He'Brew Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.

Brewed By: Shmaltz Brewing Company in Brooklyn, New York  

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 4-pack bought at Jewel in Skokie/Niles, IL; 2012

Style/ABV: Imperial IPA, 10.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

Skokie at 10pm

Bitches love Jewel. Seriously, I was up in Skokie with the girlfriend, and we decided to get some Bdubs. While waiting, I realized I didn't have any particularly hoppy beers on hand...which is a tragedy, because hops + wings = foodvana. Unfortunately, Skokie at 10pm is like...fuuuuck. But they have a Jewel! For those who don't know, Jewel-Osco is a decent chain store that sells groceries. The Chicagoland Jewels have started to pick up on the craft beer craze, and you can actually snag some decent beer at Jewel. I found a bunch of Revolution stuff at the Skokie Jewel, along with the beer I'm drinking tonight. (btw, the Walmart off Touhy is a fucking shithole...please avoid). 

There's some crazy shit going on in Chicago. The Walgreens in Greek Town had Bourbon County Stout, and supposedly had Bourbon County Coffee Stout. I picked up a 4-pack of the regular BCBS at the Greek Town Dominicks (Dominicks is Jewel's competition). The Jewel in Boystown had Madame Rose...and yeah. The elusive and rare beers, coming to your local Jewel.

Anyway...I'm glad to pop open another He'Brew beer. About He'Brew:

He'Brew is part of the Shmaltz Brewing Company. The Shmaltz Brewing Company has two lines of beer: their He'Brew The Chosen Beer, and their Coney Island Craft Lagers. Shmaltz Brewing Company is a craft brewery based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeremy Cowan in 1996. The company contract brews most of their beer through the Mendocino Brewing Company, and they operate a brewery in Brooklyn New York. The company is known for its innovative beer, eye-catching bottle artwork, and sense of humor. For more information, check out the Shmaltz website HERE. Don't be a shmuck, and drink good beer!

Tonight's beer is described as a Double IPA brewed with Rye Malts. Truthfully, based on the other three bottles I've had, this shit drinks a lot like Founders' Devil Dancer. This beer kind of gets into that "Triple IPA," super malty/hoppy range. At 10.0% ABV, this is on the upper echelon of the Imperial IPA style, and as it touts big malts, it tends to lean away from the usual styling. If you roll over to the Lenny's R.I.P.A. page, you can get a lot of info on this beer (including how the thing is brewed). This beer uses 2-row, Rye Ale Malt, Torrified Rye, Crystal Rye 75, Crystal Malt 80, Wheat, Kiln Amber, and CaraMunich 60 malts; it uses Warrior, Cascade, Simcoe, Crystal, Chinook, Amarillo, and Centennial hops. This beer is also dry hopped with Simcoe, Amarillo, and Crystal hops. It's unclear how bitter this is, but at 10.0% ABV, and with all the hops...yeah. Into the glass!

Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A. 

My pour was kind of amateur hour, but maybe not. When I popped the top, this started to gush like a prison break or something. I rushed to get this into a glass, and the end result was 4-fingers of big, foamy head. The head is slightly off-white. /cue prison break joke about off-white inmates. The head picks up some amber; the body of the beer is a hazy amber/orange in low light, with lots of carbonation. Honestly, I don't feel too bad about my pour. This pours like the Devil Dancer or the 1000 IBUs. In bright light, this beer is a murky orange, with slightly latent/lazy mid-sized carb bubbles. The head has mad orange tones, and leaves spunky lacing. It's like an STD tiger. 

The aroma on this beer is crazy. You get fat candy oranges, maple/pine sap, caramel, toffee, and rye. I'm getting some slight floral aromas, and maybe a dash of honey/maple syrup as well. Imperial IPA? Har. 

The taste is like the nose...only with immense hop bitterness. This really reminds me more of the Devil Dancer/1000 IBUs than a straight up Imperial IPA. This is riding that Barleywine-Triple IPA-style-guidelines-don't-real line. And it's fucking awesome. You get a blast of maple-citrus-rye hops up front, with some sap and pine; this rolls into immense bitterness, with woody citrus, grapefruit rind; and the finish hits rye spice, rye bread, and lingering bitterness. Dry. Oh man. This is smooth and creamy as well. I'm getting oranges, lemons, grapefruit, huge sweetness, toffee, caramel, and boozy bite that is well masked but known at the same time. You actually get some booze on the finish with the rye. Nice.

Oh He'Brew. You make such insane...complex beers. At 10.0%, this is very smooth, with a full-bodied mouthfeel, and just a dash of alcohol heat. This is bitter, but I'm not sure how bitter this is. It's hard to tell with all the malt sweetness. Yup, this beer is sugary as fuck. They might as well call it the Diabetes IPA. Palate depth is outstanding, complexity is outstanding, and this is fairly drinkable for such a big beer. Up front you get caramel, toffee, maple, echoes of an aged Barleywine, candied hops, citrus; this rolls into a dash of rye spice, assertive hop bitterness, woody hops, pine, sap, lemon rind, grapefruit rind; the back end features rye bread, a dash of malt sweetness, dryness, and lingering citrus/rye. There's slight booze on the end, and this warms you up.

