No longer a craft beer, but still tasty
Goose Island IPA, born in the States and manufactured in Canada, hits the mark
When is an American craft beer not really an American craft beer?
How about when it’s made in B.C., Ontario or Montreal by the biggest beer company on the planet? Then again, if the beer still tastes good, does it really matter what label we give it?
That’s exactly what the situation is for Goose Island IPA, an aromatically hoppy, bitter brew that was one of the earliest creations of Chicagobased brewery Goose Island. Founded in 1988 as an independent craft brewery, it was taken over in 2011 by AB-InBev, a brewing conglomerate that makes roughly one out of every three pints on the planet.
The deep golden-coloured brew has notes of grapefruit peel on the nose, something which comes through in the flavour, along with a hint of caramel sweetness and a bitter finish.
The IPA recipe, admits Goose Island’s Suzanne Wolcott, is a bit different when it’s brewed at AB-InBev-owned Labatt plants in Canada. Then again, the recipe has always shifted a bit from year to year, based on what hops have been available, even when Goose Island was independent.
“All craft brewers change recipes a bit based on what hops they can get their hands on. So yeah, the recipe used to change before, too,” said Wolcott, an in-house Cicerone, or beer sommelier, who’s been with Goose Island since before the takeover.
There have also been recipe changes specifically for the batches being brewed in Canada. The reason? The size of the brewing tanks at the Labatt plants means the ingredients behave differently. In the same way you can’t just cook a giant roast for twice as long as a steak and expect the meat to come out the same way, you can’t just boost all the ingredients in a beer by the same amount when the size and shapes of the tanks are different.
“Tank geometry is huge. If we just tried to multiply everything by the size of the tank, it would have been a different beer. It just wouldn’t work,” said Wolcott, who sat in on several tasting sessions of early Canadian batches. The version now available at the LCBO and the Beer Store hits the mark. “They’ve done a really good job,” said Wolcott. Email: josh@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter @starbeer
Goose Island IPA
out of 4 Where to buy: LCBO or the Beer Store Price: $13.75 per six-pack Food pairings: Thai curry, roast leg of lamb, well-aged cheddar. The verdict: A tasty brew, no matter who the owner is.