Goose Island makes beer with its former brewers

When Goose Island Beer Co. decided to launch a series of beers with some of the alumni who have laid hands on its brewing equipment through the years, there was only one place to begin: Greg Hall.

The son of brewery founder John Hall, he arguably helped mold the contemporary craft beer landscape during 20 years as Goose Island's brewmaster. And he returned to the Chicago brewery May 13 — the 27th anniversary of his first day of working at Goose — to create the beer of his choice.

The result, an English dark mild ale, simply called Mild, is already on tap at Goose Island's Fulton Street brewery taproom but will be officially launched with Hall on hand Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. (The event is open to the public.)

Mild was Hall's first brew at Goose since leaving the company in 2011, after it was sold to Anheuser-Busch InBev. Hall has continued to consult for Goose Island on beers, brands and marketing, but most of his time has been spent in meeting rooms far from the brewing floor.

"It was great to be back," said Hall, who now owns Virtue Cider. "I missed the smells. Missed the guys."

Goose Island is planning many more such reunions with the alumni series. Each beer will be made on the brewery's new two-barrel brewing system dedicated to innovation and new beer development, and will only be poured at the taproom.

Launched in 1988 as a Clybourn Avenue brewpub, Goose Island has sent scores of brewers into the industry. By Goose Island's count, the brewery has alumni working at more than two dozen breweries across the nation — both large (Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Bell's Brewery) and small (Seattle's Fremont Brewing). Many local breweries feature ex-Goose brewers — including Off Color Brewing, Penrose Brewing Co., Pipeworks Brewing, Temperance Beer Co., Moody Tongue Brewing Co. and Revolution Brewing.

Mike Siegel, Goose Island's head of brewing innovation, said no further collaborations have been solidified yet, and beers will be released periodically.

"A lot of former Goose brewers we're still friends with, whether they've opened their own businesses or taken a bigger position somewhere else," Siegel said. "This is an opportunity to work with some of them again and have some fun."

But it was always clear that Hall would begin the series, Siegel said.

"Starting with Greg was the natural choice," he said. "He put in a lot of good years here as brewmaster and made his mark on this brewery and the people surrounding it as much, or more, than anyone in the 27-year history of Goose Island."

Mild, which is a mere 3.7 percent alcohol, isn't the sexiest beer in a landscape that prizes hop-forward beers and things aged in whiskey barrels. But it was about Hall honoring his past with Goose Island; the first beer he made after being promoted to brewmaster in 1991 (after three years as an assistant) was an English mild.

"It's a great style, and it brings me back to the brewpub days," Hall said.

Mild is a subtly ideal summer beer: yeast and malt-forward, with notes of cocoa and caramel, but endlessly drinkable due to its low alcohol content.

The inspiration for the original beer, called PMD Mild, was the Goose brewpub's location within a planned manufacturing district that was just a few blocks from the site of the now-shuttered Finkl steel plant on Cortland Street.

"You could look into these open doors and see glowing bars of metal as big as boats," Hall said. "It was Nelson Algren's Chicago. It's was the coolest thing."

As a salute to the city's industrial history, he turned to a style that was historically popular with factory workers, due to its being flavorful and refreshing, but low enough in alcohol to allow workers to continue working.

"I have enormous respect for traditions, but all these trends started somewhere, so there's a lot of room for innovation," Hall said. "I think this beer is spot-on tradition, though."

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