Off Color Eeek!

For years whenever people asked what our favorite beer was we’d say High Life. (And not only because they’d send over cases of High Life when we said it.) A couple years ago we approached Lisa Zimmer at Miller about brewing a collaboration together. Big meets small. Technical acumen and resource meets magic and wishful thinking. Because at the end of the day, we’re all brewers. Beer is beer and it’s high time the trope of us vs them is replaced with an understanding of how big and varied the world is. There are more things in the heavens and earth, Horatio, than dreamt of in your philosophy.

Turning such a big ship takes time but Lisa was relentless and John was stubborn and cases of High Life kept showing up at the brewery. Finally, in June we went up to Miller in Milwaukee to learn the secrets of the Lady in the Moon, brewed a ludicrously small ten barrel batch of High Life on their pilot system and drank a bunch of High Life. Needless to say, we were giddy. Shortly thereafter, Miller’s R&D brewers came down and we brewed Eeek! here in Chicago…and drank a bunch of High Life before drinking even more High Life at Sportsman’s Club.

As High Life is a pinnacle of technical brewing expertise, we went rustic AF for Eeek!, blending all of our wild acidic and funky mixed cultures together with house lactobacillus and set them loose on base High Life (like) wort. After a month of unregulated primary fermentation, we turned on the jackets and lagered Eeek! for an additional three weeks before bottling conditioning with Champagne yeast. Because, obviously.

Aroma is bright tangerine, mild hay, lemon pepper, wild blueberries and pineapple funk. Delicate and perfectly light in body with a groundswell of yuzu-like acidity spiking to a delectable finish of wildflowers and nectar.