GOOSE ISLAND — Off Color Brewing isn't getting a whole lot bigger, but it is apt to get better and even more interesting with the addition of a taproom between Goose Island and Old Town expected to open next year.
Off Color co-owner Jeff Laffler confirmed Wednesday that the brewery will open a taproom with additional production space at 1460 N. Kingsbury St.
"It's a more central location," Laffler said. "We love where we're at, Hermosa. It's a nice neighborhood place, but it's really designed as a production brewery. Hermosa's not the easiest place for everyone in the city to get to."
The taproom will be able to accommodate 150 to 180 people, a few dozen more on the patio, weather permitting.
That's an attraction in itself, as the brewery's original location, at 3925 W. Dickens Ave., only had a bottle shop for customers. Yet the draw for beer geeks might be the ability to experiment that the new location will allow.
"It gives us more space and time for us to do more wild beers," Laffler said. "It's something that we love making, but they're very unpredictable, and they really just gum up our production schedule." Deviations in that production schedule, he added, can prove "catastrophic."
Off Color is rolling out 6,000 barrels this year, and that should expand slightly with the shift of some operations to Kingsbury, which is expected to manufacture less than half that.
"It's not designed to do volume," Laffler said. "It's designed to let us experiment."
The payoff at the new taproom location, he added, will be "more experimental beer, one-offs, more collaborative beers with the breweries around the country and around the world," as well as wood- and barrel-aged brews.
"We're definitely keeping our old brewery, and we'll be able to make a little more beer there, a little more streamlined," Laffler said. They'll also be keeping the bottle shop, "so all our neighborhood friends can still stop by."
Yet Off Color should also expand its reach, both in its public and in its offerings, with the Kingsbury taproom, which should open some time next year.
"If everything goes well, summer," Laffler said, "but building things in Chicago never goes well."
