Strictly American-styled medium body (sans Solemn Oath’s usual Belgian influence) tosses massive piney hop bittering at dark-roasted rye graining, toasted caramel nuttiness and honeyed fruit bouquet. Tangy red apple, brown apple, peach, melon, honeydew and cantaloupe sweetness quickly embittered by sharp orange rind, pink grapefruit and pineapple briskness.
Approachable saison moderation softens white-wined Chardonnay buttering with light grapefruit-orange tartness, lemon-rotted champagne grape souring, lilting lemongrass liming and floral-hopped pleasantries (layered above a biscuity malt base). French saison yeast offers ascending lactobacillus acidity to dry earthen bottom.
Promising soft-toned hybrid combines orange-peeled coriander spicing of a Belgian witbier with the grassy-hopped ‘floral citric’ aromatics and resinous pining of an American wheat ale. Mildly creamed caramel malting anchors yellow-pink grapefruit tang and navel orange juicing to biscuit-y white and red wheat spine.
Emphatic Imperial Pilsner (with corn liquor-like 9.4% alcohol burn) upholds preponderance for sharp IPA fruiting. Wafting floral sweetness embraces assertive lemony orange-grapefruit tang and grassy hop bittering over honeyed cereal grain malting. A bold hop-head alternative.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
In Chicago’s upscale Wicker Park section in a red brick building on North Avenue, sensational hipster joint PIECE BREWERY & PIZZERIA, opened July 2001, recently celebrated its eighth anniversary. Modeled after Connecticut’s highly successful Bru Rm. at BAR, this humble post-industrial pub serves as a top-notch pizza place (specializing in thin crust New Haven-styled pizza) and casual sportsbar.
A rounded 20-seat right side bar sits across roomy stool-tabled seating. Multiple TV’s and several guitars (Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen’s part owner) are strewn about the gray and mauve walls while wood lattices and exposed ducts crowd the skylight rafters. Besides having a respectable selection of house beers, there are 20-plus bottles of fine craft beer available.
During July ’14 on a bright Sunday, my entourage grab a table at the raised level next to the front windows. Despite being crowded and busy, our thin crust pepperoni pizza came post-haste alongside the seven beer samplers.
For starters, dry-bodied Golden Arm Kolsch retained a lemon-soured hop fizz and orange-rotted cologne musk that may suit Blue Collar thirsts (though its sulfuric diacetyl murk may turn off a few stragglers).
A better choice was stylishly concise light body, Top Heavy Hefeweizen, a surefire bet with lemon-sugared banana, clove, bubblegum and vanilla sweetness sidling bubbly champagne effervescence and white-peppered orange blossom snips.
Similar in approach, Belgian-styled moderation, Swingin’ Single, brought tart banana-clove sweetness to dry black-peppered lemon peel bittering.
Piney juniper hop bitterness mellowed to grapefruit-peeled lemon pit souring for crisply clean Dysfunctionale, a wily American IPA with ancillary honeyed pineapple, mango, navel orange and tangerine tang.
For contrast, English-styled IPA, Victoria, maintained a musky lemon-grapefruit frontage, subtle juniper hop briskness, reedy bark-dried astringency and dewy earthen mustiness.
On the dark side, fudgy Roland The Headless Assistant Brewer possessed an approachable mocha theme as roasted chocolate, Columbian coffee, milked espresso, creme brulee, sweet hazelnut and bitter walnut illusions rode above the dry oatmeal base.
Best bet: classic Egyptian Pale Ale, Cameltoe, hid its hefty 9.5% ABV behind tropical IPA fruiting and soft resinous pine hops. Caramel malt sugaring and mild vanilla creaming sweetened its ancillary yellow grapefruit, mandarin orange, tangerine, clementine, pineapple, peach, nectarine and papaya tang as well as candied apple, pear and banana nuances.
While Chicago’s brewpub scene keeps growing exponentially, Piece continues to thrive and build a substantial reputation amongst locals and travelers alike.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Along Chicago’s youthful northwest Lincoln Park section, brown-wood-paneled gastropub, ATLAS BREWING COMPANY, opened in June 2012 (then closed in 2018). Brotherly brewers’ John and Ben Saller took the Atlas moniker from a pre-prohibition brewery specializing in diverse ales.
Competing with established local competitors such as Revolution and Piece, this laid-back modern Industrial lounge features one large community table, several booths, overhead Edison bulb lighting and black tin tiling. Glass-encased stainless steel brew tanks at the rear hold the soft-toned liquid gold soon to be consumed. And at the 15-stool right side bar, glass mosaic-tiled tap handles serve the nine hand-crafted brews to be had on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, July ’14.
Since the eight-tabled front deck is completely full, my small coterie decides to sit inside at a booth to quaff a few five-ounce samplers. Alongside the lightest fare, I munched on the outstanding cheese-sauced mussels and duck confit. Though diacetyl buttering disrupted corn-malted perfume-hopped Prager Pilsner, moderate flagship offering, Diversey Pale Ale brought decisive IPA-like fruiting (yellow grapefruit, orange rind, pineapple and mango) plus floral-perfumed hop bittering to bark-dried wood tones.
Belgian saison yeast spiced up yellow-fruited Farmhouse Wheat Ale, a light-bodied nicety gathering lemony Bartlett pear, banana, plantain, grapefruit and pineapple briskness for its sweet lychee-spiked wheat base. In a similar vein, mild tropical-fruited Two-Headed Boy Belgian Pale Wheat covered its sugary bubblegum yeast with dry-hopped grapefruit-peeled orange rind bittering.
A limited edition collaboration with nearby Une Annee Brewery, Raspberry Brown Saison, brought sweet ‘n sour raspberry tartness to zesty lemon, oaken cherry and vinous grape notions, finishing dry (with a nutty quirk).
More adventurous fare included Americanized Belgian pale ale, Archaeopteryx Dreamcoat, a ‘juicy citra-hopped’ moderation with yellow and pink grapefruit tartness, lemon rot souring, green apple pucker and advertised orange-blossomed blueberry subtleties. Just as pleasurably hybridized, floral-bound Rookery Rye IPA used grapefruit and gooseberry flavors to advance its rye-dried multi-grain breaded appeal.
On the dark side, chocolate-sugared Invincible Armor Robust Porter possessed a smooth dark-roasted mocha malting and dried cherry tang while lightly creamed Freight Handler Milk Stout plied smoked black chocolate to lactic cocoa-dried Baker’s chocolate and cacao nibs snips.
www.atlasbeercompany.com