Off Color Troublesome
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Tasting Notes
Troublesome pours with a hazy, pale straw appearance and leads with a subtle lactic tartness that's bright without being aggressive. Coriander spice threads through the aroma alongside a mild wheat grain note, and the salt addition — a defining feature of the style — registers more as a soft mineral quality than outright saltiness. The body is light and the carbonation lively, with a clean, dry finish that makes the tart and savory elements linger just long enough to stay interesting.
About the Brewery
Off Color is a Chicago-based brewery founded in 2013 by John Laffler and Dave Bleitner, two veterans of Goose Island. The brewery built its reputation on obscure and historically-rooted European styles — goses, gruits, and odd fermentation-forward beers — at a time when most Chicago craft brewing leaned heavily toward hop-forward American styles. Their lineup tends to favor the weird and the old-world, and Troublesome became one of their flagship offerings and an early ambassador for the gose revival in the U.S. market.
Food Pairings
The beer's salt and acidity make it a natural match for raw oysters, where the mineral brine of both amplify each other without competing. A light ceviche works well because the lactic tartness mirrors the citrus-cured fish and keeps the palate clean between bites. Soft goat cheese on bread is a reliable pairing, since the acidity cuts through the fat while the coriander spice echoes herbal notes in the cheese. Grilled white fish with a simple lemon preparation also holds up well, letting the beer's tartness stand in for any additional acid on the plate.
Style Guide
Gose is a German wheat ale historically associated with the town of Goslar and later Leipzig, defined by two unconventional additions: salt and coriander. The salt doesn't make the beer taste like ocean water — it sharpens other flavors and adds a mineral roundness — while the coriander contributes a subtle spice that keeps the profile from being one-dimensional. A lactic souring process gives the style its signature tartness, distinguishing it from the clean bitterness of a hefeweizen or the hoppier edge of an American wheat. ABVs typically sit in the 4–5% range, keeping the beer light-bodied and the acidity the main structural element.