Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week:" Green Flash "Le Freak"

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Feb 18, 2010 9:30PM

The recent purchase of Sam's Wine and Spirits by Binny's meant that we had to replace our Sam's rewards card with a Binny's rewards card. Ug, monopolies.

Anyway, the first purchase we made with the card was a nice bomber bottle of Green Flash Le Freak. We've become fast fans of Green Flash since they entered the market and Le Freak should be on the radar of beer fans everywhere. This is a blended beer, a mix of an American Imperial IPA with a Belgian-style trippel. It's an Imperial IPA mash brewed with both Green Flash's house yeast and a Belgian yeast. Given the excessive hoppiness of the former and sugary malty character of the latter, one would expect Le Freak to be an extreme blended beer. Instead, Le Freak is a beer of perfect balance. Warm citrus and pine notes dominate the nose upon decanting. Flavors you'll detect on the palate include pine, caramel and pepper.

A couple days later we were at Big Star having tacos in the morning and saw Le Freak on their beer menu on special. You'll definitely be able to find it a Binny's. Change out your rewards card while you're there.