From Chicago to Beijing, Beerheads Flocked to Goose Island Brewery's Beijing Migration Week

Located in Chicago, Illinois, Goose Island Brewery was opened by John Hall in 1988, and just celebrated its 28th birthday last week. In unison with this special occasion, Goose Island officially made the trip over to China for the first time as part of their Migration Week. After visiting Shanghai, the team landed in Beijing for a week-long promotion, including booking Home Plate for a four-day tasting bonanza and affiliated parties, conducting a beer dinner at The Georg, and flash-residencies at Jing A, El Nido, Arrow Factory, and Peiping Machine. All in all, we'd say a very successful week for getting their name out.

Goose Island beers are predominantly distributed across America and Europe, and since 1992 have used bourbon barrels to age their brews, for anywhere between 8 to 12 months. They ferment other beers in stainless steel casks, before transferring it to wine barrels, to which they add fresh fruit and wild yeast, before the beer undergoes a secondary fermentation. After 9 to 18 months, the beer's acidity decreases and is replaced by a light essence of fruit. This is the way that their Sofie, Lolita, Juliet, and Madame Rose beers come to be.

For their tour they brought along seven beers for tasting: Sofie, Matilda, Goose IPA, Illinois IPA, Lolita, Honkers Ale, and Bourbon County. Goose IPA is one of their most popular products and has won a number of top awards at events such as the World Beer Cup and the Great American Beer Festival. At 5.9 percent ABV it has a fruity aroma and a long, dry hoppy finish. The Honkers Ale (4.3 percent ABV) was the very first beer that they brewed and is dubbed an English-style beer, with a malty flavor and fruity and hoppy aromas.

We particularly liked the Illinois IPA, a 9 percent ABV Imperial IPA with a lot of hoppy flavors thanks to the Chinook, Cascade, Citra, and Meridian hops used to brew it, providing complex citrus aromas, as well as a balanced and clean bitterness.

The Sofie (6.5 percent ABV) was a charming Belgian-style farmhouse ale, which has also won a number of accolades. It's aged in wine barrels with orange peel to achieve its citrusy tartness and spicy white pepper notes. It's light, refreshing and creamy finish comes from Champagne.

We also loved the Bourbon County Brand Stout – winner of the Gold award at World Beer Cup – a dark and dense Imperial stout aged in Bourbon barrels to a dangerously high 14.2 percent ABV. The mix of charred oak, chocolate, vanilla, caramel, and smokey flavors means that it goes down a treat, which in turn means that you should make alternative plans to how to get home.

If you weren't lucky enough to try this lot during the Migration Week then don't panic, El Nido and Drunk Begining still have beers in stock. Also, the promotion will have most certainly turned local distributors and bottle shops onto the taste, and now all we must do is sit and wait patiently as the imports roll in.

More stories by this author here.

Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
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Photos: Goose Island Brewery, Tracy Wang