While in Chicago, it seemed worthwhile to find out how they make beer in the Windy City.  Fortuitously,  when I happened to meet Goose Island brewer Tom Korder at GABF, I mentioned I was coming to town and would love to see the facilities.  He happily agreed, and met us with us on a chilly Saturday afternoon to see how their beer is made.

What I didn’t realize was that Tom had come in on his day off to give us an epic four hour tour, spanning two locations, barrel tasting, and vintage bottles.  So thanks Tom, for what very well might be the best brewery tour I’ve ever been on.

Read on for the epic post.  It’s going to be a long one, So I’d recommend pouring yourself a beer and getting comfy.  You can always jump into the full slideshow too.

We started out with a few pours from their tap handles, and a tour of the brewing and bottling lines.

After the bottling line, things started to get really exciting (not that bottling lines aren’t exciting.)  They work closely with the local Siebel Institute, a school  that has produced some of my favorite brewers (in-spite of my UC Davis leanings.)  They have a very small five gallon test batch system, as was as a larger experimental system.  This encouragement of trying new things has lead to some of my favorite Goose Island Beers.  He also lead us through the lab.  Never trust a brewery that doesn’t have a good lab.

From the lab, Tom grabbed his glass whiskey thief, and lead us to their barrel aging area.  Bourbon County Stout is aged in bourbon barrels, and these barrels are only used once.  This means they need a LOT of barrels to make this rich beer.  They also store them on end… which can lead to some leakage.

The beer pours like motor oil, and has a richness to match.  Thick, gooey, it’s a great after dinner night cap to enjoy with dessert.  Our tour completed, Tom lead us back to where we started, and started opening bottles. My favorite was a four year old bottle of Juliet, which is brewed with blackberries and aged in barrels.  After four years in the bottle, the beer had oxidized, lending it a mineraly, Bordeaux wine like quality.   Also good was Sophie, which is brewed with orange peels.  Sophie is the result of a brewer’s pet project, which was refined and grown overtime to become to full production beer they sell now.

Then it was time for part two.  We piled into Tom’s truck, and headed over to the Goose Island brewpub for more tours, more tastes, and lunch.  The brewing operation at the pub was a bit smaller, but just as diverse.  There were barrels and casks everywhere we looked.

The brewpub features an outstanding range of beers, and specializes in some cask offerings.  We ordered tasters of… well, everything, as well as most of the small plates menu.

Our favorites included the mussels, and sausage burgers.

Finally, we were done.  Well, nearly done.  Tom’s last act was to lead us across the street so we could pick out a few local bottles to try to smuggle home in our luggage.

We gathered our haul, put on our hats and gloves (it’s cold in Chicago!) and headed back towards the L station towards the loop.

Tags: brewery tour, Chicago, Goose Island

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 11:08 am and is filed under brewery tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.