By now many of you have heard, Anheuser-Busch, in its quest to control every aspect of the beer industry, has acquired Goose Island Beer Co. of Chicago, IL for $38.8 million. The reasons behind the deal have spurred a great deal of discussion on the internet. Goose Island had been looking for investors to expand the brewery because they, like Dogfish Head, are unable to meet the demand for their beers. Obviously a double-edged sword, the craft beer explosion is causing brewers to weigh the pros and cons of growing too fast. Selling the brewery to a company who has the capital to expand your operation and the muscle to market the beer sounds like a great idea, except, there is no guarantee Goose Island beer will stay the same. Will Anheuser-Busch keep brewing expensive specialty beers like Bourbon County Stout, Night Stalker and Pepe Nero? It doesn’t seem to fit in to the brewing giants modus operandi, whose product Budweiser defines the mass marketed, cheap,  pedestrian American Style Lager. Perhaps they feel threatened by craft breweries or they just saw a business opportunity in a growing company, either way I am worried about the future of Goose Island. I am sure the immediate future will be safe, but what about a few years down the line when A-B finds “efficiency” to be had.

Read more for the press release. Read more »

The 3rd annual Kohler Festival of Beer is coming up this May.  Demonstrations, tastings and live entertainment featuring beer from breweries across the country will be featured, along with food, homebrew competitions and more.

From the Kohler site:

Join us in the Village of Kohler for a weekend of good food and great beer! Don’t miss this event featuring breweries from across the country, demonstrations, tastings and entertainment. The weekend’s events include: Eggs & breakfast buffet, Cheers to Beers, Craft Beer Tasting, Blackwolf Run Beer Challenge, Blues & BBQ Party, and more

Kohler Festival of Beer

Great Lakes Brewing Company is at it again! Thay have installed 5 more 300 barrel tanks after having just expanded the rest of the brewing facilities last summer. From their Facebook page:

Five 300-barrel stainless steel fermentation tanks installed in GLBC’s Tank Farm on 3-4-11. These tanks are crane-lifted off of Carroll Avenue in Ohio City and installed through the roof of GLBC’s Tank Farm.

Just last summer, GLBC’s brewing operations underwent a $7M expansion and upgrade that included a new centrifuge, brewhouse additions, filler, rinser, conveyors and packaging efficiency improvements, a new grain silo, flooring and piping and the installation of four additional storage and fermentation tanks. This installation represents the latest phase in the brewery’s overall expansion project. Read more »

As we reported last month, Milwaukee’s first-ever cooperative bar is under construction and coming soon.  The Riverwest Public House will be a member-owned tavern in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood.  As of now, their projected opening date is March 1st.

Right now the Public House is still looking for people to help support the cause by purchasing memberships.  An annual membership is $40 a year for 5 years, a lifetime membership is $200.

Please visit the Public House’s webpage or Facebook page and consider becoming a member, or volunteering your time to help support this great community initiative.

Website: http://riverwestpublichouse.wordpress.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Riverwest-Public-House/143387932374186

NBC 26 out of Green Bay, WI reports that the White House has ordered several cases of Hinterland beer for the President’s Superbowl party. The beer, reported to be the Pale Ale and Amber Ale, will mark the first distribution of Hinterland beer outside of WI. Owner Bill Tressler and Head Brewer Joe Karls are very excited to have brewed beer for the President, you can read their quotes at the link below. Congratulations to Hinterland and good luck to the Green Bay Packers this weekend! You both do the Midwest proud!

It’s not known how the White House found out about Hinterland beer, but Tressler and Karls believe their recent brewing awards may have played a part. With 200 people expected at the party, they have their fingers crossed Washington becomes a fan.

Check back later this week week for our top Big Game beers!

[Source: NBC 26 Green Bay, WI]

The results are in for RateBeer.com’s 2011 Best Beer’s in the World competition. This is the largest beer competition in the world, with 130,000 beers from breweries all over the world being judged by RateBeer contributors.

MidwestBeer.com would like to congratulate Three Floyds Brewing Company of Munster, IN who was rated the overall number one brewery in the world! We agree they make outstanding beer and are glad to see them recognized for it! Many other Midwest brewers faired extremely well in this competition which we’ve highlighted below.

