Goose Island sale 10 years later: Anheuser-Busch got what it needed from the deal, but...

What do I think? I miss Honker's Ale, I miss the original recipe Summertime, I miss the Oatmeal Stout and Brown Ale.

Yeah, they petered away over the years, but I still point my accusing finger to the head offices.

 

I think I am pay-walled.

 

Wow, ten years already?

 

312 and IPA are the only 2 left I could really compare, I believe. Early on the IPA was still pretty good, but slowly became sort of blah. I haven't had it in a while, though.

I've tried some of the one-offs that have come out and about 40% are good, but the rest are just meh.

I haven't had Bourbon County in years due to the hype and inflated prices, but people still seem happy with it.

But as said -- I miss the beers that built the brand.

 

Funny, because I was yesterday when the link came up on my news feed, but TB's link worked for me. The Tribe is a shadow of its 10 year-old self, too.

 

I got pay walled on Facebook also.

 

Forgot about Goose's addition to the "session trend," So-Lo was pretty good.

 

Have I mentioned how much I hate auto-correct?

TRIB -- as in TRIBune, not as in that team in northern Ohio.

 

I think the article is fluff. Goose doesn’t suffer from being owned by InBev, it suffers from being a 30 year old brewery in an era when local, nimble breweries are a dime a dozen and each one is developing some new crazy shit style that somehow draws a following. Given that they are expanding globally, they probably will be the fall back craft macro for most of the worlds for countries with nascent craft breweries. Goose still makes good beer at their brewpubs and some countries have barriers to small breweries so GI can make solid craft in roads in those countries with Inbevs political weight.

 

The only Goose Island beer I buy regularly is Sofie. I have a six-pack in my basement aging right now; I prefer that beer with a minimum of 6 months in the bottle. That brand still tastes great for me.

Cheers!

 

I was thinking pretty much the same thing.

How many threads have been on this forum griping about this and that beer that got "them" started no longer being brewed by several of the large national and regional craft breweries? There's one or two on-going right now like that.

How many threads have been on this forum griping about how this and that highly rated beer is now a shadow of its former self?

Lazy writing. Easy target.

 

We get 312, IPA and honkers ale fairly easily here at supermarkets. Has been for a number of years even and it’s of course no mystery that AB buyout made that possible. Same with Lagunitas/Heineken.

Out of the obvious BCBS and variants and like @JackHorzempa I have enjoyed Sofie and Matilda on many occasions. Their other beers are more meh, these days anyway.

 

Really? Honker's? Where is it brewed? And how do they market 312 in France?

 

You’d have to ask AB or GI

I don’t have a bottle of either in my hands at the moment, but I assure you we have them, prolly just as import. Have no idea if they sell well.

 

Don't forget that it's from a local reporter and newspaper. Noel has a soft spot for Goose.

As to those "shadows of former self" threads, I rarely participate in them, but I practically cut my micro-brewed teeth on Goose Island beers, so I have my own soft spot -- if not a more ingrained perspective of the brewery.

I wanted to give AB-InBev a chance when they first bought into Goose, and it seemed like they were doing okay... then they moved the regular brands to be brewed out of town, then they started culling the herd, then old beers didn't taste as good, then the weird labels started showing up...

Yeah, I'm probably jaded by proximity, doesn't make me wrong.

 

I overheard a conversation in the store yesterday about the guava beer they have. I don’t even know what it is myself but it’s a double dry hopped guava thing and the guy was saying he grabbed it for somebody who said they liked Goose IPA. And when asked about it later was told the guava ipa was the best beer he’s ever tasted and the other guy in the same sentence said it was horrendous.

I suppose that there will always be people who enjoy something. It’s been interesting to see things come and go in the beer world.

 

Well, Honker's isn't brewed anywhere for sale in the U.S. except draft on premises at the Chicago pub and large brewery, so I'm curious now.

 

When I worked in a specialty liquor store our beer section was about 40% of sales. Of that info I do not have an exact number I no longer work there but the 15 packs of goose island ipa were one of the top 3 selling bulk packs. Among 12 and 15s we sold total. The other two being all day ipa and double nickel ( the brewery is literally next door) weekend warrior dry hopped pale.

