Latest Reviews

Double Dry Hopped pseudoSue
Toppling Goliath
Modus Vivendi
Wild Beer Co.
Spaceman
Brewfist

Recent Articles

Shameless
Craft brewer sellouts become as tone-deaf and underhanded as their new overlords. Great Taste Eve
Check out the burgeoning Madison beer scene the night before the best fest in country. Good Beer Makes Good Conversation
The effects of drinking beer worth talking about. The Beers of Walmart
The largest retailer in the world now has its own line of beers. Our Take on the Lagunitas-Heineken Deal
Fuck Lagunitas. archives »

Beer Reviews

Half Acre Lager

Other reviews for this beer:
Eddie Glick		read it ›

Half Acre
Chicago, IL
USA
http://www.halfacrebeer.com/

Style: Lager

Jill’s Rating:
   (Recommended)


Comments:
If you’re going to start a new brewery in a city like Chicago, you’ve got some pretty big names to follow. Goose Island is the word in Chicago craft beer (though with some investment from a larger brewery, you can’t really consider them a microbrewery anymore), so any new guy has to put out something pretty good to be able to live up to GI’s standards.

Half Acre’s trying, and their first attempt, a lager, isn’t half bad. They don’t have any brewery space in Chicago, so they’re using a contract brewer in Wisconsin to cook up their recipe.

This lager pours a light caramel color with a big, foamy head that leaves a lot of lacing. It’s clear and smells a little of what I like to call “roasty toasty,” as if something’s burned in the brewing process and you get a little of that burnt/roasted smell here.

On the initial sip you do get that burnt taste, followed by a fair amount of water. That burnt feel stays with you on subsequent sips, but the whole beverage does mellow out a bit as you enjoy the rest of the mug.

As I said, it’s not a bad beer, and hopefully that bodes well for future offerings from Half Acre.

Reviewed by Jill Jaracz on June 4, 2008.

Drinkin’ And Thinkin’

Beer Dorks News

Want to know how healthy the craft beer industry is? As always, look to Portland. Craft pioneer Bridgeport announces sudden closure, adding to a growing list of PDX casualties. Did Anheuser-Busch Chicago offer their shit beer to Cody Parkey before his missed field goal? Because that may explain why he "accidentally" biffed it. Chicago now has the most breweries of any city in the country. Other things Chicago has the most of: murders, mobsters, and Ditkas. Trying to spin it positive, BA releases end of year graphic. Only 5% growth in the craft sector when nearly 1000 new breweries opened? That's a collapse waiting to happen. R.I.P. Tallgrass... another casualty as the regional/national craft beer market continues to get squeezed. Wait... Constellation Brands cut all of the Ballast Point and Funky Buddha sales staff? They merged it with their Corona/Modelo staff?? We're SHOCKED!!! Pizza Beer founder crying about failure of company, blames everyone else. Reminder, the beer tasted like vomit. Try having better ideas or making better products so you're not a failure. It's Bud Light so doesn't really matter, but we expect this beer to be sitting around for awhile. Indiana brewery to open with controversial beer names to "get the conversation going". Translation: taking advantage of serious issues for free publicity. Hundreds of amazing beers in Wisconsin and the Cubs took back the one everyone drinks just because it exists and people have heard of it. How fitting...