It's hard not to notice Goose Island beers. In the seven years since the Chicago-based brewery was purchased by Anheuser-Busch it's gone global. The IPA is found on tap and on shelves around the globe. It's annual release of Bourbon County Stout, once a darling among craft beer connoisseurs, continues to draw lines each Black Friday. The brewery in many ways has become a textbook example of what happens when a large brewing company buys a smaller, beloved brand.
For many who watch the beer industry, work in it, or have made it their hobby, March 28, 2011, the day John Hall sold his brewing company to the makers of Bud Light, is the dividing line between "before" and "after" in the modern story of beer.
What followed the sale of Goose Island was a rash of other sales: Elysian Brewing Co., Wicked Weed, Lagunitas, Revolver, Full Sail, Clown Shoes, Golden Road, Oskar Blues, Breckenridge, and many others over not so many years. Anheuser-Busch made the majority of the purchases, although rivals Heineken and MillerCoors also got in on the act, along with private equity companies. The lines of ownership are blurred thanks to smaller stakes in companies or deal that simply slipped under the radar.