Feature image courtesy of DryHop Brewers

For DryHop Brewers & Corridor Brewery & Provisions head brewer Brant Dubovick, the insight to start focusing on hazy IPAs started when he was in DC for the Craft Brewers Conference with DryHop Lead Brewer Adrian Vidaurre and Corridor Lead Brewer Roger Cuzelis. While there, Brant decided to wait in line for up to 2.5 hours for a Trillium and Bissel Brothers New England-style IPA at a tap takeover. Since then, the haze craze has been front and center for both DryHop and its sister brewery Corridor Brewery & Provisions in particular. Corridor has proven to be a particularly good testing ground to test Chicago’s demand for the hazy IPA, and according to Dubovick, the response has been “amazing.”

In the past two months, DryHop and Corridor have churned out several New England-Style inspired IPAs that have been eagerly gulped down by Chicago craft beer lovers. Some of the highlights include SqueezeIt V1 & V2 Double Dry Hopped Double IPAs, Juicay Canseco, Cheatcode, a Mikerphone collab named Reign in Punch from CCBW, along with the citrusy Van Hazen DDH IPA. The first iteration of Van Hazen was so popular that Corridor is unveiling Van Hazen V2 this week. DryHop also released its latest NE today – Chill Vibes Only, a Hazy Pale Ale with Amarillo, Melon, and Citra hops.

Tomorrow, 6/27, at 5, we’re releasing Van Hazen II, our 6% DDH IPA! w/Citra, Simcoe, Azacca #hazyipa #chicagocraftbeer #southportcorridor pic.twitter.com/1SQq7ZUjIU

— Corridor Brewery (@CorridorChicago) June 26, 2017

DryHop and Corridor do not actively distribute outside of their own walls besides from crowlers, which means that the release parties for these hop-heavy beers have been crazy. According to Dubovick, “atCorridor, we recently sold out of a 9-barrel batch of SqueezIt V2, in 6 days and on its release night we sold 160 crowlers. SqueezIt V1 and Van Hazen sold out in 8 days. Our Mikerphone collaboration Reign in Punch and our 1st Van Hazen release night was wall-to-wall with people for close to 5 hours. And at DryHop, our best selling hazy – Cheat Code, a Hazy IPA with Amarillo, Simcoe, Mosaic, and Citra, sold out as fast as some of our original opening lineup beers.”

“We will always have a Hazy on to the best of our ability at Corridor. We plan on rotating different versions of SqueezIt and Van Hazen throughout the Summer and beyond. DryHop will continue to offer “Hazy” offerings throughout the year. However, Adrian (Vidaurre) has crafted many classic hop centric beers that our guests love. At Corridor, we will also mix in an easy drinking DDH Pale ale a la Salute Your Simcoe and Fade2Haze,” said Dubovick. “You will see more experimentation with the style throughout the Summer and Fall. I do not believe this is a fad. I think this style is here to stay, and we want to be at the forefront.”

Our latest hazy is tapped! Fade2Haze is a 5.3% Double Dry Hopped (DDH) Pale Ale w/Citra & Amarillo #hazybeer #southportcorridor pic.twitter.com/TlfEes6K4q

— Corridor Brewery (@CorridorChicago) June 16, 2017

What’s next for Brant and the talented brewers at DryHop and Corridor? First, keep momentum, then – experiment. “Right now, at Corridor, I am obsessively focused on the Hazy IPA program. We have really caught lightning in a bottle thanks to some seriously hard work from Roger, Adrian, and the team…[in the future] look for a reboot of Corridor’s Brett program starting this Fall and we would love to figure out a way to do some barrel aging at both Corridor and DryHop.”

#squeezit v2 is tapped! Available on draft & to-go in crowlers, growlers#hazefordaze #hazyipa #chicagocraftbeer #southportcorridor pic.twitter.com/y9XpMFvBQo

— Corridor Brewery (@CorridorChicago) June 9, 2017

 

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