Will you buy Goose Island beers now?

A simple question - will you buy Goose Island beer now that they are owned by AB InBev?

Here's my 2 cents. I do not plan on buying Goose Island beers. I have no problem with John Hall selling - he built a brand and then sold it for millions of dollars. Good for him. He says this sort of deal was necessary to continue to expand. I'm fine with that. He has assured everyone that the beer is going to remain unchanged. While I have a hard time believing that - maybe it will remain unchanged for a little while, I expect eventually the products will change to accommodate cheaper ingredients/processes or a more broad palate base - this is not the reason I will not buy his beers. My reason is that, quite frankly, I don't see any need to give AB InBev my money when there are 100s of other smaller, independently owned breweries out there that make really great beer. By all accounts Goose Island makes excellent beer. But is it so unique that I will miss it if I never have it again? I have other choices of really excellent beers. So, given the choice between two really excellent beers, I'm going to choose to pay for the one that is NOT owned by a multi-national, 30-billion dollar company.

In short, yes...i live in chicago, so its easy for me to drink their 'non-commercial' beer selections, and support the still-GI-owned brewpubs

But, i'd still drink their brews until i noticed a change in quality

I've always tried to support the smaller or more local breweries.

I have no problem with capitalism. I'd buy one tomorrow if it were available here.

Shouldn't this poll have been started months/years ago when InBev acquired a huge interest in Goose Island in the first place?

AZ_IPA said:

Shouldn't this poll have been started months/years ago when InBev acquired a huge interest in Goose Island in the first place?

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At that point, they were just getting into large distribution

BTW, from Goose Island's website:

Goose Island’s legal name is Fulton Street Brewery LLC (FSB). Anheuser-Busch reached an agreement to purchase the majority (58 percent) equity stake in FSB from its founders and investors, held in Goose Holdings Inc. (GHI), for $22.5 million. Craft Brewers Alliance Inc. (CBA), an independent, publicly traded brewer based in Portland, Ore., that operates Widmer Brothers, Redhook and Kona breweries, owns the remaining 42 percent of FSB and reached an agreement in principle to sell its stake in FSB to Anheuser-Busch for $16.3 million in cash. Anheuser‑Busch holds a minority stake (32.25 percent) in CBA.

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Guess you guys shouldn't have been buying Goose Island before, either. AB owned a minority share already!

EDIT:
AZ beat me to it.

That brand will be gone soon... It'll follow James Page.

Check out Two Brothers Brewing they are way better anyway.From Chicago. I just had GI on tap but i blame it sitting in the keg not great. as everybody is cheaper lighter miller bud fans.I just hear like great beers like Bell and whatnot is so much better on draft but then again if its been sitting in a keg a while because of all the clueless phoneys drinking their brainwashed beer never buy it then give it a bad name that sucks too. I do like the harvest ale alot though.
Im just wondering if this whole pissing in the draft beers thing is a marketing ploy.

Yes. The brewpubs are independent and I visit them often. Also, as stated they were already partially owned by AB.

heferly said:

At that point, they were just getting into large distribution

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And who's to say anything else will change now?????? (other than even greater distribution)

How 'bout this - let's protest all breweries that buy grains/hops on large contracts from multinational companies....

After all, them grain/hop farmer bastids are in it only for the money and don't care about quality beer.

They were owned like 60 or 40 percent .NOw its fully owned by them.The owner decided he made a mistake(duh) and got too drunk pissed in some beers(not shure if it was beers for the "new owners" left the bar-and is currently dealing with this drunken night.

My view is that AB made this purchase as an important business move into true craft brewing. There is a lot they can learn from the brewers there as well as keep them independent while AB can now say they are part of "craft beer". With the revenue AB has, the cost of GI was a drop in a bucket. GI can now easily serve as a pilot brewery for AB, and a gateway into a higher quality commercial craft product.

AZ_IPA said:

And who's to say anything else will change now?????? (other than even greater distribution)

How 'bout this - let's protest all breweries that buy grains/hops on large contracts from multinational companies....

After all, them grain/hop farmer bastids are in it only for the money and don't care about quality beer.

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That's not really my point. I'm not arguing quality of beer. All breweries (companies for that matter) are in it to make $$. But since I have many, many choices of from whom to buy really excellent beer, I am choosing to give my $$ to a company that makes significantly less than $30 billion per year. If, hypothetically, Goose Island had the best beer I've ever drank and was doing something I couldn't get somewhere else, then yes, I would buy Goose Island beer. But at the present moment, this is not the case .

