Founded as a Chicago brewpub in 1988, the Goose Island Beer Company has grown into a major regional brewer that ranks among the largest craft brewers in the United States.

Travel introduced businessman John Hall to regional European beer flavors and inspired him to leave the corporate world to found what is now Chicago’s oldest brewing organization. The business began with a 250-seat brewpub tucked into one corner of an industrial building remodeled as an urban mall. Early pub beers like Golden Goose Pilsner were mostly lagers to help introduce the drinking public to the flavorful all-malt formulations of microbreweries, but they soon shifted to the ales that now dominate the brewer’s portfolio.

In 1995 Hall—now teamed with son Greg as brewmaster—began packaging and distributing their beer from a second Chicago brewery located on Fulton Street. Built around a fifty-barrel brewhouse and with square footage expanded several times to accommodate growth, this facility now produces in excess of 100,000 barrels of beer per year. In 1999 the Halls leased the short-lived Weeghman Park brewpub facility near Wrigley Field, making it their second Goose Island retail brewing operation and a powerful branding tool.

Leading products include the English-style bitter “Honkers Ale” and American wheat ale “312,” named for Chicago’s downtown area code. Specialty beers include the pioneering “Bourbon County Stout,” which was among the very first American barrel-aged beers, and “Matilda,” a Belgian-style beer made using the wild yeast Brettanomyces. See brettanomyces.

In 2006 Widmer Brothers Brewing Company purchased a significant minority stake in Goose Island; in turn, Anheuser-Busch InBev holds a 40% stake in Widmer Brothers.

See also craft brewing and chicago.