 

Ah. Maybe they sell old beers? Or as you said it’s brewed somewhere else?

Okay I’ll buy one and report back to be sure.

 

What do I think?

I think I used to wake up early the day after Thanksgiving and wait in line to get 1-2 bottles of regular BCBS and if I was super lucky a single bottle of a single variant. Today, 4 months after the release, I could walk into a bottle shop and buy as much BCBS as a want, and even still pick up a couple of the variants.

I never cared much for the GI standard (non-BCBS) lineup, so truthfully don’t really care about any GI other than Bourbon County.

I get the general gripes with AB In Bev but if I said their acquisition of Goose Island has been negative for me I would just be flat out lying.

 

What are the *other* ways... you may be "suggesting?"

 

I never cared for much of anything in the GI lineup except Honkers and BCBS. It seems odd to still see BCBS and its varieties several months after Black Friday.

 

Firstly, I wish I could "like" your post more than once.

Now, back to specifically comment on your comparison of Goose Island to Sierra Nevada. IMO you are spot on here. It seems to me that ever since Jeff White was named CEO of Sierra Nevada in 2019 the trajectory of that brewery has notably changed. As a long term (multiple decades) consumer of Sierra Nevada beers I am not a fan of Jeff White. It seems like Jeff White is constantly looking for a 'shiny new thing' to produce, whether it be a Sierra Nevada Brut IPA (which just an OK product) or whatever. It seem that for 2020/2021 he wants Sierra Nevada to be principally an IPA factory and I personally think the branding of their new product: Big Little Thing IPA to be an oxymoron but it would seem that the Marketing & Sales folks at Sierra Nevada thinks contrasting the words "big" with "little" is clever? Oh well...?

As long as Sierra Nevada continues to produce Celebration Ale as a fall seasonal I will still support then financially. Also, I am a fan of Dankful IPA but all of my local beer retailers only have product that was canned last November so perhaps I will never purchase this beer ever again but if I ever luck out and find this beer fresh I will buy that brand too.

I miss the 'old' Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Especially the seasonal (spring, fall) mix-packs they used to produce annually.

Cheers!

 

I have not purchased a Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest beer in many years. It seems like every year my local Retail Beer Distributors receive shipments in July and the one Retail Beer Distributor is not air-conditioned. Those beers 'bake' in high heat for the remainder of July and all of August. I have zero interest in drinking July packaged Oktoberfest (and 'baked') beers.

Instead I await the arrival of Sly Fox Oktoberfest beers and purchase them in September. Last year I purchased multiple 12-packs (three I think) of this tasty and 'unbaked' beer.

Cheers!

 

Sounds like you've been following him a lot closer than I have, I've only really skimmed his articles here and there (and not always agreed with him).

I'm not so sure of this, there are still Oatmeal Stouts and Brown Ales out there and it seemed like GI dropped their labels long before others did.

So where did the consumer guide the market, and where did the marketing guide the market?

All questions with complicated answers.

 

Haven't been a big fan of their rendition in a few years, then again -- it's the Americanized Okto now and I've never really been a big fan of those all around.

 

Can’t get past the big pop up ads, I’d be interested in reading it though.

 

But.... remember the days when BCBS was a Chicago only area release, and a tough get, and very hard to trade for? Nice that it’s a shelf turd now, available in many places year round. The distro was in place, the upping of the beer production not a problem, even that infection couldn’t completely knock them off stride. Still being independent would have been a disaster, but they still thrived. No complaints from me, just progress.

 

Exactly my point of the complication.

As to comparing Goose to SN, it seems Goose has been making big portfolio alterations -- ebbing and flowing -- for a lot longer than SN. It seems they have no real direction as they used to... yes, before AB-InBev.

 

See, I thought he was talking about Goose Island's Okto... following the thread, and all.

@thebeers -- what sez youse?

 

Don't you mean a bit of a goose and an egg?