South Florida beer nerds collectively threw up their arms and danced a little jig -- all without spilling a drop of their precious hand-crafted, coffee-infused porter, of course -- with the news that Goose Island beer soon will be available in all 50 states. According to the Goose Island website, the label is currently available in 36 states, and Florida is not among them. Oh, and it's available in Europe, cause they get everything cool before we do.
The Chicago Tribune broke the news Friday morning that Anheuser-Busch, which acquired Chicago-based Goose Island in March of 2011, would begin distributing the beer nationwide by the end of November. Though its ownership by a multi-national corporation like Anheuser-Busch sort of flies in the face of the whole "craft beer thing," the beer will still be produced on a much smaller scale than the company's mainstream labels. And perhaps thirsty South Florida fans of Goose Island won't give a rip about who owns it, so long as they can finally get their mitts on the stuff close to home (and the quality holds up).
The Tribune says production of the beer will expand to Anheuser-Busch's brewery in Ft. Collins, Colo., with the biggest-selling beers like 312 Urban Wheat Ale and India Pale Ale getting national distribution. Sadly, the label's limited-edition brews will still only be available in the Chicago area.
Clean Plate Charlie will work on finding out where fans can find the beer in Broward and Palm Beach counties. In the meantime, are there any other beer labels that you're itching to see get distribution in Florida?
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