Chicago Goose Island lands in London

Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Company, the craft beer business owned by brewing giant AB InBev, is set to launch its first UK bar.

The US company is opening the Vintage Ale House in Balham, South London next week, stocking the brand’s core US range, including Honkers, Green Line PA, its Belgian-inspired wine-barrel beers and a Bourbon County Stout that is aged in bourbon barrels.

Goose Island founder John Hall said the new outlet would be a focal point for the company in London, although it is is currently understood to be intended to be a one-off venture in the UK, a spokesman told db.

The brewery, which was founded in 1988, has a brewhouse/tap room in Clybourn in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, which was not included in the original sale of the company and was only bought by AB InBev in February this year. There is also a Goose Island brewpub in Monterroy, Mexico, its first international bar.

“We wanted to create a venue for the community, full of flavour, and one that would become firmly rooted in the routines of city life,” Hall said. “It will be a spiritual home for beer lovers to immerse themselves in our brewing history and tradition without the need to travel all the way to Chicago.”

The menu of the new Balham venue is inspired by the company’s Midwest roots, serving American style food including porter and molasses glazed beef cheeks and pulled goose hash, he added.

The Goose Island business was bought by Ab InBev in 2011 for a reported $38 million, and since 2014 it has been part of AB InBev’s US subsidiary Anheuser-Busch’s craft portfolio, the High End. Other brands in the craft segment include Blue Point, 10 Barrel, Elysian, Golden Road, Virtue Cider, Four Peaks, Breckenridge Brewery, Devils Backbone, SpikedSeltzer and Texan beer brand Karbach Brewery Company, which was acquired by the global giant in November.