Koko Lists
Start a new list
Log in
Sign up
← New random battle
Koko Battle
Tap your pick.
Off Color Brewing
Off Color Brewing was founded in 2013 by John Laffler and Dave Bleitner, both former Goose Island brewers, built around reviving obscure, often nearly extinct historic beer styles — gose, grodziskie, and other regional European traditions that had fallen almost entirely out of production before the brewery's founders began researching and recreating them. The brewery's Fulton Market taproom, which also houses a small brewing museum-style display explaining the historic styles on tap, reflected the founders' specifically archival, research-driven approach to beer, treating brewing history as source material rather than starting from scratch with generic modern styles. Off Color's willingness to commit entire production runs to styles most American drinkers had never heard of, rather than hedging with a more conventional IPA-and-pale-ale core lineup, gave it a genuinely distinct identity within Chicago's increasingly crowded craft beer scene. For a Chicago breweries list, Off Color is the essential "beer archaeology" entry — a brewery built by two former Goose Island brewers around reviving forgotten historic styles most other breweries had never attempted.
VS
Metropolitan Brewing
Metropolitan Brewing was founded in 2008 by Doug Hurst and Tracy Hurst around a specific, then-unfashionable commitment: German-style lagers, brewed with the same technical patience and cold-conditioning discipline that most American craft breweries of the era were skipping in favor of faster-turnaround, more aggressively hopped ales. That lager-focused approach made Metropolitan a genuine outlier within Chicago's early craft beer wave, and its Krankshaft Kölsch and Dynamo Copper Lager became reference points for drinkers specifically seeking clean, traditionally styled lager brewing rather than the hop-forward beers dominating most other local taprooms. The brewery's relocation to a larger production facility in the Avondale neighborhood let it expand lagering capacity significantly, since traditional lager brewing requires far more tank time and cold storage than ale production, a genuine operational commitment to the style most breweries don't make. For a Chicago breweries list, Metropolitan is the essential "lagers done the patient, traditional way" entry — a brewery that bet on the hardest, least trendy beer category during craft beer's IPA-dominated boom and built a lasting reputation on it.
Next battle
Full comparison
About Off Color Brewing
About Metropolitan Brewing
Popular Battles
1984 vs. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
1 votes
Friends vs. Curb Your Enthusiasm
1 votes
Ideogram vs. Sora
1 votes
Navy Pier vs. Bishop Museum
1 votes
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree vs. Skittles
1 votes
George Carlin vs. Oprah Winfrey
1 votes
