Goose Island Brewer Departs To Start Off Color Brewing

By Anthony Todd in Food on Nov 28, 2012 4:20PM

Photo credit: Lauren Lichty

Another Goose Island departure: John Laffler, "Innovation brewer" at Goose Island (and the man responsible for many of their unique barrel-aged beers like Juliet and Madame Rose) is striking out on his own. He's teamed up with Dave Bleitner, formerly of Two Brothers, to start their own brewery. Now that Greg Hall, John Hall and Laffler are gone, the remnants of Goose Island's pre-Anheuser Busch team may be looking a bit thin.

The Tribune reported yesterday that Laffler gave his notice to Goose Island last week. Bleitner came up with the idea for the brewery, which he says will create brews inspired by "Very bizarre beer no one has heard of or knows about." They won't be like the beers that Laffler created for Goose Island—these will be German inspired. Tribune reporter Josh Noel tasted two of them.

The lighter was in the gose style, called (for now) Ampel Weiss ("ampel" is German word for traffic light). The hazy, golden wheat brew is easy drinking, but it is also refreshing, lightly tart, mildly funky and among the most interesting low-alcohol beers (4.2 percent) imaginable. It should appeal to both seasoned beer drinkers and those looking to move on from, say, Blue Moon. The other is a kottbusser — a style even rarer than gose — that doesn't have a name yet. It's a brown wheat beer made with honey and molasses that finishes dry, with just a light, gentle sweetness. It's another deft easy drinker.

Laffler didn't comment on why he left Goose Island, though he's been working on this new project on the side since 2009. "I wasn't going to stay at Goose forever," he said. "I'm proud of the work I did there, but it was sort of time to go."

The new brewery, Off Color Brewing, will be housed in a warehouse at Armitage and Pulaski. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.