Rating: Divine Brew

As a standalone beer (without food)...I gotta go with a Light Divine Brew. I'm not okay calling this an Imperial IPA, so there's that too. For my money, this is kind of like a hopped up Barleywine thing...or a Strong Ale. I mean, fuck it. Who cares? This stuff is delicious, and a 4-pack of this will only set you back 10 or 11 bucks. Totes worth it, and then totes worth it some more. This is super aggressive, complex, smooth, and drinkable. And it goes pretty well with wings. The extreme dryness/bitterness mingles well with everything up to Blazin'. At that point, you just want water, and the beer just piles on the hurt. So yeah, I suggest pairing this beer with wings, or a burger, or some nachos. I like this beer so much I could see it becoming part of my usual rotation...recommended. 

Random Thought: Seriously, the Walmart on Touhy is disgusting, it's overcrowded, and it's the epitome of everything "fuck Walmart." Unfortunately...when you need groceries, and you live in a big city, you gotta do what you gotta do. Oh well.

Pipeworks Santa vs. Unicorn (American Barleywine Style Ale)

Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #64) bought at Binny's in IL; 2012 

Style/ABV: Barleywine, 10.0%
Reported IBUs: ?

Even though it's winter in Chicago, it has been incredibly mild (it's currently like 37 degrees out) and there hasn't been much snow. As such, I'm not quite feeling the Imperial Stouts and big winter Belgian Ales. So tonight is the perfect night for a hoppy "Imperial Red Ale/American Style Barleywine." About Pipeworks:

Pipeworks has humble roots. The brewery was founded in Chicago in 2011 by Beejay Oslon and Gerrit Lewis. The duo were both homebrewers that met while while working at West Lakeview Liquors. In 2011, they began to raise money for their brewery using the online Internet site, Kickstarter. Olson and Lewis were both educated at De Struise Brewery in Oostvleteren, Belgium. With that knowledge, and the money from their kickstarter, Olson and Lewis created a unique brewery that is smaller in size, and intended to brew smaller batches of beer. The company's motto is "small batches, big beers." And indeed, since the brewery has been around, they've been releasing a lot of one-offs and small batch releases. At one point - and maybe still - the goal was the release a new beer every week. You can read more about the brewery at their website HERE.

As per usual, Pipeworks gives a brief description of the beer on the back:

"Father Christmas, Head Beardo, St. Nicholas Cage, a man of many names he may be, yet he has but one true foe... This Holiday Season, the Unicorn is back bearing his mantle of rainbowed chaos, and this time, it's seasonal bitches. An Imperial Red Ale, American Style Barleywine or Red Double IPA call it what you will, grab one and get your Jollies while the holiday fight is on..."   

I suppose I'm rooting for the Unicorn. Into the pink elephant glass...

Pipeworks Santa vs. Unicorn

The beer pours a dark red/brown color, with a pinky's worth of reddish/grey head. The head doesn't hang around for long, but leaves behind a cauldron effect. There's a ton of visible carbonation, in the form of very tiny bubbles. In bright light, this one is a dark red/orange color; the head picks up that red/orange color. This is slightly hazy, but cleaned up nicely for being bottle conditioned. 

The aroma on this features a lot of sweet citrus, zesty orange, and sugary backbone. Right now...this is really hoppy. This beer is certainly a candidate for aging, and the hops will probably drop off this nicely. This smells quite bitter, with big grapefruit, rind, slight wood, pine, that sweet citrus, orange, and a hint of elusive malt sweetness (maybe toffee?). 

If you like hoppy Barleywines, this is quite nice. This blasts your mouth with fat citrus, pine, grapefruit, and wood up front. This is quite bitter, and rolls into a spicy mid-palate, and then a bitter and dry finish. The lingering flavors on this are dry, booze, and then -- surprisingly -- brown sugar and light spice. The hops in this are zesty, citrus, grapefruit, pine, slight wood/bitter, and slightly resinous. There's a lot of malt sweetness, with caramel, toffee, hints of fruitcake or bready alcohol, and definite spice. 

This has the makings of a Barleywine...only time will tell. Actually, there's a nice malt sweetness and spice backbone to this, I think the hops will drop off leaving some lingering pine and wood, and this will really open up. Right now, 'dis shit is hoppy. At 10.0% ABV, this is pretty smooth, and supported by light carbonation. Palate depth is a bit thin between front and mid palate, and complexity is moderate to low for the style (even as an Imperial Red). I would say the mouthfeel here is medium-full, slightly sticky, and pretty dry. Up front is malt sweetness, and then woody hops; the middle rolls into bitterness, wood, grapefruit, rind, pine; the back end features brown sugar, dryness, lingering hops, and boozy bread/caramel/toffee.

Rating: Average

I'm feeling a Strong Average here. I think I've been a bit spoiled with my Imperial Reds and Barleywines. This beer has a lot of potential, but it's not dialing up the complexity, and that front to mid-palate leaves me wondering what this beer will taste like in 1 to 3 years. I may have to pick up another bottle of this to age...because why the fuck not. This beer has a lot of aging potential, I think. There's some malt complexity in the back of this. As far as food pairings...anything burger, steak, strong cheese, BBQ, or even something spicy. I'd pair this beer with some wings, to be honest. I could go for some wings. Mmm...wings.

