USA, IL: Anheuser-Busch InBev buying the Chicago brewpub where Goose Island was founded

Anheuser-Busch InBev, which has been on a bit of a craft-brew buying spree, is buying the Chicago brewpub where Goose Island was founded, BizJournals.com reported on February 22.

The brewpub was not included in AB InBev's 2011 purchase of Fulton Street Brewery LLC, Goose Island's parent company, for $38.8 million.

Now Goose Island founder John Hall is selling the brewpub to Fulton Street, the Chicago Tribune reports. Terms of the deal, expected to close in 60 days, weren't disclosed.

AB InBev didn't have much interest in the brewpub in 2011, which it couldn't buy under Illinois law at the time, anyway, Hall told the newspaper. Now, to comply with Illinois law, the brewpub will be reclassified as a taproom subsidiary of the company's Fulton Street production brewery and no longer will be able to sell wine or spirits, the Tribune reports.

The brewpub's kitchen will remain open, and it will collaborate more with the Fulton Street production brewery, officials said.

AB InBev, a Belgium-based brewer with U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, has been ramping up its presence in the craft beer industry, recently buying Los Angeles-based Golden Road Brewing. Golden Road joins Goose Island Beer Co., Blue Point Brewing Co., 10 Barrel Brewing Co. and Elysian Brewing Co. as part of AB InBev’s high-end business unit portfolio.

AB InBev's forays into the craft beer industry represent a direct challenge to one of the highest-performing business segments of domestic competitor MillerCoors LLC, the Chicago-based joint venture that runs a major brewery and administrative offices in Milwaukee. MillerCoors recently said that craft beer sales continued their upward trajectory in 2015, although a production problem at Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. in Wisconsin caused a modest drop in craft sales in the fourth quarter.

24 February, 2016