21 February 2020 beer
So… it’s been awhile… when I wrote the first edition I was planning on doing this every week. But then the following week I was in Denver. I ended up writing (the original) Vol. 002 when I got back, but never got around to actually finishing and posting it. After missing (the original) Vol. 002 I completely forgot about the series and just never thought about it again. So here we are again, (the new, bugger1, faster, stronger) Vol. 002, about five months later. And boy do we have a doozy of a volume this week. Two beers came out this week and I’m going to touch on a collaboration IPA they released two weeks ago as well.
Let’s start with the main course, shall we?
a milkshake double ipa with strawberries, kiwi, lime, and vanilla. | citra and strata2 hops.
Ribbit was the first beer I ever had from Hop Butcher and the beer that introduced me to the east coast style of things, which basically got me into craft beer. Prior to HB, I would drink some solid craft beers, Sixpoint’s Resin, Oskar Blues’ Dale’s Pale Ale, and 3 Floyd’s Zombie Dust, to mention a few, but once I tried a milkshake(!) ipa, followed shortly by their Neon Green Relish (a hazy double ipa with Citra and sabro) I became obsessed. Two and a half years later, here we are again with Ribbit.
This time I actually get to bring home a four pack rather than just sample it on draft.
It’s a creamy delectable milkshake ipa with tons of flavor bursting from the seams. The strawberry isn’t overpowering, the kiwi adds a nice tropical note to it and the lime and vanilla give it a pleasing finish to where I could crush this thing like a crispy lager. The milkshakeyness doesn’t come through as much as some of their other milkshake IPAs. It’s a bit lighter and less creamy, but the lightness makes this a crusher, which could get dangerous real quick.
a double ipa. | citra and vic secret hops.
This is the third time I’ve had Tavern Cut, and it’s become a staple, a best friend to me. It’s always good and somehow3 evokes exactly what the name and can art portray. It’s the perfect hazy ipa to pair with pizza and it cries out Chicago through and through. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a New England style double ipa, but there is enough bitterness and dryness to come along with the juice bomb from the citra to give you the Midwest vibes. Gimme some Lou’s and a Tavern Cut and I’m good to go. Long live vic secret, a super underrated hop.
For those not familiar, tavern cut is when you cut thin crust pizza into squares. I know most people think of deep dish when they think of Chicago pizza, but locals eat thin crust way more and it’s always cut into squares.
an ipa. | solo-hopped with sabro and cryo sabro. | collab with non sequitur beer project, NY
There have been a few HB beers along with and between these three, but Funderbolt is the one that really stood out to me. I’ve been following non sequitur on Instagram for a bit now, mostly cause of their can art, so I was stoked to see HB do a collab with them. Seeing it’s with sabro (my favorite hop) and only with sabro got me excited. I don’t think I’d ever had a sabro only beer prior to this so I was a little nervous given the strong flavors it gives off.
And wow. This beer truly tastes like coconut. But in a good way. Because I hate coconut. and this is delicious. It’s really the type of beer you need to try to get a feel for because I’ve never had anything like this from anyone else. HB does sabro better than anyone else. Period. And bringing it down from a double and teaming with non sequitur really did something for the taste buds here.
Cheers!
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