Random Thought: I understand that Pipeworks is turning out an insane amount of beer (it's really impressive seeing all their new stuff on the shelves!), but at some point...it would be nice to see their website up and running. I mean, it's up...and sort of running. But I guess they are trying to win me over with their beer, not their website.  

Revolution Mad Cow Milk Stout

Brewed By: Revolution Brewing Company (Revolution Beer LLC) in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at in Binny's in IL; 2012 

Style/ABV: Milk Stout, 7.9%

Reported IBUs: 30

Keeping with the Chicago and winter theme, I decided to crack open Revolution's Mad Cow. The Mad Cow is a big Sweet Stout/Milk Stout, clocking in at 7.9%. Technically, the big ABV probably pushes this beyond your typical Sweet Stout styling, but who cares. 

Revolution Brewing is a brewery and brewpub based in Chicago. Revolution's roots are tied to founder Josh Deth, a homebrewer who began working at Golden Prairie Brewing. A few years later, while working at Goose Island, Josh dreamt up the idea for Revolution Brewing. In 2003, Josh and his wife opened Handlebar, while Josh worked as an Executive Director of Logan Square Chamber of Commerce. While working for the Chamber of Commerce, Josh found an old building on Milwaukee Avenue, and the wheels began to spin to open up a brewery. After three years of raising funds, Revolution Brewing opened its doors on February 2010. In July of 2011, Revolution added a 2nd floor Brewers' Lounge. And in 2012, the company opened a new production brewery and tap room. The brewpub is located in Logan Squre on 2323 N. Milwaukee Ave; the brewery is located on Kedzie Avenue at 3340 N. Kedzie Ave. For more information on Revolution, check out their history page here!  

If you roll over to Revolution's Mad Cow page, you can get some basic info on this beer. The Mad Cow is described as a "Smooth, charcoal black stout made with lactose for a lingering sweetness." Clocking in at 7.9% ABV (my bottle says 7.9%, the website says 7.7%; my guess is the recipe has been tweaked!), this beer packs 30 IBUs. Let's glass this up and see what we got.

Revolution Mad Cow Milk Stout

In low light, this beer pours a dark brown/light black color, with 2-fingers of fairly thick/root beer float/bready head. The head has a sandy/grey/tan color. As the head drops off, you get some nice lacing. In bright light, I'm getting a lot of brown on the edges, and I see a lot of carbonation in the form of tiny bubbles. Swirling this leaves tons of lacing, with dynamite head retention, and some cauldron-esque bubbles atop the beer.

The nose on this is nice, with lots of roast, caramelized sugar, lightly caramelized marshmallow, hot cocoa, cocoa powder, that milk powder shit you put into your coffee when you don't have real cream, hints of coffee, lactose, and really elusive chocolate. The nose hits the style well.

This is carbonated and slightly thin initially, with caramelized sweetness up front manifesting as elusive dark fruits. This has surprisingly good palate duration for the style, as the mid palate rolls into roast, and the back end hits big lactose/cream/coffee notes. I can't help but use Bells' Special Double Cream Stout (an awesome beer) as the framework for this style, and Revolution can compete. I'm getting caramelized sugar, hints of cherries, cappuccino, coffee, lactose, hints of cocoa (more so than chocolate), cream, and lots of roast. Some vanilla flairs up as a pleasant astringency as the roast hits some light bitterness and plays off the lactose. 

7.9% ABV is nothing to scoff at, but this is drinkable (as long as you don't object to lactose or this style of Stout). This is somewhere between a Dry Stout and a Russian Imperial Stout. This is roasty, but doesn't have any burnt or charred malts. It's complex...but it doesn't push any extremes. Except for the ABV, maybe. 7.9% will creep up on you. This is medium-light to medium in terms of mouthfeel; this is smooth, roasty, and supported by light carbonation. The finish is roasty and lactose. Palate depth is great, and complexity is high. Up front is carbonation, a blast of coffee, caramelized sugar, and cherries; the middle hits the roast, cocoa, lactose, creamer; the back end is lactose, coffee, cappuccino; slightly sticky lactose-roast finish.

Rating: Above-Average

I'm feeling a Light Above-Average on this. This is a really nice Milk/Sweet Stout, and that's all you need to know. I think bombers of this are around 7-10 bucks, so as a local option, I can dig this. What I really like about this beer is the big roasty complexity, the really nice carmelized sugar notes, and the palate depth. This starts out a bit thin, but transitions into a bigger beer across the palate. I never know what to pair with Milk Stouts...I'd do some cheesy potatoes, or a beef stew, or Goulash or something. You could certainly go the dessert route too.

Random Thought: I have a bottle of the "Very Mad Cow," which is the barrel-aged version of this beer. I'm looking forward to trying it...and seeing if the added complexity from the barrel can elevate this beer into something truly mind blowing.