Suburban Chicago brewers Two Brothers are a brewery I know very well.
Geographically, they’re the closest major regional brewery to my hometown. Titular brother founders Jim and Jason Ebel even attended my alma mater, the University of Illinois. From the first time I started getting into craft beer in the mid-2000’s, I always considered buying a pint of their amber farmhouse ale, Domain DuPage, to be “supporting my local.”
They’re not a brewery that has ever really made its name by exploring the boundaries of style or venturing into the extreme. Rather, Two Brothers is a name I think of when someone says “dependability.” Their beers are described by many with words like “drinkable.” “Crisp.” “Solid.” “Balanced.” And unsurprisingly, this can mean getting overlooked from time to time.
The brewery’s new year-rounder, Wobble IPA, is a little bit more single-minded than most Two Brothers brews, a curious offering in the sense that they already make another year-round IPA called Outlaw that is similar in several respects. Wobble, however, is clearly meant to be a more direct appeal to midwestern hopheads, a beer with less malt backbone and a clearer focus on hop flavor and clean bitterness.
The aroma is certainly an assertive and pleasant one, a big combo of floral, citrus and pine notes that is beefed up in comparison to the canned Outlaw (Wobble is in bottles). There’s a hint of bready malt, but there’s also no mistaking this as anything other than an IPA, which I expect was the idea.
On the palate, bitterness is medium-high, present and appropriate, but well short of overbearing. The hop profile is a little bit of everything: Floral, a little grassy, a little citrus, a little pine, balanced on a narrow body of crackery malt. There’s a small bit of honey-type sweetness there, but this is predominantly dry, bitter-forward IPA—refreshing and uncomplicated, something that would be great with say, a big, juicy burger. One might call this a good example of “Midwestern IPA,” that nebulous maybe-style that can be found at the intersection between bone-dry West Coast IPAs and honeyed, malty “East Coast IPA.”
Regardless, there’s very little fuss. It’s just good, everyday IPA.
Brewery: Two Brothers Brewing Co.
City: Warrenville, IL
Style: American IPA
ABV: 6.3%
IBU: 69
Availability: Year-round, 12 oz bottles