Ab is just crying because beer culture is changing and they want what they cant have.They want part and are begging bitches.Desperately hanging on strings in the future for survival.Miller Ipa soon to a store near you.

JLem said:

That's not really my point. All breweries (companies for that matter) are in it to make $$. But since I have many, many choices of from whom to buy really excellent beer, I am choosing to give my $$ to a company that makes significantly less than $30 billion per year. If, hypothetically, Goose Island had the best beer I've ever drank and was doing something I couldn't get somewhere else, then yes, I would buy Goose Island beer. But at the present moment, this is not the case .

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I don't get it. You'd rather support a company making less than $30 billion per year; even if you liked the beer from greater than $30 billion per year better?

Since, as you state, you have "many, many" choices - wouldn't you buy the beer you liked best regardless of who made ("owned") it?

JLem said:

That's not really my point. All breweries (companies for that matter) are in it to make $$. But since I have many, many choices of from whom to buy really excellent beer, I am choosing to give my $$ to a company that makes significantly less than $30 billion per year. If, hypothetically, Goose Island had the best beer I've ever drank and was doing something I couldn't get somewhere else, then yes, I would buy Goose Island beer. But at the present moment, this is not the case .

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So essentially you are just opposed to big business making profit? Not trying to instigate, just seems that's what is fueling your opinion. My money goes to the best beer, regardless of revenue they have.

jonmohno said:

Ab is just crying because beer culture is changing and they want what they cant have.They want part and are begging bitches.Desperately hanging on strings in the future for survival.Miller Ipa soon to a store near you.

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Doesn't Bud Light alone have something like 20% market share in the world? And AB-InBev has well over 50% market share?

Are they really "begging bitches" when they already have a stranglehold on the world beer market? AB-InBev is about making money, not making what EAC craft beer drinkers think everyone should drink.



(I can see this is just gonna be another AB is evil thread....)

I buy what I want to drink. I don't see any human rights violations to protest here.

AZ_IPA said:

I don't get it. You'd rather support a company making less than $30 billion per year; even if you liked the beer from greater than $30 billion per year better?

Since, as you state, you have "many, many" choices - wouldn't you buy the beer you liked best regardless of who made ("owned") it?

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I'm saying that I WOULD buy the beer I like best regardless of who made it. I'm also saying that while Goose Island makes excellent beer, it is NOT the end-all and be-all of beers. I can get EQUALLY good, if not better beer from many, many breweries. Therefore I have a choice of where to get my excellent beers and I am choosing the sub $30 billion companies.

AZ_IPA said:

Doesn't Bud Light alone have something like 20% market share in the world? And AB-InBev has well over 50% market share?

Are they really "begging bitches" when they already have a stranglehold on the world beer market? AB-InBev is about making money, not making what EAC craft beer drinkers think everyone should drink.



(I can see this is just gonna be another AB is evil thread....)

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Not for long,their little loss is the strategy.If i was a craft brewry i would want to say **** you but they are just a bank.

JLem said:

I'm saying that I WOULD buy the beer I like best regardless of who made it. I'm also saying that while Goose Island makes excellent beer, it is NOT the end-all and be-all of beers. I can get EQUALLY good, if not better beer from many, many breweries. Therefore I have a choice of where to get my excellent beers and I am choosing the sub $30 billion companies.

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Okay. I understand what you were saying now.

Much like how certain folks quit buying Redhook after they were partially gobbled up by AB..."sure, Longhammer is a good IPA, but so is Stone"

Because a portion of Goose Island is now owned internationally, and the company must answer to a large corporate entity does not mean that they are failing to provide jobs, goods, and profit to Americans. However, your sentiments seem to spit in the face of that company and its employees because the former owner chose to take a lucrative opportunity.

jonmohno said:

Not for long,their little loss is the strategy.If i was a craft brewry i would want to say **** you but they are just a bank.

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As long as craft beer drinker prefers to sip on a single Russian Imperial Stout, whilst the college kid prefers to take a 30 pack of bud light to the lake, I think the market share is safe for the Light American Lager.

Yuri_Rage said:

Because a portion of Goose Island is now owned internationally, and the company must answer to a large corporate entity does not mean that they are failing to provide jobs, goods, and profit to Americans. However, your sentiments seem to spit in the face of that company and its employees because the former owner chose to take a lucrative opportunity.

