In 2001 Anheuser-Busch began an expansion to boost capacity at its Fort Collins, Colorado, brewery 28% increase to 8.2 million barrels annually. A few years ago I toured the brewery and I’m pretty sure I heard production had reached 15 million barrels.
Monday, the news that Anheuser-Busch (InbBev) bought Goose Island, which produced 127,000 barrels in 2010, probably chewed up more bandwidth than the Fort Collins brewery has in its history.
Since everybody else has an opinion about what the Goose Island sale means I’ll be honest and type, I don’t know. And unless you’re drinking beer with Dave Peacock and Carlos Brito right now there’s every chance you don’t know either.
Instead, meet me for the Goose Island tour in 2014. We’ll see what’s available in the tasting room after the tour ends.
Yes, but after a year’s growth at 28%, Goose Island might be producing 162,560 barrels. Look out!
“…meet me for the Goose Island tour in 2014.”
Count me in!
WHOO-HOO!! Count me in!
Wait, you’re driving, right?
Alex — we’ll just take the Pink Line! 😉
http://www.transitchicago.com/traintracker/
The standard lineup will remain. The sad part is that they will cut back on using quality ingredients. Tomorrow’s Honkers Ale will not taste the same as yesterdays. I’m going to be really sad to see Matilda disappear. I doubt this beer will be considered profitable enough to continue to produce. I only got to try it once while in the Chicago area.
The Green Line will get you a lot closer, Steve 😉
I’m with Stan, I’m curious to see how this plays out. Perhaps InBev will be like the Aldi conglomerate that bought Trader Joe’s and continued to run it pretty much as it had been
Greg — I’ll follow you!
Based on my experience, a big brewer who buys a little guy does so because he knows it operates on a different business model. But because the big guy is acting on “faith,” and he is in turn being evaluated by conventional business metrics…in the long run, the big guy’s business model wins out. Dave Peacock may or may not get what makes Goose Island work, but I’m pretty sure his bosses don’t. His bosses only understand cost cutting. Still, they’ll indulge him as long as the overall bottom line looks good — so, if you’re a Goose Island fan like me, root for ABI’s bottom line to keep on looking good. Because if it doesn’t, the more pessimistic predictions may come true.
Count me in as another fan of Honkers Ale. Interestingly, I have been able to buy it in Europe for a ‘normal’ price for almost a year. That stopped a few weeks ago. However, since Inbev is in the country next door to mine, I hope we’ll see it again soon and certainly hope they’ll leave a good product well enough alone.