Goose Island Brewing Company in Chicago article

Alison Neubauer
Final draft
993

Marissa Monson
12/14/2008



The large, faded yellow brick building stands at the intersection of Fulton and Wood streets in a quiet, seemingly vacant corner of Chicago’s industrial west side. Caged windows line the east side of the building looking onto barren, worn down streets that lead to a heavy, industrial locked door.
This door is a portal to a narrow, daunting, steep staircase that leads to another door. Inside opens up to a bright office bustling with smiling faces. I’ve entered the production brewery for the Goose Island Brewing Company.
Goose Island is a beer brewing and soda company that originated in and is located in Chicago. Their history only dates back about twenty years but the name holds many years of early Chicago history. They started out small but have grown within the past ten years to become one of the most well known and established brewers in the country.
Beyond the office the actual brewing area encompasses the remainder of the building. Giant silver tanks tower over the workers amidst a maze of metal stairs leading up, down, and all around the two stories of machinery.
This production brewery is an extension of the original Goose Island pub.
“Clybourn and North Pub was the first pub that began in March 1988,” the head brewer John J. Hall said, “the beer was only available on tap and the main flagship beer was Honkers Ale.”
Hall explained that the name Goose island came from the name of an island on the river nearby. In the 1800’s Irish immigrants had a shanty there where they raised geese to supplement their food. Clybourn is known as the Goose Island corridor.
In 1995 they opened this production brewery and made their first brew here in 1996.
“We brought in the favorite of the pub here to make bottles and kegs of it to distribute,” Hall said, “sometimes we use the pub as a testing ground and if it goes well we take it to production.”
John Hall is also the name of the founder, owner, and president. He started out small, built a customer base, began selling at the Clybourn pub and is now producing 15 beers year round plus some specials.
“As of the past two years, 312 has taken first place as favorite pushing Honker’s Ale to second,” Hall said.
John J. Hall described the basic process of brewing beer. There is a hot side and a cold side of the brewery. On the hot side a substance called wort is made. That is where enzymes break up the starches into sugars. This light brown, foamy gruel goes to the lauter tun where the solids are separated from the liquid.
Then the hops is added before going to the cooler for fermentation. The cooled wort goes into the fermenter with yeast where alcohol and CO2 are produced. This takes three to five days.
This unfiltered beer, known as green beer, gets filtered using a machine called a centrifuge which spins at a high velocity and pulls the yeast to the outer edge. Now it goes to get bottled or kegged.
They do 50 kegs per hour and 215 bottles per minute. The bottles are filled with CO2, not air.
“Air makes beer age before its time. It tastes older sooner,” Hall said.
The bottling process is a crucial step. The head of maintenance, Brian VanVoorhis, spends most of his time making sure everything there is running smoothly.
“If bottling stops, everything else stops,” VanVoorhis said.
All beer is brewed the same in the basic process but it’s small variations that give it unique flavors. Water temperature of the wort will make the beer sweeter or dryer. A higher temperature makes it sweeter and gives it more texture. Lower temperatures makes it dryer and more fermentable. As temperatures rise during fermentation flavors go from fruity to harsh. Lagers are cooler while ales are a little warmer.
Hops have oils and aroma which adds flavor and gives the bitterness. There are about 80 varieties of hops worldwide, Goose Island uses about 16. Some include kinds such as Cascade which has a citrus aroma, Liberty has a spicy, kind of floral scent, Fuggle is earthy, Styrian is leathery and Willamette is herbal.
Barley adds even more flavors. Roasted makes it like chocolate and coffee. Carmel 60 makes colors and sweetness.
Lately for new tastes they have been experimenting with new yeast, bourbon and wine barrels. The flavor from the wood of the bourbon barrels seeps into the beer as it ages for roughly eleven months. The barrels are used only once because there isn’t as much flavor the second time. Goose Island is the first brewery to age in bourbon barrels but it has now become very popular.
They recently introduced their reserve line of beers.
“The reserve line is more unique and has a higher alcohol content. It’s not your standard beer,” Hall said.
The reserve line consists of Matilda Belgium Golden Ale, Pere Jacques which is dark, sweet and Belgium style, Bourbon County Stout and an Imperial IPA.
The Juliet is also a new beer they are working on. It’s a soured beer with blackberries and rye aged in a Cabernet Sauvignon barrel. It will be available next year in November.
Anybody can come up with a new idea but then a certain team discusses it and it’s up to the people above to decide if they want to try it. Hall said that the more beers you have the harder it makes things.
Goose island is primarily a beer brewery but they also make pop. They’ve been producing pop for eight or nine years and used to make and serve it at the pub. It has a good profit margin.
“The customer base wanted it. Not everybody drinks and families would go to the local pub so we were catering to children,” Mark Kamarauskas, the operations manager, said.
Goose island brewing company is growing more each year.