thewimperoo
Well-Known Member
Visited some southwest suburb breweries on Saturday with a friend that lives in Shorewood.
Started the afternoon at Elder Brewing in downtown Joliet. A small and spartan space. 6 beers on tap. Nothing bad, nothing particularly good. Gumballhead-like hoppy wheat was the best of the bunch. We had visited MyGrain Brewing, which is a couple of blocks away, last fall and thought it was much better.
The next stop was Arrowhead Ales in New Lenox. Strip mall brewery next to a grocery store. But once inside it was comfortable space. Quite a large selection of beer. Tasty food We spent a few hours here. Ran flights on just about everything. The Kolsch was the standout of everything. I would drink that quite often. Hoppy beers were solid, Witbier and Gose were good. The BA stout had quite a bit of fusel alcohol coming off at first. After it was sitting for about 15 minutes it mostly went away, and was a decent beer. Overall, a place I'd visit again.
Just down the road is another strip mall brewery that is only a couple of weeks old. Hickory Creek Brewing Company. Since I'm rarely down that way, and it was on our way back to my friend's house I figured we'd check it out. 4 beers on tap. We ordered a kolsch and roggenbier. The roggenbier looked like muddy toilet water. Both were slightly sour and had strong plastic off flavors. Cademon-level bad beers.
One last stop was Will County Brewing Company in Shorewood. 6 beers on tap. We tried the Witbier and a NE-IPA. The Wit was pretty standard, but the NE-IPA wasn't good. More plastic off-flavors. If my friend didn't live so close, it's unlikely that I'd ever return.
Started the afternoon at Elder Brewing in downtown Joliet. A small and spartan space. 6 beers on tap. Nothing bad, nothing particularly good. Gumballhead-like hoppy wheat was the best of the bunch. We had visited MyGrain Brewing, which is a couple of blocks away, last fall and thought it was much better.
The next stop was Arrowhead Ales in New Lenox. Strip mall brewery next to a grocery store. But once inside it was comfortable space. Quite a large selection of beer. Tasty food We spent a few hours here. Ran flights on just about everything. The Kolsch was the standout of everything. I would drink that quite often. Hoppy beers were solid, Witbier and Gose were good. The BA stout had quite a bit of fusel alcohol coming off at first. After it was sitting for about 15 minutes it mostly went away, and was a decent beer. Overall, a place I'd visit again.
Just down the road is another strip mall brewery that is only a couple of weeks old. Hickory Creek Brewing Company. Since I'm rarely down that way, and it was on our way back to my friend's house I figured we'd check it out. 4 beers on tap. We ordered a kolsch and roggenbier. The roggenbier looked like muddy toilet water. Both were slightly sour and had strong plastic off flavors. Cademon-level bad beers.
One last stop was Will County Brewing Company in Shorewood. 6 beers on tap. We tried the Witbier and a NE-IPA. The Wit was pretty standard, but the NE-IPA wasn't good. More plastic off-flavors. If my friend didn't live so close, it's unlikely that I'd ever return.