A-B buys Goose Island for $38 million

Reads 18760 • Replies 129 • Started Monday, March 28, 2011 6:35:12 AM CT

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Message JMerritt places 72 º 08:24 Mon 3/28/2011 Updated at http://beernews.org/2011/03/anheuser-busch-to-buy-goose-island-for-38-8-million/#more-18165 (site is slow to load right now) Kate Bernot, Contributing Editor at The Feast Chicago, says Deschutes Brewery’s Head Brewer, Brett Porter, will take over Greg Hall’s duties as Brewmaster.
Message GT P beers 10001 º places 672 º 08:25 Mon 3/28/2011 Originally posted by beastiefan2k Its not a big deal anyway. Go out and support your new local brewers. I say find, promote, and support the next Goose Island. Support them too much, and well...
Message beastiefan2k P beers 5033 º places 294 º 08:26 Mon 3/28/2011 Originally posted by Davinci Like Adam and Puzzl have said, it would be beyond foolish for AB to come in and make changes to the production at this point. They have bought GI in an effort to gain some market in the craft sector and would be shooting themselves in the foot if they were trying to make a cheaper version of their products. everything A-B gets there hands into eventually goes down in quality (as others have mentioned it just can’t be helped, batches will growing and to increase consistency nuances will be left behind). No reason to think it will be different for GI. Best you could hope for is those 2 brewpubs are left untouched.

Message theisti P beers 5292 º places 1153 º 08:31 Mon 3/28/2011 Originally posted by beastiefan2k A-B took over Red Hook A-B took over Widmer A-B took over Dominion who still really loves those brewers nowadays? The A-B take over of GI has been talked about for years now. A-B has been distributing GI for a while as well, that was the first domino (as I remember the same was true for Red Hook and Widmer). A-B distributes Kona Brewing as well, I believe (the next most likely takeover). Its not a big deal anyway. Go out and support your new local brewers. I say find, promote, and support the next Goose Island. Perfectly stated.
Message GodOfThunder P beers 1364 º places 65 º 08:33 Mon 3/28/2011 Originally posted by FlssmrBrewAlum Just like puzzl is saying, they’d be idiots to mess it up. They are idiots, and they will mess it up. I’m wondering how many of us, if any, around here have a moral dilemma with this? Goose Island now makes the best craft beer for InBev. How many are in it for the quality of beer (as long as it doesn’t suffer)? How many don’t want to buy InBev products?
Message OldStyleCubFan beers 77 º places 15 º 08:33 Mon 3/28/2011 Only $38 millions? That seems insanely low. At that price A-B could buy them and just discontinue the beers. I bet AB spends 2 or 3 times that annually in Chicagoland marketing alone. They could make that back simply be converting half the GI tap over to an AB beer after killing the beers.
Message beastiefan2k P beers 5033 º places 294 º 08:36 Mon 3/28/2011 Originally posted by GodOfThunder How many don’t want to buy InBev products? I don’t and wont. Will grab my last 4 pack of Sofie and wave goodbye to GI.

Message beastiefan2k P beers 5033 º places 294 º 08:44 Mon 3/28/2011 from 2006 http://www.soave.com/news/bev_goose-island.php from 2011 http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2011/03/anheuser-busch-inbev-to-take-over-goose-island.html Goose Island, whose legal name is Fulton Street Brewery LLC, is selling a 58 percent stake in the company to A-B for $22.5 million. The Craft Brewers Alliance, in which A-B holds a 32 percent stake, has agreed to sell its own Goose Island stake to A-B for $16.3 million. The Craft Brewers Alliance owns the remaining 42 percent of Goose Island. ABInBev has time on their side. They work slow and eat up competitors. They aren’t brewers, they are business people, they don’t care about the beer, just selling it.
Message zdk beers 1917 º places 96 º 08:44 Mon 3/28/2011 Will beer geeks start boycotting their products? Even if they do, would it matter? Most people don’t even know that GI is already distributed by AB. People’s faces usually fall when I inform them of this, but they keep drinking. I wonder what ppl will say now
Message GodOfThunder P beers 1364 º places 65 º 08:50 Mon 3/28/2011 Originally posted by zdk Will beer geeks start boycotting their products? Even if they do, would it matter? Most people don’t even know that GI is already distributed by AB. People’s faces usually fall when I inform them of this, but they keep drinking. I wonder what ppl will say now Maybe this is a moment of clarity that some need. I know I still reluctantly (and occassionaly) buy their products, and products from the distributors AB has colluded with for years (Southern Tier and Victory are two big ones down here).