Pipeworks Forest Fauna 4Pk

Pipeworks Forest Fauna 4Pk is a 7.0% ABV American IPA brewed with spruce tips, Centennial hops, and Simcoe hops by Pipeworks Brewing Company in Chicago, Illinois. This woodland-inspired IPA stands apart from conventional hop-forward ales by weaving real spruce tips into the grain bill, yielding an aromatic profile that lands somewhere between a Pacific Northwest forest and a citrus grove.

Quick Facts: ABV: 7.0%  |  Origin: Chicago, Illinois  |  Style: American IPA with Spruce Tips  |  Brewery: Pipeworks Brewing Company

Production & Heritage

Pipeworks Brewing Company was founded in Chicago and has built a reputation for inventive, small-batch beers that push beyond conventional style boundaries. Forest Fauna is brewed with a hop bill anchored by Centennial and Simcoe — two varieties prized for their citrus, pine, and resinous qualities — then layered with spruce tips, an uncommon botanical addition that amplifies the beer's evergreen character while adding herbal complexity. The spruce tips function not as a gimmick but as a genuine flavor contributor, bridging the gap between the hops' natural piney notes and a distinctly forest-floor earthiness.

Tasting Notes

Aroma: The nose opens with bright citrus — orange and grapefruit — before shifting into dense evergreen needle and resinous pine. Beneath that primary wave, subtle notes of leather, sage, and a faint herbal mintiness emerge.

Taste: The first sip delivers dried pine and wintergreen, quickly followed by grapefruit pith and a grounding earthy quality reminiscent of damp forest floor. Mid-palate, catty hop notes surface alongside traces of blueberry dust and a light spruce sweetness. The body is medium, crisp, and off-dry with restrained bitterness that lets the botanical elements speak clearly.

Finish: The finish is moderately long with lingering pine resin, herbal spruce, and a dry citrus pith bite. A medium-light bitterness carries through cleanly without overwhelming the palate.

How to Drink Forest Fauna

This IPA is best served cold, around 40–45°F, in a tulip glass or standard pint that allows the aromatic spruce and hop oils to concentrate at the rim. Its botanical complexity also makes it a surprisingly capable cocktail ingredient: try it in a Beermosa with fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice to amplify the citrus character; use it as the beer component in a Boilermaker paired with a clean, unpeated whiskey to complement the pine and sage notes; or build a Beer Shandy with lemonade and a sprig of rosemary, which echoes the herbal spruce dimension.

Best For

• IPA drinkers looking to explore botanical and spruce-forward variations
• Sharing with friends during an outdoor cookout or camping trip
• Pairing alongside a holiday meal where evergreen aromatics complement the season
• Gifting to a craft beer enthusiast who gravitates toward unconventional ingredients

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Forest Fauna taste like? Forest Fauna delivers a layered combination of dried pine, grapefruit pith, wintergreen, and earthy forest floor, supported by a crisp, medium body and moderate bitterness that keeps it highly drinkable at 7.0% ABV.

How does Forest Fauna compare to Dogfish Head Pennsylvania Tuxedo? Both beers incorporate spruce tips into an American ale framework, but Forest Fauna leans more heavily on Centennial and Simcoe hops for pronounced citrus and pine resin character, while Pennsylvania Tuxedo tends toward a broader, more spruce-dominant profile with a different hop backbone. Forest Fauna's 7.0% ABV also positions it slightly differently than the Dogfish Head offering in terms of body and sessionability.

Is Forest Fauna good for IPA beginners? Its medium-light bitterness and off-dry balance make it approachable for drinkers who find aggressively bitter IPAs challenging, though the spruce tips add an unusual herbal dimension that may surprise someone expecting a straightforward hop bomb.

Where is Forest Fauna made? Forest Fauna is brewed by Pipeworks Brewing Company in Chicago, Illinois. Pipeworks is known for producing creative, limited-run beers that frequently incorporate unconventional ingredients.

What foods pair well with Forest Fauna? Grilled salmon benefits from the beer's pine and citrus notes cutting through the fish's richness. Roasted chicken with herbs like rosemary and thyme mirrors the spruce character. Sharp aged cheddar contrasts the citrus pith and earthiness. Bratwurst or grilled sausages match the beer's crisp, medium body. A citrus-dressed arugula salad picks up on the grapefruit and herbal aromatics.

What sizes does Forest Fauna come in? Forest Fauna is available in a 4-pack format, which is the standard retail configuration for this release.

Is Forest Fauna worth the price? Forest Fauna positions as a specialty craft IPA within Pipeworks' rotating lineup, and the addition of real spruce tips places it a step above standard IPAs in terms of ingredient complexity and production effort — it represents solid value for drinkers seeking something beyond a conventional hop-forward beer.

Why Forest Fauna?

The defining move here is the spruce tips. While hundreds of American IPAs rely on Centennial and Simcoe to deliver citrus and pine, very few breweries actually introduce real botanical spruce into the kettle to close the gap between hop-derived pine character and genuine evergreen flavor. The result is an IPA that smells and tastes like walking through a coniferous forest after rain — earthy, resinous, and alive — while still delivering the citrus brightness and clean bitterness that define the style. With a 3.9 rating on Untappd across more than 3,000 check-ins, Forest Fauna has earned consistent praise from the craft beer community as a well-executed and distinctive take on the American IPA.