Goose Island Brewing Company Fleur (365 Day 130)

By scot in 365 Days of American Craft Beer, Beer on Sunday, April 10th, 2011

Goose Island Fleur

American craft beer is defined by the small breweries that are being developed all over the United States and the outstanding artisan brewers that are concocting the wonderful liquids within. Goose Island Brewing Company has long been considered one of the pioneering brewers of bourbon oak aged beers, with their Bourbon County line of beers. Now, sadly, they have been bought out by big brother. I won’t mention names.

Supposedly the $38 million buyout is to keep everything status quot as big brother understands that it doesn’t do craft beer well while Goose Island does. I still have this one lingering question in the back of my mind: will American craft beer geeks avoid (consciously or subconsciously) their offerings. We can all say what we want but only good old fashioned time will tell. It is going to be interesting.

Fleur was brewed before big brother took over. It is a pleasant, solid, and easy drinking Belgian offering. The balance, at least for me, is spot on, making this beer quite a drinker in spite of a 7.0% alcohol level. The Belgian yeast nor spice come through to the point of pissing me off, which is why this beer is high on my list. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: One thing that humans do more than anything in their entire life is sleep. Most Americans sleep more than 6-8 hours a day, which is on average around 24 years of ones life!