Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
This IPA from Hop Butcher for the World has a lot going on like many folks schedules during the Christmas season. There is Rooibos, ginger, cinnamon, two kinds of nuts and orange peel too. A regular British Baking Show.
There has been such a fantastic outpouring of support for Los Angeles by breweries far and wide in the wake of the devastating wildfires of this past January.
The charity program spearheaded by Common Space Brewery has garnered quite a bit of support from California and the rest of the Fractured States of America.
Here are my thoughts on the latest beers that I have had, both from outside California…
pFriem Family Brewers went the IPA route but theirs is a super light yellow color. It is nice and crisp with notes of orange floating into and out of focus on the palate.
Hop Butcher for the World did up a Citra and Mosaic West Coast Pilsner which pours more orange on top and yellower at the foot of the glass. There is a hint of pilsner here but this tastes stronger and danker than even a pale ale.
Offshoot Beer Co. the hop arm of The Bruery has teamed up with noted midwestern IPA maker, Hop Butcher for the World on a new hazy double IPA, Beach Casual will be dressed up to 7.5% abv.
Time for another round of which beer is the best! I have four beers to review over the course of this month that I purchased from City Beer Store in San Francisco. (You can subtract the mead, that I will review separately.)
#2 is from Hop Butcher for the World, Thematic Glow. Now this is a proper hazy. Murky yellow/orange in the glass. The famed Bedford Park, Illinois brewery has made a double hazy that has a nearly vanilla creamy mouthfeel to it. It is not over the top fruity either, in fact, it is more pine than anything with a real zing of hops. Maybe more Rakau than Citra.
This is a close call but I think the FW is a skosh ahead here with two beers to go.
I looked through the Best of listed from Craft Beer & Brewing magazines lists (organized by barrel size) and plucked out three breweries to highlight this month, starting us off is Hop Butcher for the World.
Hailing from Darien, Illinois and taking their name from poet Carl Sandburg this brewery which is lauded in the less than 15K barrels category has very distinctive branding.
Here are the beers that I would try first and the hops in each beer for this hop-centric brewery…
Supreme Being Pilsner – Saaz, Select & Monroe
New Oklahoma Pale Ale – Barbe Rouge & Mosaic
Lush Terrain IPA – Mosaic, Wai-iti, Motueka, Waimea & Moutere
Blazed Orange DIPA – Citra & Strata