About
GOOSE ISLAND BEER COMPANY

OUR MISSION IS

To lead in the craft of brewing by creating award-winning beers that define classic
and innovative styles to capture the hearts, imaginations, and palates of beer drinkers.

Find out more

A GOOSE GOES    
TO EUROPE

Our famous beer began with a trip across Europe, when Goose Island founder (and unabashed beer lover) John Hall took a tour across the continent. Pint by pint, he savored the styles and selections of brews in every region, and thought to himself, “America deserves some damn fine beer like this, too.”

Craft brewing wasn’t widely known at the time, but upon return from his European sojourn, John set out to change all that. He settled down in his hometown of Chicago—a city perfect for craft beer, with rapidly evolving tastes and the largest system of fresh water on the planet. And then he got to brewing.

First he made some stellar beer. Then he invited his patrons in to watch his process at the brewery, bringing them behind the scenes every step of the way. The result was a new fascination with craft brewing, and beer that not only catered to people’s tastes, but challenged them as well.     
That was back in 1988, and we haven’t slowed down since. By 1995, John’s beer had become so popular that he decided to open a larger brewery, along with a bottling plant to keep up with demand. 1999 brought even more growth, along with an additional brewpub, and today, what was once one man’s pint-filled dream has become the Goose Island empire you know and love.
Here’s where we tell you that in 2011, Goose Island Beer Company partnered with Anheuser-Busch. Since then, we’ve continued to brew beer that we’re proud of and now we get to share these beers with our friends both nationwide and internationally. We think that's pretty neat. If you're ever in Chicago, we'd love for you to stop by the brewery and have a beer with us.
QUALITY FROM THE START

OUR BREWERIES

Our brewery was built in 1995 and has more than doubled in size since originally built. We bring you our tasty pints using 32 fermenters, over 15 different yeasts, state-of-the-art filters, centrifuges and a 50 barrel JV Northwest 5 vessel system that brews 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It turns out that making awesome brews is quite the science. Luckily our brewery facilities have all the equipment necessary to deliver results.

We even have separate rooms to house small batch innovation programs and yeast propagation units, and our barrel-aged beers have their own dedicated stockroom AND 143,000 square foot barrel warehouse. It’s only the very best equipment for our beer—and we invite you to learn more.

Find out more

OUR OWN GROWN HOPS
One thing you may NOT know about Goose Island, is that we grow our own hops, so that you can enjoy the best IPA. Out West in Idado is our own hop oasis, Elk Mountain Farm, producing some of the world’s greatest hops.   
What’s so great about a hop farm you may ask? At Goose, we get to own the whole process from seed to sip. No other brewery can do this the same way that we do. We take time and care to make quality beer from our grown ingredients. We truly love our hops, and you can see with our new packaging that they are now front and centre. We are a hardworking bunch, and the toil and passion we put into growing our hops is proof of this.
We are also pretty open minded as well though guys! Remember - we don’t need to be the only beer you drink, we just want to be the best beer you can drink. So why not join the flock and try some of our beers whilst you are here?