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uglygoat

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i can get this beer for 5.99 a six pack. i love the stout and brown ale. the pale/bitter and ipa leave a little to be desired, but they have a good flavor going with the dark/roasted malts.

goose_island.jpg
 
I like the oatmeal stout, not exceptional but pretty good for the price. Around here they run $6.99. Honker's ale is pretty good to. They're local to my region but we don't get a lot of variety of their beers, usually all I can find is the honker's ale and oatmeal stout. If you see there bourbon county stout, get some of that, good stuff.
 
Gotta disagree on the IPA, I think that is their best beer. I do not like the Wheat. The Honkers is good.
 
I live within 10 minutes of the brewery, and for some reason I can't buy it for $5.99 for a six pack.

Good stuff, I like the 312 Hef and the Honkers Ale.
 
I like the 312 and the summertime kolsch, but I can't say that I dislike any of them. The cask-conditioned ales they sell at the brewery are awesome. They have special brews that you can't get anywhere else.
 
Yeah, it's too bad the home town beer in Chicago costs so much to get here.

There's a place in Evanston on Green Bay Road that USED to sell a six pack for $5.99. I used to stop in there all the time. I guess the guy got wise to what other places around Chicago charge, and he upped it to $6.99. Still a decent price for the area.

If you shop at Trader Joe's, they have a number of beers that are re-branded Goose Island beers, and they sell for $4.99. An example is the Stockyard Oatmeal Stout. It says it's brewed by Stockyard Brewing in Chicago, IL 60612. There are some others, just look to see where it was brewed. Basically, if it says the brewery is located in Chicago, IL 60612, it's really a Goose Island beer.

If you're from out of town and ever come to Chicago, their brewpub on Clybourn is a must. As others have said, they always have smaller batch beers that you can't get anywhere else. Plus, the food there is good!
 
If you get out of Cook County you can sometimes find a sixer for $5.99, but it seems $6.99 is the going rate. Still, not a bad price. My favorites are the Oktoberfest (especially on tap), Winter Ale, Kilgubbin Red and IPA.

Places like Binny's and Sam's carry the specialty 4-packs. Try the Demolition in this line! Yummy stuff.
 
Yeah, I forgot about the specialty four packs. They just came out with the Bourbon County Stout. I loved that last year, but this year it's $20 for a four pack. Yikes!! It was really good, but I don't think I would spend that much for it.
 
I'd spend $20 for a 4 pack of the BCS. It's my favorite beer.

In the bar, you pay $10 for a bottle, and that's awfully steep, but $5 a bottle? I'd pay that. It's seriously a unique beer experience!

Liking that, I was told to also try... I think it was... Rochefort(?) XXX. I've been looking for it, but haven't found it yet. :(

Anyway, after the BCS, my next favorite beers from there are Icarus (a very sweet malty ale, IIRC), their ESB, and their Hefe (although it seems to give me a bit of a hangover, oddly enough). Their Russian Imperial Stout is good too, but not as good as the Bourbon County Stout.

I don't like any of the beer that they sell in 6 packs. Except for the Honker's Ale, they all taste watery to me.
 
sause said:
I have to say that their Honkers ale is a beer that I will not order again. It really didn't bring anything to the table.

I don't care for it either. But it's not as watery as some of Goose Island's other mass-produced brews.

The Honkers has an odd bit of bitter hoppiness to it and seems a little weak on the malt. But it's only like 4.3% ABV, so I guess that might be why. Forgetting the matter of sweetness, it just doesn't have much malt complexity. It is nevertheless a nice alternative to other commonly available brews. It's just not my cup of tea.
 
they actually have these variety cases at my local distributor in PA... worth picking up?

im split between this and sam adams winter pack. Looking for a bottle source, so I assume these are bottle opener type bottles, correct?
 
SilkkyBrew said:
they actually have these variety cases at my local distributor in PA... worth picking up?

im split between this and sam adams winter pack. Looking for a bottle source, so I assume these are bottle opener type bottles, correct?

Goose Island, on the whole, is a step up from sam adams. Not to bash SA, they are decent for a larger micro, but there are a lot better beers out there :) Goose Island isn't quite up there with the best, but they're pretty darn good beers. It's a staple purchase for lower priced micros I buy, along with Great Lakes Brewing...
 
I know that Goose Island's 4-pack specialty beers are bottler-opener types. I only assume they use the same bottles for all their brewing.


Anyway, I disagree, to a point, with your assessment, debtman.

I think that Goose Island's beers that they sell in 6 packs are little, if any, better than Sam Adams and I would not buy either as a gift or as consumptables for a holiday feast. Don't mean to be a snob. I know that "brand names" mean a lot to people and there are people who would decline your offer of a Belgian Micro as if it were a white-labeled, black-lettered can named "Beer". Fortunately, I don't know anyone like that. Everybody I know would enjoy experimenting with booze and would look at it as an opportunity to expand their horizons. Booze is supposed to be fun, afterall, no? But I do agree that Sam Adams and Goose Island's 6 packs are roughly comparable. Personally, if I were buying, I would decline both of those brands and go with something else- Neither is all that spectacular for the price.

