Goose Island Brewery Tour
Keeping on trend with my year of trying new things, I headed off to West Town for a tour of the Chicago-based Goose Island Brewery. This one hour brewery tour was fun, beer filled (literally you get quite a bit of beer), and very educational. Now some of you who have been with me from the beginning are scratching your heads and asking “I thought you didn’t like beer, right?”. You would be correct, but I want go give a shoutout to my friend Mona for inviting me along! I’m glad I went, and without further delay here is what you can expect from your brewery tour at Goose Island…
Brewery Walkthrough
The tour will start off in the tap room where you meet up with the rest of the tour group (6 total in ours) and get your safety eye wear. After that you will head up to the “deck” and get your first sample while learning about how beer is made. This was not my first brewery tour…more like my fourth, and if there is one thing that never changes its how beer is made. So that part might get a little boring; however, learning about the founder’s story is always interesting. From the deck we headed down into the brewery to see more of the facility. Our tour guide did a good job of summarizing the companies history, giving an overview of day-to-day operations, and insight on how the more unique / limited edition beers are made.
The Samples
We tasted 3 different beers each with a very distinct taste. First us was a Fathomless Porter which tasted almost like a coffee beer; on the heavier side but my favorite from the tour! After we moved to another facility across the street, we tasted two additional samples. The Sofie Paradisi, a Belgian Saison styled beer that is named after one of the many women who made an impact on Goose Islands history. To learn more about her you’ll just have to go on the tour! Last but not least was the Halia, a sour with peach flavors that is aged in wine barrels. This by far felt like the strongest drink on my pallet. If you are a fan of sours, this is the beer for you!
I’m not a beer aficionado, but of the all the brewery tours that I’ve been on Goose Island is definitely in my top 3 & my favorite in Illinois. I highly recommend adding this to your 2019 bucket list!!