In his poem "Chicago," Carl Sandburg first refers to this great city as "Hog Butcher For the World." And while the literal meaning behind that moniker has faded since the mid-twentieth century closing of the Union Stock Yards, it anchors and inspires our ethos in three meaningful ways:
For starters, we love hops. The variety of ways they can be used in brewing and the range of flavors and aromas that they bring to beer are vast and areas in which we enjoy experimenting heavily. No surprise then that the word "hop" appears in our name and that the majority of our recipes begin with a specific variety or intuitive blend of hops in mind.
How we are inspired by the "Butcher" portion of our namesake is thankfully less bloody than the history behind it, but there are a lot of butcher-esque traits that we do draw inspiration from. All of the ones we grew up around were approachable, dependable and visibly and vocally passionate about their craft. They'd take the time to get to know you, get technical when necessary and if you wanted it, help you find something or make a recommendation. That's who we aim to be, except with hops, yeast, water and grain in a brewery instead of a butcher shop and a meat-filled counter.
Finally, at some point, you'll refer to us simply as "Hop Butcher" (and we're cool with that), but the "For The World" part is an important and meaningful element of our name. It inspires the ingredients we use and the personality behind the beers we brew: unique enough for the beer geeks, approachable enough for the newcomers. It guides who we work with and where our cans and kegs are distributed...and where they might someday be distributed.
Another fantastic brew from this Chicago brewery. Definite fruity profile with notes of mango, very juice like, light sour bitterness going down. Good good stuff.
Sampled from the tap at GTMW 2022. Pours a cloudy yellow with a slight orange hue and a white head that dissipates to the edges. Aroma has a bright papaya, dank mango and citrus rind underlying. Flavor has dank citrus and a bit of mango with a touch of papaya and sweet grains backing.
Sampled from the tap at GTMW 2022. Pours a cloudy milky yellow with a slight orange hue and a white head that dissipates quickly to the edges. Aroma has a sweet citrus and mango combination with a touch of creamy sweet grains backing. Flavor has lots of mango, sweet candied citrus and a bit of creamy sweet grains backing.
Sampled from the tap at GTMW 2022. Pours a clear yellow gold with a white head that dissipates slowly to the edges. Aroma has lots of dank citrus with a bit of mango and sweet onion underlying. Flavor has sweet onion and grass with a growing citrus note through the finish.
Sampled from the tap at GTMW 2022. Pours a cloudy yellow with a white head that dissipates slowly to the edges. Aroma has a herbal grass and dank onion with a bit of citrus rind underlying. Flavor has citrus rind, grass and a touch of dank onion in the finish.
Foamy white head on a full on hazy vivid golden coloured body. Mango, nectarine & melon aroma. Medium to full bodied, smooth, smoothie & clean on the back. Melon, nectarine, mango & white wine tastes with a bitter pithy finish. What a class beer.