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I can't possibly support every company that provides jobs and has employees. Fortunately, I get to support some. If I support Goose Island and their employees then, by your definition, I would be spitting in the face of some other company and its employees because I did not buy their beer. Damned if I do damned if I don't?

Demon said:

So essentially you are just opposed to big business making profit? Not trying to instigate, just seems that's what is fueling your opinion. My money goes to the best beer, regardless of revenue they have.

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I'm not opposed to them making a profit. Just opposed to them making a profit off of me when I can support other breweries.

Its about power and control really,same with the food system they see a market buy it cheap it up lie and turn it to ****.Poison it keep us coming back for more.

JLem said:

I'm not opposed to them making a profit. Just opposed to them making a profit off of me when I can support other breweries.

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Pretty sure I follow you now. All things being equal in the beer itself, you buy the "little guy"? If so, me too.

JLem said:

I can't possibly support every company that provides jobs and has employees. Fortunately, I get to support some. If I support Goose Island and their employees then, by your definition, I would be spitting in the face of some other company and its employees because I did not buy their beer. Damned if I do damned if I don't?

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I never said that buying from one company vs another is an insult, but you can view my post however you wish. You clearly do not share my point of view, and that's fine.

But...I'll go you one further: I'd never really contemplated trying a Goose Island beer until this story hit the news. Now I'm interested to see what all the hype's about. Perhaps the sale has gained them a customer.

Demon said:

Pretty sure I follow you now. All things being equal in the beer itself, you buy the "little guy"? If so, me too.

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That sounds about right.

Interesting how this thread quickly moved in a direction I hadn't really intended. There has been a fair amount of talk about whether this sale was good or bad (or neither) for craft beer, whether the beers will ultimately change, etc. I thought it would be interesting to know if people here were still interesting in buying the beer. I wasn't (and am still not) trying to make judgment on what the "right" answer is.

FWIW, I don't think I can even find Goose Island beers in Arizona.

AZ_IPA said:

FWIW, I don't think I can even find Goose Island beers in Arizona.

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bet you will pretty soon

edited for drunken rambling that I took off topic

All other things equal, I'd rather support an independent brewery than a multinational corporation.

When money>>>>>>>>quality, you know things are going to start going downhill. I imagine they'll keep things the same for a little while and then slowly start cutting corners.

JLem said:

That's not really my point. I'm not arguing quality of beer. All breweries (companies for that matter) are in it to make $$. But since I have many, many choices of from whom to buy really excellent beer, I am choosing to give my $$ to a company that makes significantly less than $30 billion per year. If, hypothetically, Goose Island had the best beer I've ever drank and was doing something I couldn't get somewhere else, then yes, I would buy Goose Island beer. But at the present moment, this is not the case .

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I don't understand. Why penalize successful companies? Is success bad?

JLem said:

Interesting how this thread quickly moved in a direction I hadn't really intended. There has been a fair amount of talk about whether this sale was good or bad (or neither) for craft beer, whether the beers will ultimately change, etc. I thought it would be interesting to know if people here were still interesting in buying the beer. I wasn't (and am still not) trying to make judgment on what the "right" answer is.

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Thank you for trying to remain somewhat objective. This thread is going to spark some emotions and elicit strong opinions. So long as the arguments remain friendly, it's an excellent discussion.

coryforsenate said:

All other things equal, I'd rather support an independent brewery than a multinational corporation.

When money>>>>>>>>quality, you know things are going to start going downhill. I imagine they'll keep things the same for a little while and then slowly start cutting corners.

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To me multinational means the profits are going elsewhere.

passedpawn said:

I don't understand. Why penalize successful companies? Is success bad?

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I think the problem is that in the overall beer market, success = light american lager (based on market share), which strikes a bad taste in the mouth of many people who prefer beer styles other than light american lager.

Yuri_Rage said:

Thank you for trying to remain somewhat objective. This thread is going to spark some emotions and elicit strong opinions. So long as the arguments remain friendly, it's an excellent discussion.

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My intent all along was complete objectivity - will you buy GI beers? Just trying to gauge where folks stand. Clearly though when we are talking about making a choice about where to spend our money we are ultimately making a value-judgment. When value-judgments collide, things can become more heated. It does make for an interesting discussion though.

AZ_IPA said:

I think the problem is that in the overall beer market, success = light american lager (based on market share), which strikes a bad taste in the mouth of many people who prefer beer styles other than light american lager.

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The topic is Goose Island, which makes pretty good beer I hear. I responded to JLem, who said he wouldn't buy it because its parent company was successful.