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Because we’re in Chicago, I don’t imagine I need to recap the story of Revolution Brewing for you. They’ve been making their TV Party Rye IPA at the brewpub for a couple years, and all the while the style has been growing in popularity—it’s even been mainstreamed by the ubiquitously distributed Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye. I’ve already reviewed one example, in fact—Three Floyds’ Rye da Tiger double rye IPA. Bottles of TV Party first arrived in stores a couple weeks ago.

“Our rye IPA is clean and refreshing,” says Revolution, “brewed with two-row malt and flaked rye for toasty, nutty undertones up front, but with a huge hop flavor and aroma from the Amarillo and Fuggle hops.”

I presume I’ll be able to evaluate all of that, but I should apologize to Revolution now in case my palate is rubbish—I’ve been fighting a sore throat and a nagging cough for a spell. I wanted to stick to this column’s weekly schedule, though, so I decided against putting off my next review till I was well. This time of year, you never know when that’s going to be!

Philip Montoro

Philip Montoro has been an editorial employee of the Reader since 1996 and its music editor since 2004. Pieces he has edited have appeared in Da Capo’s annual Best Music Writing anthologies in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011. He shared two Lisagor Awards in 2019 for a story on gospel pioneer Lou Della Evans-Reid and another in 2021 for Leor Galil's history of Neo, and he’s also split three national awards from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia: one for multimedia in 2019 for his work on the TRiiBE collaboration the Block Beat, and two (in 2020 and 2022) for editing the music writing of Reader staffer Leor Galil. Philip has played scrap metal in Lozenge, drummed with the Disasters, the Afflictions, and Brilliant Pebbles, and sung for the White Outs. He wrote the column Beer and Metal from 2012 till 2015, and hopes to do so again one day. You can also follow him on Twitter.