Big meets small. Corporate meets…well whatever the most opposite of corporate can be. That was my initial thought when I heard that Off Color Brewing and Miller High Life were collaborating on a beer together. The result – Eeek! an American Wild Ale set for release this Saturday at Off Color.

Off Color Head Brewer John Laffler has always been a fan of Miller High Life. In PorchDrinking’s Inside the Tank with Laffler he said it was the beer he drinks if he’s not drinking Off Color beer. It did take a few years for the collaboration to come to fruition. The Off Color brewers actually went up to Milwaukee to brew a special small batch of High Life with the Miller guys and then everyone came to Chicago to brew the collaboration.

Before the official bottle release, a small number of people gathered at the Good Beer Hunting Studio’s to try Eeek!.

Eeek! blends Off Colors wild acidic and funky mixed cultures with house lactobacillus. They’re mixed with High Life wort and left for a month of fermentation. They then lagered the beer for an additional three weeks before bottling with champagne yeast. Did you get all that?

The beer is delicious. It’s a little funky but not overpowering. The color is a golden yellow, a bit hazier than actual champagne but you can see the champagne yeast having an effect. You get a fruity aroma on the smell with some blueberries but more predominately pineapple.

With an ABV of 5.5% the beer isn’t overpowering by any means. It’s a great drinking beer and one that will sure to go fast during the bottle release.

I’d put Eeek! up there with Space Tiger for some of my favorite Off Color wild ales. It’s just so well balanced and the tartness is at a perfect level. It’s easy to make beers like this overly funky but Laffler and Miller work together to create a great beer.

Brewery doors open at 11am on Saturday and it will be first-come, first-serve for Eeek!. Initially there will be no limit on allocation, however, based on the line size and demand that can change. The 750ML bottles will be sold for $20 each.

Header photo courtesy of Good Beer Hunting: www.goodbeerhunting.com

Mike Zoller is the Midwest Editor for PorchDrinking.com. Follow him on Instagram: @CHICAGOBEER and PorchDrinking Chicago’s Twitter feed for the latest Chicago craft beer news: @PORCHDRINKCHI.

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