Off Color Brewing in Chicago has carved out a niche for themselves brewing some strange, but fun, beers. They focus on using novel fermentation and brewing techniques along with unique yeasts and bacteria. But they always have one foot in tradition. Many of their beers are riffs on Belgian or German styles incorporating native yeasts or house made mixed fermentation cultures. There’s a fair amount of science and intention behind every production but the end results are typically delicate, balanced and, well, pretty. If you’d like to geek out on the beers, Off Color’s website provides some great descriptions of the techniques they employ with every beer. I’m really happy with this month’s selections and I hope you will be, too.
Cheers!
Chris Freeman
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Beer for Brunch |
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Off Color Brewing |
Light pineapple and orange on the nose. Bright, moderate acidity on the palate with a touch of sweetness and florality from the orange. White wine notes on the finish. It really does taste like a mimosa. |
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Chicago, Illinois |
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Berliner Weisse w/orange and Chardonnay grape juice |
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$16/4pack |
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Beer for Golf |
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Off Color Brewing |
Made to imitate an Arnold Palmer, this beer opens with lemon and herbal tea notes on the nose. Fresh lemon on the palate with a slight tannic bitterness from the tea leading to a dry, iced tea-like finish. For this beer the tea is brewed and then blended with the beer post fermentation, resulting in an equivalent of 35% iced tea in the finished beer. |
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Chicago, Illinois |
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Wit Beer w/ Lemon and Black Tea |
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$16/4pack |
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Apex Predator |
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Off Color Brewing |
Lemon blossom and fruit esters on the nose. Light acidity on the palate. Comes across like a traditional Saison. Light tartness and a touch of sweetness with just a bit of earthiness and malt character. Dry finish. Delicate and balanced beer. |
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Chicago, Illinois |
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Farmhouse Ale |
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$16/4pack |
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Very, Very Far |
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Off Color Brewing |
Golden Belgian Ale that incorporates a yeast typically used in white wines, Torulaspora delbrueckii, along with a traditional Belgian Ale yeast. The combination creates a slightly fruiter profile. Pours dark, clear gold with a foamy, white head. Fruit esters and just a little pepper on the nose. Gentle, fruity sweetness on the palate with just a bit of malt, pepper and hops. Really well balanced with a dry finish. |
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Chicago, Illinois |
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Belgian Ale mix fermented with white wine yeast |
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$16/4pack |
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Wildlings |
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Off Color Brewing |
Honestly, the description the brewery provides is far more eloquent and interesting than whatever I could write here, so I’ve borrowed this one from their website: “In 2013, our illustrator, Nikki, and John went up to Michigan to visit Virtue Cider ...On the way back, we stopped at Earls Blueberry Farm in Fennville, MI and picked some berries. When we got back, we cultured the white, powdery yeast off the blueberry skins and it's been the heart of much of our mix culture ever since. This melange of native yeasts, by themselves are super aromatic and smells explosively of blueberry juice which is pretty unusual. Yeast harvested from raspberries doesn't smell like raspberries. It just happens these ones are pretty special! However, in and of itself, this native culture doesn't ferment very well and has a difficult time processing the large amount of fermentable sugars in even moderate gravity wort. In order to help it along, years ago we introduced some lab grown Brettanomyces and as well as both saison and Belgian Sacchromyces strains. These two ale strains get the fermentation starting quickly and perform much of the alcoholic fermentation. They both ferment pretty dry, but not dry enough to allow us to package the beer immediately without risk of bottles blowing up. The much slower fermenting bretts and our native, blueberry yeasts work over a much longer time period consuming the rest of the more complex sugars, contributing deep, funky flavors and aromas as well as our native culture's blueberry character. Native yeasts harvested from blueberry skins yield an aromatic cloudburst of summer blueberries, concord grapes and strawberry blossoms interlaced with supple oak and a delicate note of violets from the long rest in handmade foedres we pulled out of a winery in the northern Italy region of Piedmont where they held Barolo for 15 years. Won a gold metal at FOBAB in 2018.” |
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Chicago, Illinois |
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Native Fermented Wild Ale Aged in Foedre |
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$8/250ml bottle |
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