Off Color Brewing Is Opening A Craft Beer Bottle Shop

By Anthony Todd in Food on Feb 3, 2016 6:47PM



Off Color founder and owner John Laffler

Off Color Brewing is one of our favorite craft breweries in Chicago. They've got unique flavors, gorgeous packaging and a fun line of small-batch beers, but their stuff isn't always available everywhere. Like most small brewers, distribution can be a challenge, and while you can usually find Off Color beers at Binny's, sometimes even big stores like Whole Foods will only have a single variety (or nothing at all).

Fans of the brewery: Your prayers are answered. Next Friday, Feb. 12, at 2 p.m., Off Color will soft-open their bottle shop at 3925 W. Dickens Ave. Note that this is not a tap room, but you'll be able to buy "Brewery fresh beer!" in a "Non-air conditioned industrial space!" (their words, not mine).

The next day, Saturday, Feb. 13, the brewery will start a series of limited edition bottle releases at the shop. In order to avoid crowds of people standing in line for beer that runs out, you can buy tickets at their website in advance - they say the tickets will be up a week before the release. The first beer to be released is "Whiskers," described thusly:

Whiskers is fermented with a blend of our own funk cultures, house lactobacillus and CSB Brett strain, Brettanomyces indianapolis, and aged in puncheon barrels. Vinous, acidic, dry, and funky. Sure, Whiskers won Silver in Wild Beer - Acidic at the 2015 Festival of Barrel and Wood Aged Beer but, more importantly, it has an otter on the label.

The beer at the bottle shop will be extra fresh, according to Off Color, because they'll now be bottling on Fridays. So if you want beer that was only bottled a few hours before, get down to the new bottle shop.