misremembering.

 

There's a lot going on in this post lol but I'm not sure I'd even consider most of what you mentioned in here WCIPAs... Zombie Dust, Lizard King, Daisy Cutter, etc.

Also I really like Anti Hero as a regular American IPA.

Different strokes I suppose.

 

Awesome, I'm gonna try and hunt down this On Tour beer.

And no, your memory isn't wrong, while ZD is an excellent beer it's not even close to a WCIPA in style.

 

On Tour has it available for curbside pickup, don’t think it’s found its way into stores, though.
Got a sixer of Lazurite at the grocery just now and thought “this doesn’t taste right.” Flipped the can to see Packaged on 01/15/20. God dammit.

 

Was at the store looking for WCIPAs yesterday and remembered reading about Unofficial in this thread so I grabbed a can. Only to open this thread up and see it's just referenced as a good IPA that is not a WCIPA.