Today’s guest is one of the most unassuming brewery owners in Chicago: Mark Legenza of On Tour Brewing Company. On Tour is located in the brewery district that’s popped up around Goose Island’s Fulton Street production facility. The area is now home to half-a-dozen breweries and as many coffee roasters, and it’s where the GBH Studio is located, too.
So why is it that he hasn’t been on the GBH Podcast before? Well, it’s definitely my fault. It’s one of those situations when familiarity creates a sort of blindness. On Tour is where our team goes for many of our end-of-week happy hours. We’ve said goodbye to colleagues there, and welcomed new ones. It’s even where I temporarily recorded a podcast episode while our Studio was being built out down the street. On Tour is an automatic destination for me. And so much of this podcast is an exercise in seeking out what I don’t already know.
But today I’m happy to remedy that with Mark. On Tour previously won the Very Small Brewing Company award, only 10 months after opening, at the Great American Beer Festival. And this year it finally launched into packaging for the first time, with a Pilsner and a Pale Ale. They’re two releases that define what this place is so damn good at: making classic beers that taste quintessential. In today’s craft beer world, tasting a Pale Ale or a Brown Ale of exceptional quality is almost the exotic thing.
So I’m pleased to sit down with our neighbor, and owner of On Tour Brewing Co. in Chicago, Mark Legenza. Listen in.