Oddly though, after slamming Goose Island above, I also have to disagree with your assessment that Goose Island isn't up there with the best. If that's your assessment, then I strongly urge you to sample their FOUR-packs, or stop by their brewpubs. I promise you- their best beer does NOT come in 6 packs.


I view their 6 pack beers as nothing more than a way to compete with the macrobrews. They put juuust enough flavor into them to make the drinker go "Whoa! Yum!" but don't add enough to really compare to the "good" beers. Their good beers, they keep in the brewpubs and sell in a brown cardboard 4-pack.
 
I've never had the 6 pack variety pack, so I can't comment there :)

All I know is that I've tried all the goose island beers we can get here (oatmeal stout, honker's ale, 312, etc) and they've been better than anything I've had from SA (excluding my favorite SA, the Chocolate Bock). They've also been not as good as most of my favorite other micro brews (rogue, three floyds, bell's, new holland). That's where I put them. I know they make a ton of beers that aren't sold where I am, so of course I'm only referring to their more commercially distributed beers like the person asking the question is likely to find.
 
HIJACK: Is three floyds really that good? They're just a hop skip and a jump away from me. I've been meaning to check them out....

I agree with you on the commercially produced beers from Goose Island. They really are the bottom of the barrel as far as microbrews are concerned... right there with Sam Adams, IMNSHO.
 
I was just drinking the Goose Island Christmas Ale last night- and I really liked it! It was nicely hopped and rich and malty. That's the first time I've had it, and I think I'd buy it again.

I think SA is ok- I'll drink it when I go out and there is nothing else besides BMC. Saturday night we went out to a bar and they had Hacker Pschorr Octoberfest on tap. That's better than the BMC they had on tap, so we gave it a try. It was pretty good- I'm glad we have some choices in our little town.

Lorena
 
If I tried the Christmas Ale, it was a long time ago. I will grab a couple on your recommendation. I like Goose Island's pub-brew beers well enough to not want to believe that all of their mass-concoctions are boring.

The more I think about it, I think the lack of malt flavor and complexity is what disappoints me with most of their larger batch brews. If the Christmas Ale is malty, then I'm there!!!!


I need to acquire more bottles anyway... :mug:
 
Toot said:
HIJACK: Is three floyds really that good? They're just a hop skip and a jump away from me. I've been meaning to check them out....

Good enough that the wife and I are contemplating the 6 hour drive to visit for the next dark lord day :)

The Alpha King pale ale is really really really good. Granted I've only had a few, since every time I bring it home my wife drinks it up and I'm lucky to get a bottle... If you like IPA's, their imperial IPA is really good too. I'm still waiting to try the Dark Lord Imperial Stout, but you can only buy it one day a year at the brewery. They make a ton of beers but most aren't well distributed, so if you are near the brewery, I would definately go over and get some samplers.
 
I'd easily place Goose over Sam when it comes to most 6-packs or on tap. I like Sammy, but just think Goose wins in a side-by-side. Then again, I live in the area and get them pretty fresh. Goose's Christmas and Oktoberfest are must-buys when they are out. I like their IPA and Oatmeal Stout, too. Sure, there are a lot of better 6-pack beers on the shelves (like Great Lakes, Bell's, North Coast, Sprecher 4-packs, Three Floyds), but I can't knock GI or Sam, especially when one is on sale.

Goose Island 6-pack bottles are twist off.

Of the mixed 12-packs, I'd pick Goose. The exception would be Sam's winter 12'er, if only for the Old Fizziwig Ale, which can only be found in these 12'er htis time of year.

And yes, Three Floyds is damn good stuff. WTF are you waiting for?!:D When it comes to IPAs, their Alpha King is very tough to beat. They recently opened a brewpub at the brewery that is supposed to be a fine place. I have it on my short list of places to visit before the end of the year!
 
What have I been waiting for??!!!! Gee... since you put it that way... :drunk:

I spend a lot of time at Goose Island and Laschet's (for the German beers and delicious Hackepeter). I went to Flossmoor Station last week for a sampler and it was pretty good, but only 2 beers really stood out as being something special (their Spiced Ale and their raspberry wheat). The rest were quite ordinary.

I guess I'll have to hit Three Floyd's sometime this week.


But, out of curiosity, when is their Dark Lord Day? :mug:
 
Toot said:
What have I been waiting for??!!!! Gee... since you put it that way... :drunk:

I spend a lot of time at Goose Island and Laschet's (for the German beers and delicious Hackepeter). I went to Flossmoor Station last week for a sampler and it was pretty good, but only 2 beers really stood out as being something special (their Spiced Ale and their raspberry wheat). The rest were quite ordinary.

I guess I'll have to hit Three Floyd's sometime this week.


But, out of curiosity, when is their Dark Lord Day? :mug:

Toot- why that name? Is there a reason you chose "Toot" as your identity?
 
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