Toppling-Goliath Brewery

One of the most highly rated midwestern micro breweries (that most people have never heard of) is Iowa based Toppling-Goliath. Previously limited in shipping, they have added the Windy City to their available area. Top notch IPA's, PseudoSue is out there now with more varieties to come in March and seasonals in the future.

TG Beers have been available for a while at the Field Museum, where they've been working on collaborative beers. PsuedoSue is named after a certain T Rex occasionally seen terrorizing the museum.

The Sue is a terrific beer in a category where the Midwest already has an embarrassment of riches. They've carried it at Tenuta's for quite a while - along with lots of other good stuff we randomly don't/ didn't have in Illinois. The rediscovered Ballantine's IPA (America's original!) is another good example and a ridiculous value.

Yeah Id often try to snag Sue at Tenutas but Ive never been able to get it because it sells out as soon as it comes in.

TGs opening of their new brewery in Florida has helped them get a wider distribution. The stuff we are getting in Chicago comes from their FL brewery, not that that makes a big difference but Id suggest you check the canning date, because any super hop forward beer should be had within a month if not much sooner.

Agree with your point about us in Chicago having alot of hoppy choices, especially those that are fresher than some of the Sue Binny's had last week that had been brewed in early December.

pseudoSue is great but so is Zombie Dust (like Sue a Citra hop bomb), any one of five Half Acre's hop-forward beers as well as Pipeworks Ninja v Unicorn or lil Citra.

It shouldnt be lost in the pseudoSue rollout in Chicago that Odell Brewing from Fort Collins also entered the Chicago market the same weekend. Odell makes their share of outstanding hoppy beers (a few with 100 scores on Beer Advocate) but also a couple pretty nice sours like Pina Agria, a pineapple sour and Friek, their raspberry take on a Belgian Kriek.

Great times to be a beer nerd in Chicago!