Around the turn of the [last] century, Chicago was a brewer’s mecca, home to some 55 breweries,” says Greg Hall, the 33-year-old brewmaster of Goose Island Beer Company. In fact, Chicago was born over beer. The city charter was drafted and signed in a tavern, and several of the founding fathers and earliest officeholders for whom streets are named were brewers or tavern owners–Ogden, Wacker, and Diversey among them.
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“Dad immediately realized the futility of trying to launch an undercapitalized, full-scale brewery to compete with the Millers and Buds and Old Styles of the world,” says Greg. “We just didn’t have the experience to run a brewery and deal with distributors. So we were forced to start small and that enabled us to concentrate on developing a high-quality beer.”
“Chicago’s a very demanding restaurant town, so we also had to improve our food service while we perfected our beer. It was a mutual learning experience that continues today–we introduced the public to craft beers while learning about the restaurant and brewery business,” says Greg. The seasoned chips survived as the menu was improved and expanded to include grilled salmon, filet mignon, Andouille sausage pizza, and a Stilton burger–a halfpound of grilled ground beef topped with roasted garlic and Stilton cheese.
The Halls’ products lean toward rich flavorful ales in the European tradition–from a British brown ale to an India pale ale, and from a thick, dark oatmeal stout to a pale German kolsch. In 1997 they took over the Baderbrau label from its former brewer, thus adding a Bohemian pilsner and a Viennese lager to the roster. Goose Island also produces two organic beers under the Wolaver label, one for the brewpub and one marketed by Whole Foods, as well as a root beer and an orange cream soda.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Nathan Mandell.
