It seems that the post I did yesterday is being reflected in industry news. The article below from “BeerNews.org states that Goose Island is looking to contract with Redhook brewery out of Portsmouth, NH to fill its ever growing demand. See to my way of thinking Redhook is a mediocre brewer, they don’t make anything that challenging, or great, some decent stuff, but when the best you can say about a brewery is “its better than Bud” that’s not really a ringing endorsement.
So while things are booming at Goose Island (a truly wonderful Chicago Brewery) there is excess capacity at Redhook. This might be indicative of lowering demand for mediocre beers. This to my way of thinking is the best thing that could happen to Redhook. Lets hope that all the other mediocre breweries are simply providing capacity for when truly great breweries need it.
The Press Release…
There is nothing official yet but . . .
. . . all signs point to Goose Island contracting out some work toRedhook Ale Brewery in New Hampshire soon.Goose Island Brewmaster, Greg Hall, didn’t provide much color on the situation but confirmed that contracting could be in the cards. “We are nearing our capacity ceiling and are looking at our alternatives, which include brewing and bottling or kegging at Red Hook in Portsmouth. We haven’t signed any contracts or made any commitments yet so it’s premature to make an announcement on our part.”
As noted last week, an agreement would help alleviate Goose Island’s capacity constraints and help fill excess capacity at Redhook.
A source said that contracted beers would likely be just the core brands and not specialties like the reserves. The only beer to have received label approval so far is Goose Island IPA. With Goose Island having expanded to the East Coast recently, it is thought that these beers would be produced primarily for that market.
As for quality concerns, says Hall, “If we choose to contract brew, we will have a Goose Island brewer on-site for early brews until we are quite comfortable with the beer.”
If and when this does happen, it will be the first time in fifteen years that Goose Island has been produced outside of Chicago. “We brewed off-site while we were building our Fulton St. brewery at the 10th Street Brewery in Milwaukee, when it was still in G Heilemen’s hands. It was all-draft Honkers Ale in 1995.”
Let’s hope this trend continues.
-Don
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
I thought the headline was spot on until I realized it said “prophetic” and not “pathetic.” oh well, carry on.
Well what do you say to that?
I wouldn’t call it contracting when they’re the same company. I used to work in the Redhook Brewery here in Wa, and we made more Widmer Sulferweizen than Redhook ESB.
http://craftbrewers.com/Breweries.aspx
It seems like Goose Island and Kona act more like wholly owned subsidiaries than separate parts of the same company. This gives them far more independence to do things like opt out of a takeover, etc. So it could be that the good parts for the CBA are getting stronger and the big parts are just providing capacity…at least lets hope so.
You’re probably right. Though, I don’t understand how they sell so much of that stuff that Widmer calls a Hef. It’s one of the most awful, foul things to ever be passed off as beer.
I think the first Hef I ever had was a Widmer. It was interesting and unusual 100 years ago when I had my first, now it is truly bad.
First beer I ever had, period, was Konig Ludwig Weiss. My path was set from day 1.
Not too many people can say that Evan. Jim and I also had our path set from day 1 by drinking our dad’s PBR out of the steel can that tasted like Metal!
I imagine Widmer Hefeweizen is more of an American Wheat than a hefeweizen. And labeled as it is, I thought it was a massive FAIL when I tried it… no cloves/banana notes. Still don’t care for the American wheat style.
Good for me! Maybe some Goose Island stuff will trickle down to Jersey. Still waiting for Kona beers to show up on local shelves and they brew out of NH as well, so maybe I shouldn’t hold my breath.
I can’t help but think you should have gotten the title to rhyme somehow.
Do you mean you may be a Poet and you don’t even know it?
Exactly.
Or “I’m almost a poet but I always blow the chance.”