After 30 Years, Chicago's Goose Island Beer Is a Global Brand
*By Christian Smith*
Thirty years after Goose Island Beer Co. founder John Hall started making his craft brews in Chicago, the brewery has grown into an international business, with ambitions for expansion in some of the most sophisticated beer markets in the world.
The company operates seven brewpubs outside of the United States, with taps in China and South Korea, and plans to open pubs in Australia and London next, said Todd Ahsmann, the Goose Island president.
"We have global distribution of our beer, which is a little weird for me," Ahsmann said in an interview Friday with Cheddar.
He got his first taste of the beer industry as a bartender at Goose Island's first brewpub in Chicago. His behind-the-bar education and a childhood friendship with the son of Goose Island's founder, John Hall, led to a job in the company's marketing department, where he worked for a decade.
"When we opened our brewpub 30 years ago there were about 60 breweries in the U.S.," said Ahsmann. "Now there's 6,500 breweries."
His familiarity with the growing industry and Goose Island's brews in particular were the reason the company named him president in 2017. Before that, he was president and general manager of Blue Point Brewing, a Long Island brewery owned by Anheuser-Busch. Goose Island was acquired by Anheuser-Busch in 2011.
Hall, the Goose Island founder, was inspired to brew his own beer after a sudsy trip to Europe in the 1980s. His brewery grew quickly, eventually becoming one of the most popular craft labels in the country.
With dozens of varieties to choose from, it's hard for Ashmann to pick a favorite.
"People ask me what my favorite beer is, I usually say the one in my hand."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/goose-island-beer-co-returns-to-its-chicago-roots-as-it-celebrates-30th-anniversary).
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
