“It’s cool to stand in front of that thing,” Zimmer said. Technically I would call this a BJCP category 30A Spice, Herb or Vegetable Beer, but I could also make an argument for Category 30C Winter Seasonal Beer because the spicing just screamed 'holiday' at me.

Hop Butcher has made two other additions, both nodding to its identity: a commissioned painting of a Washington state hop field the partners visited in 2019 and, on a brick wall just inside the front door, the opening lines of Carl Sandburg’s legendary poem from which the brewery took its name (“Hog Butcher for the World/ Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat/ Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler / Stormy, husky, brawling/ City of the Big Shoulders”). Hop Butcher’s Milkstachio Milk Stout brewed with cacao nibs and natural pistachio flavor has a pretty cool name. “I didn’t realize how bold and striking the mural would be,” Zimmer said. Their IPAs are considered more of a Chicago style, which tends to contain lactose/milk sugar to bump up the sweetness factor more than the original Northeast counterpart. It was a subtle transformation that surprised even Zimmer and La Rose. But for the uneducated, Hop Butcher makes exceptional New England style IPAs, along with various other beers - stouts, pale ales, lagers, etc. The mural - warm, mingled shades of red, orange and yellow as a bird spreads its wings against the sun - fosters an intimate space, dominating the room in a way one single thing did not when it was Half Acre’s.

Hop Butcher for the World's taproom features a wall mural painted by Dan Grzeca, who also designs Hop Butcher’s labels.

Hop butcher milkstacho