Goose Island Beer Company

Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller are officially drinking buddies. On Monday, A-B InBev closed the year-long merger saga, acquiring its one-time rival for $100 billion.

The shakeout of the MegaBrew deal will begin to be felt in Eastern Europe.

Goose Island Beer Co. is partnering with award-winning Chicago chef and restaurateur Paul Kahan to create a special beer that honors tradition, complements food and proves to be super sessionable. The Windy City is in for a treat — Petite Matilda Belgian Style Session Ale debuts just as the 26th Annual James Beard Awards arrives in town.

Craft deal-mania is officially back. Just days after Pennsylvania’s Victory Brewing announced it would merge with New York’s Southern Tier to form the family office-backed Artisanal Brewing Ventures, a pair of established breweries — Chicago’s Goose Island and Delaware-based brewpub chain Iron Hill — today announced transactions of their own.

According to IRI, which tracks off-premise sales in grocery, drug, club, dollar, mass-merchandiser and military stores, the craft pilsner category has added more than 317,000 cases year-to-date (through Aug. 9). Only four other categories – IPA (3,507,963 cases), Variety (557,753 cases), Fruit/Veggie/Spiced beer (493,344 cases) and Pale Ale (349,240 cases) – have added more incremental volume in 2015. That’s significant, and no doubt one of the factors prompting Goose Island, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, to rollout its own craft take on the classic pale lager style.

In the last 16 months, Anheuser-Busch InBev has acquired three craft breweries in three key beer states. The question on nearly every craft brewer’s mind is “what’s the strategy?” Andy Goeler, A-B InBev’s CEO of Craft, is the man tasked with shepherding all of these newly acquired brands. Over the last four months, Brewbound has asked Goeler, on multiple occasions, to elaborate on the company’s dealings in craft.

Rubbing the guts of a Cascade hop off his nose, Andy Goeler is in awe of the 1,500 acres of hops under trellis that surround him, resting at the foot of northern Idaho’s Selkirk Mountain Range. He’s gushing poetic adjectives, verbally painting a picture that needs no help painting itself. After a career spanning three decades at Anheuser-Busch, Goeler is now two years into his tenure as CEO of Goose Island Beer.

There’s a lot happening in the world of craft beer this summer so let’s jump right in to this week’s edition of press clips. Yesterday The Washington Post published a profile on Ian Hughes, Goose Island Beer’s environmental safety manager or, as the Post calls him, “the man who wants to make sure climate change… Read more »

The Goose is taking flight. Beginning July 1, Goose Island Brewing’s 312 Urban Wheat Ale will be available on United Airlines’ flights worldwide and at the airline’s United Clubs in the continental U.S., the two companies jointly announced today. Rumors of the deal surfaced earlier this week when the Chicago Business Journal reported that a… Read more »

CHICAGO, IL – On March 12, 2014, also known as “3-1-2 Day”, Goose Island will expand its “312 Urban” line by unveiling the new 312 Urban Pale Ale nationally to complement its flagship beer, 312 Urban Wheat Ale.

Forget May flowers. Brewers in California are hoping April showers bring steady, torrential downpours. The Golden State just recorded its driest year ever and if some heavy rain doesn’t fall soon, Bay Area craft brewers that rely on fresh water from the Russian River could be forced to find an alternative water supply, which could… Read more »

Craft beer drinkers are a devoted bunch. They’ll travel far and wide for a case of Heady Topper, The Alchemist’s double IPA that is only distributed a short distance from the Waterbury, Vt. brewery where it’s produced. They’ll wait in long lines for Goose Island’s Bourbon County barrel-aged beers that only come around once a… Read more »

Graham Mackay, the creator and chairman of SABMiller Plc, passed away this morning at the age of 64, according to Bloomberg. Native to South Africa, Mackay stepped down from his post as chief executive officer after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor in April. Last year, Mackay spoke about the rise of craft and… Read more »

Bend, Oregon/Chicago, Illinois — Deschutes Brewery and Goose Island Beer Company, both founded in 1988, have come together to create an Belgian-style ale to celebrate their shared silver anniversary. This beer is the third and final in Deschutes Brewery’s Class of ‘88 collaboration series, which celebrates the anniversary of craft breweries around the country that… Read more »