Sketchbook Brewing Company has done something genuinely charming here: named a beer after a very specific date in baseball history. Night Game, this year's batch of the brewery's seasonal Double IPA, gets its name from the first scheduled night game at Wrigley Field, which took place on 8/8/88, and the beer's numbers, 88 IBU and 8.8% ABV, are clearly no accident.
Brewed with honey and built for huge tropical fruit, citrus, and floral flavors and aromas, Night Game keeps its malt bill deliberately simple, which lends the whole thing a drier, more refreshing character than a Double IPA this size usually manages. It's a beer that leans on hop volume and honey's subtle sweetness rather than a heavy malt backbone, and the result reads more crushable than its stats would suggest.
Evanston and Skokie's Sketchbook has made Night Game an annual tradition at this point, tapping it in step with actual Night Game season, and the numerology tucked into the ABV and IBU is exactly the kind of detail that rewards regulars paying attention. Beer nerds and baseball nerds get equally well served here.
Tapping Friday at either taproom, on draft and in cans, with merch featuring this and the brewery's Phantasm of the Hopera also back in stock.
Whether or not you know what happened at Wrigley on 8/8/88, Night Game makes a solid case for finding out.