Goose Island Beer Co., a craft brewer owned by a beer behemoth that's behind cult favorite Bourbon County Brand Stout, is popping the top on its first national advertising campaign.
It's an appropriate time for the Chicago-based brewery, an independent purchased by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2011, as Goose Island beers became available in all 50 states just last year.
With interest in — and sales of — craft beer on the rise, Goose Island and parent AB InBev figured it was time to formally introduce the brand to consumers.
In addition to a new one-minute video ad that will be found beginning todayon food, travel and music websites, Goose Island will place full and double-page advertisements in upcoming consumer-focused magazines.(Some have already run in Draft and Beer Advocate magazines.)
The video takes viewers inside Goose Island's Fulton Street Brewery and its barrel-aging facility. And the city of Chicago plays a major part, too, with several shots of the skyline and the L subway line.
Symbolism, sure, but it's meant as a sign that the brewery means to stay true to its roots, despite its growing national reach, says Mark Hegedus, Goose Island marketing director. "And our roots is all about being innovative and creative and always wanting to try what is next out there."
The message of "To What's Next" used in the campaign is appropriate, as Goose Island has many new beers set to debut this year. While some craft beer devotees voiced concern at AB InBev's purchase of Goose Island two years ago, Hegedus notes that the resources of the megabrewer have helped the brewery expand its repertoire.
Its popular 312 Urban Wheat beer and Honker Ale, available nationwide, are now made at corporate brewing sites in Baldwinville, N.Y., and Fort Collins, Colo. But, Hegedus says, "our brewmaster tastes every batch.
That has freed up the Fulton Street Brewery to become more of an inc! ubator. "It has gone back to what it was when we first opened, of just trying new beers," he says. "Now we have that flexibility again."
As a result, Goose Island is making more beer and more different beers than ever before. The company shipped 37% more barrels of beer nationally in 2012 — the most recent numbers Goose Island could provide — increasing its shipments to 208,000 barrels, up from 152,000 barrels in 2011.
Additional production capacity has been devoted to the barrel-aged Bourbon County Brand Stout, which is released annually in November to don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it sellouts of the bottles. The brewer also expanded its barrel-aged beers with new varieties such as Bourbon County Brand Barleywine and Backyard Rye, as well as its wine-barrel-aged lineup with two new farmhouse ales called Gillian and Halia, released last fall.
The barrel warehouse at Goose Island Beer Co. in Chicago.(Photo: Goose Island)
Goose Island plans to release 18 new beers this year, a dozen of which will be available nationally (bringing its national beers to 17). New national releases include the 312 Urban Pale Ale, due to launch in March, and three seasonal single-hop beers using hops grown at the brewery's hop farm in northern Idaho. The first is Ten Hill Pale Ale, released nationwide on Dec. 2, 2013, and Endless IPA, a hoppy, lower-alcoholic (5.2% ABV) session ale coming in early April. Next is a Rambler Red ale in late summer.
Construction is underway of a 130,000-square-foot warehouse — 2 miles away from its Fulton Street Brewery — to store and age the barrel-aged beers. The brewery continues to make beers that are only distributed locally on tap at its original Clybourn Avenue brewpub, opened in 1988, and its Wrigley! ville bre! wpub, opened in 1999, and other local restaurants.
Goose Island fans may have worried about a watering down of the beloved Chicago brewer's products after its acquisition by AB InBev, "but two years in, we're not seeing it," says Tom Bobak, editor-in-chief of AmericanCraftBeer.com.
"They acquired Goose Island to get a piece of craft beer's pop cultural energy and it's economic energy, of course," Bobak says. "I think they have been careful not to diminish their acquisition. They have left Goose Island to be Goose Island."
Goose Island's Bourban County Brand Stout launch event at City Beer Store on Nov. 29, 2013, in San Francisco.(Photo: Steve Jennings, Getty Images for Goose Island)
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