21 August 2019 beer
On August 17, Revolution Brewing and Hop Butcher for the World will be releasing two collaboration beers — Base and Superstructure. Both are very different beers that nonetheless show the resonances between them, and are built on two different runnings of the same wort.
Superstructure reflects the current trends in IPA brewing — a big, hazy, imperial-strength IPA with aggressive use of Mosaic, Citra, El Dorado, and Sabro for juicy, fruit-forward flavors.
Base, a second-runnings beer and a take on the evolution of the West Coast IPA, uses a lineup that includes Amarillo, Cryo Centennial, Chinook, Citra, Cryo Citra, and Cashmere hops packed into the beer at seven pounds per barrel.
Amazing seeing these two breweries team up. It’s the ultimate Chicago tag team, really.
Revolution was the original craft brewery that got me into IPAs and beer in general. Now Rev is the biggest independent brewery in Chicago (since Goose Island was bought by big beer, I presume, even though Rev is, like, way better than Goose).
And Hop Butcher for the World is my current obsession in the beer world. They make the best Hazy NE Style Double IPAs, in my opinion (at least in the Midwest). It’s a tough comparison because every state, really, has their own breweries that make excellent beer. I’m discovering new ones in my backyard on a weekly basis these days.
I had a chance to go to the taproom to pick up a couple four packs of each. And it was worth it.
Superstructure, the NE Double IPA, is right in HBftW’s wheelhouse, and you can tell, but since they teamed with Rev on this one, you get a hint of the bite Rev beers are famous for on the backend.
Base, on the other hand, is a West Coast Pale Ale, which is right in Rev’s wheelhouse. This time, you can clearly taste Rev all the way through, but you get a mouthfeel, almost to the point of a creaminess come through, showing the golden touch from HBftW.
It’s amazing how much you can actually see the Rev influence in Superstructure and the HB influence in Base. I’m much more of a Hazy Double IPA fan, which is why I’ve gravitated to Hop Butcher so much in the last year, but I actually liked Base more than Superstructure for some reason. It really is the perfect pairing.