RateBeer Best was again the largest beer competition in the world — 130,000 beers from over 10,000 brewers worldwide were tallied. A particular emphasis was placed on tastings from the last year’s performance. Additionally, brewpubs, bottle shops, restaurants and bars from around the world were awarded prizes. Cheers to all the winners and to everyone who keeps the world of craft beer growing as a fun, cooperative community devoted to excellence. [ratebeer.com]

Read the rest to see the top Midwest winners!

Read more »

We often feel the same way about non-craft beers.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal:

A man wielding a metal pipe attacked a truckload of beer being delivered to a west side grocery store Friday afternoon, destroying about $2,000 worth of suds, police and witnesses said.

While whacking at the cases of canned beer, the attacker scolded the deliverymen for bringing what he called poison into his neighborhood.

Not everyone walking past Mid-Town Groceries at the time agreed with the man’s characterization of the beer.

Several passers-by helped themselves to some of the cases of beer as a deliveryman tried to talk the man into putting the pipe down.

Click to read the full article

As reported earlier, Lakefront Brewery has introduced a new beer to their “Pure Milwaukee Genius” series of beers. These are beers that exemplify the brewmasters skills and come in special 22 oz. bombers instead of six-packs. Their latest addition to this series is IBA, and India-style black ale, and I gotta say it’s a good one. The name itself doesn’t leave much to the imagination. It’s like Eastside Dark with a lot of hops, but it’s not quite that simple (plus Eastside Dark is a lager). The flavor is more roasty with a dryer finish. This pours black with a tan head. The beer was a little flat in carbonation, and we weren’t sure if this was due to how new it was in the bottle, and didn’t have time to bottle condition, or if it was by design. It went down smooth with plenty of hop flavor in addition to it’s bitterness. The hops seem to drown out the malty, caramely flavors that I would expect, but then again it is an IPA.

Overall, it’s really good. That being said, we were a little confused on it’s purpose. It seems to slot itself inline with their other Genius series beers of Fixed Gear, and Bridge Burner. These two really pull off distinction between each other besides the high hop content and the IBA doesn’t seem to do that as well, but maybe that’s its intent. Is it good, absolutely, however, when it comes to big hoppy beers from Lakefront, I think Bridge Burner and Fixed Gear will get more of my attention.

“Building community one drink at a time!”

Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood is soon to be home to the second cooperative tavern in the United States (the first and currently only is in Austin, TX).  Riverwest, for those not local, is a primarily residential area of Milwaukee which is home to a diverse population of artists, musicians, and college students.  Riverwest is already home to a member-owned, community-run natural foods store.  The neighborhood is apparently ready to expand that concept over to beer with the new Riverwest Public House Cooperative.

From the co-op:

The mission of the Riverwest Public House Cooperative is three-fold: to provide a welcoming social meeting place, to provide patrons with a variety of affordable local, organic and/or delicious beers, ciders and spirits, and to raise funds to propagate other cooperatives through the Riverwest Cooperative Alliance.

In addition to making available community meeting space, we’re excited by the prospect of hosting speakers, live music and regular community events such as card nights and potlucks.

Granite City is a brewpub chain originating from St. Cloud, Minnesota in 1999. Over the past 12 years they have expanded to 26 locations in 11 states throughout the Midwest. I have personally only been to the one in Madison, WI but am constantly impressed by their food offerings and solid beer, though I wish they would offer more seasonal and daring beers. The most likely reason for their lack of creativity at the retail site is because they actually don’t “brew” on site, choosing to ship the wort from their main location and ferment the beer on site. They tout this as a feature, I say it detracts from the traditional brewpub purpose, but I digress.

Soon you will be able to get their Brother Benedict’s Bock, Northern Light Lager and Duke of Wellington India Pale Ale in bottle form. The beer will be sold in six packs at a suggested retail price of $7.99. No date has been mentioned for the premiere, but word on the street is mid to late February. We can only assume distribution will cover their footprint of retail sites if not more.

I am excited about this move on GCFB’s part. I am a big fan of both the Brother Benedict’s and the Duke of Wellington. If you’ve never been to their Brewpub, check it out. The food is excellent. My question is, can I use my Mug Club card to get a discount and an extra few ounces per bottle?

Website: http://gcfb.net/

Source: Bottled Brew Coming Soon!