Beer of the Week: Ale Syndicate's Municipal IPA

By Jason Baldacci in Food on Apr 12, 2015 6:00PM

This week, we're taking a look at a beer from another one of our local, budding breweries.

Municipal IPA is a year-round offering from the guys at Ale Syndicate, right here in Chicago. It pours as a hazy, golden-orange color in the glass with big aromas of floral, piney hops wafting above off-white foam, and we even picked up on a tropical pop of earthy pineapple and lemon zest. On the palate, the hops lend a resiny texture along with a pleasantly assertive bitterness. There's a solid malt backbone that gives off a hint of breadiness and caramelization, but the hops definitely stand front and center. At 5.7% alcohol content, Municipal IPA is crisp, well balanced and a very accommodating beer to have in your fridge as the temperatures warm up.

Ale Syndicate first launched a few years back with the help of another company that was brewing and bottling their beers for them. The practice is called contract brewing, and it's relatively common for upstart craft breweries. What we appreciated the most about Ale Syndicate's approach, though, is that they were very transparent about it. While they still lean on that other company for some of their beers, Ale Syndicate did get their own facility up and running last summer in the Green Exchange building over at Diversey and Rockwell, which has allowed them to produce a handful of limited-release beers in addition to their solid, year-round lineup.

Municipal IPA is available on draft and in 12 oz. bottles, check beermenus.com to see where you can pick some up this weekend.