Goose Island...Craft Beer??

I'm interested to see the expansion of the barrel aged beer program and if the quality remains the same. Hopefully they keep letting john laffler do his thing.

 

It must be politics. Perhaps those Bud taps are there so when some bigwig ABI guy flies into O'Hare and inadvertently ends up in the GI-ORD pub, he won't feel quite as threatened by superior quality beer.

 

Wow, the yelp reviews for that airport bar are uniformly horrendous. Too bad that GI has its name on something so mediocre, especially when the Clybourn brewpub is quite the opposite.

 

Well, I haven't notice a decline in GI's products since the buy-out, so does it matter whether they're technically a craft brewery or not? Not to me. I liken them to Leinenkugel (not sure if I'm spelling that right). Another "craft" brewery that got bought out by the "big boys". When they release something that catches my eye, (like the Big Eddy imp stout), I'll buy it. Same thing with Goose Island. I really don't care who's making money off the bottle; I just care about what's in the bottle.

 

Sounds like a good guess to me! Oh well, I guess i should just be glad there were a couple good options there that day.

 

how do you feel about their items that sell the most like 312? I do like bourbon county but their "bread and butter" I don't much care for.

 

Goose Island is at least 5 steps above Leinenkugel in the beers they make. Leinie's was never really considered a "craft" brewery, more of a regional in the same definition of Point, Schell's, even Yuengling. It wasn't until the popularity of micros and craft brewing that Leinie's started trying more craft-like brews. Aside from them, their every-days are pretty mundane -- even their "seasonals" are pretty blah.

 

I would strop drinking water if owned by the Kardashians.

 

I love the fact that I can drink Honkers at Ohare. Most airports only have Heineken and Bud Light in their lounges...

 

Whether or not they're a craft brewery depends on whose definition you're using. I think it's pretty clear that they make craft beer though.

After reading this thread, the word craft has lost all meaning in my head.

 

Pretty much every good brewery has at least one beer people don't care for. Overall GI makes good beer, thats all that matters.

 

Honestly, I think it is. If they make things like BCBS, King Henry, and the Belgian series, then theyre a craft brewery.

 

Simple answer: Goose Island makes good beer. Don't like it or think it is not craft? Don't drink it.

 

This is true. The proper term is sellout.

 

Best definition of craft I ever saw was on Drinking Made Easy. They defined craft beer as a beer brewed for the purposes of taste and distinction rather than for mass appeal.

IMO, volume produced, ownership, and whether it is good are not do not define craft beer.

 

I hear what you're saying. Nevertheless, If there was a brewery next to your grandmothers house that made the best tasting beer you have ever had, but their business practices had them dumping toxins in the local water supply that later caused your grandmother to get cancer, would you still buy the beer? I wager you probably would not. So everyone, even those with the "as long as it tastes good, who cares about anything else" crowd has their limits.

Some people set their limits at different levels, for example, some folks won't by from Goose Island because AB bought them. That's their limit. Just like Poisin Grandma Brewery is, presumably, your limit.

 

Yeah, why on earth would a business want to make money?

 

They can feel insulted all the way to the bank.

 

I said the brewers, not owners.

 

same message as above. I'm talking about the people who work hard day in and day out making great beer.