John Hall Stepping Down As Goose Island CEO

In Beer News by Ryan

The man who started it all is leaving Goose Island.

BeerPulse reports that John Hall, who founded Goose Island as a brewpub in 1988, announced at the companies quarterly meeting Thursday that he is leaving his post.

“According to a source, Hall will be part of a newly-formed “craft advisory board” at A-B InBev along with Chief Operating Officer, Tony Bowker. The source also says that Bowker is vacating the COO position. Neither Hall or Bowker have responded to a request for comment.”

The Chicago Tribune confirms that both Hall and Bowker are stepping down and that the two are going to be part of Anheuser-Busch’s new “craft advisory board.”

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The Trib also says A-B has tapped a long-time exec to be the new top Goose.

On Jan. 1, 30-year Anheuser-Busch veteran Andy Goeler will take over as Goose Island CEO and president, AB said in a memo to employees. Goeler has most recently served as AB’s vice president of import, craft and specialty brands.

Goeler has worked on Goose Island products for the last year, the company said, and aims for “further expansion of the brand nationally” and “growing the brands the right way.”

“Andy has led the growth of Shock Top from its infancy, while taking established global brands, such as Stella Artois and Beck’s, and bringing them to new levels in the United States, carefully maintaining a consistent, quality brand position,” Anheuser-Busch said in the memo.

Hall sold Goose Island to A-B last year.

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Since then A-B began working towards distributing Goose Island’s beers nationwide, moved the actual brewing of 312, IPA and Honker’s to other states – thus upping production capacity at Goose’s Fulton St location to brew more specialty beers like Bourbon County Brand Stout and Matilda.

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Ryan

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Equal parts beer nerd and policy geek, Ryan is now the curator of the Guys Drinking Beer cellar. The skills he once used to dig through the annals of state government as a political reporter are now put to use offering unique takes on barrel-aged stouts, years-old barleywines and 10 + year verticals.

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