Goose Island Launches Limited Edition Draft Series

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Feb 9, 2012 7:40PM

Remember when Goose Island announced they were being bought by Anheuser-Busch InBev and people went apoplectic about that and the news a few months later they would be outsourcing production of Honkers Ale and 312 Urban Wheat to out-of-state breweries? Neither decision was popular, but Goose Island has arguably been doing some of its best work since the moves were announced. Their Fulton Street brewery has become a mad laboratory of malted beverage experimentation.

Case in point: Fulton and Wood is a collaborative series between the company's brewers which takes its name from a discontinued bitter they used to brew. Next week will see the launch of Old Town Yard, a Helles Bock collaboration between brewers Gavin Secchi and John Laffler intended to be their interpretation of the classic Bavarian lager stylenfirst brewed in Munich in 1894. They selected 100 percent Pilsen malt from Best Malz’s Wallertheim malting plant in Germany, German Hersbrucker hop pellets in the kettle and whole flower Hallertau Mittelfrueh hops in the whirlpool, and Augustiner lager yeast.

The result is a prime example of a session beer. Old Town Yard comes in at 4.3 alcohol, by volume, with a bitterness rating of 15 IBU and a corn silk color. Secchi and Laffler decided to try a modified decoction mashing technique to develop a more complex malt flavor. They adjusted the boil and whirlpool residence time to minimize the creation of Dimethyl sulfide.

Old Town Yard should be popping up on taps around town soon. Here's video of Secchi explaining the brewing process.