Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out: Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch, and How Craft Beer Became Big Business

In 2011 Goose Island, a family-owned Chicago brewpub, was sold to Anheuser-Busch InBev, the biggest beer company in the world. The sale forced the craft beer industry to reckon with its growing mainstream appeal and a popularity few envisioned. Anheuser-Busch InBev went on to buy nine more American craft breweries, each sale sparking questions anew. With Goose Island as its flagship brand, Anheuser-Busch InBev stood poised to the become the largest producer of craft beer in the United States, leaving the industry's original innovators to grapple with the transition from scrappy underdog to mainstream, co-opted sensation.