Founded in 1988, Chicago's Goose Island Brewery is arguably one of the first American breweries to brew beer on a large scale with modern equipment, producing high-quality products that hold the record for 6 medals at the American Beer Competition. The bourbon barrel aged beer created by Goose Island in 1992 has created a new category for the beer industry, and its strength can be seen. Goose Island was acquired by Budweiser in 2007 and opened its Shanghai branch ten years later, making it the first winery to set up an operation team in Chinese mainland and an important step in Budweiser's Chinese market layout.

It is worth mentioning that according to the official definition of the American Brewers Association, a brewery is called a craft brewery only if it is "not controlled by or not more than 25% of the shares of an industrial brewery". As a result, Goose Island, which was acquired by the industrial brewery Budweiser, is no longer a craft brewery. However, considering the quality of the products produced by Goose Island and the significance of its presence in Shanghai to the Chinese craft beer industry, it is still included in this list.

Shanghai's Goose Island restaurant is decorated in the American style of its Chicago store, with smoked oak planks and red bricks paired with large silver-white beer brewing barrels, with a strong industrial atmosphere and a bit of Loft-style simplicity. Another reason for the inclusion of Goose Island in the list is the hollowed-out design of Goose Island, with four 1,000-liter fermentation tanks on the second floor, and a dedicated brewer brewing seasonal beers in Shanghai's local conditions. After all, for Lager, Pilsner and some IPAs, freshness is an important factor in the taste of beer, and having local brewing equipment is undoubtedly very attractive for consumers who love this type of beer.

Goose Island currently has 10 types of bottle beer and 24 types of draft beer. Those familiar with Goose Island will know that the Goose Island IPA, City Wheat Tamel Al (the famous 312), Drunken El and the four-star Pilsner are the factory's signatures, all of which can be found in the restaurant, as well as a range of tasting packs to choose from. In view of the fact that there are also a lot of steaks and staple foods in the Goose Island restaurant, here is a sour light ale "Lolita". True to its name, this wine is infused with plate-covered jam, concentrated syrup and wild yeast, with a rich sweet and sour fruit flavour, a light and fresh body with a rosy colour; The taste is not strong, it is easy to eat, and the taste is biased towards red wine, and some guests use it as a table wine.

Referring to the ratings of the American craft brewing website Rate Beer, many of the high-scoring wines on Goose Island are occupied by its stout series. In addition to the Bourbon Country Stout mentioned at the beginning, there are also high-profile stouts such as Night Stalker and Imperial Brown Goose. However, as mentioned earlier, Goose Island also brews a beer called "Wujiang Road Porter" in Shanghai. Friends who are accustomed to drinking Goose Island bottle wine may wish to order a glass and appreciate the level of beer brewed in China by this major American factory.

Popular Science:

Porter and Stout are collectively referred to as "dark beer" in many bars in China, but in fact, this method of classification by color is not reliable, because the color of the beer and the aroma, bitterness, alcohol content and other indicators of the beer itself can be completely unrelated. As for Potter and Stout, there is indeed a lot of overlap between the two, and modern Porter and Stout are also very similar in taste, but that does not mean that the two can be confused. The first reason is that in terms of historical origin, Porter is the predecessor of Stout, and the two have a relationship of inheritance, and even Stout was called Porter Stout before; Second, the color of the Porter beer machine is generally lighter than that of Stout, which belongs to the light black with brownish red; On the palate, the roasting sensation is higher than that of brown beer, but lower than that of stout, and the aroma of hops and yeast is still more obvious. The most obvious manifestation is that Porter's alcohol content is generally between 4% and 5%, which is lower than most stouts.