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[INTERVIEW] Goose Island Founder John Hall

2017-05-24 ShanghaiWOWeng

Photo source: Goodbeerhunting


You might not know the name John Hall unless you’re a diehard craft beer enthusiast or a Chicago native, but you’ve probably had his beer. He founded Goose Island in 1988 and has spent the ensuing 29 years building the brand into a global powerhouse. We got a chance to sit down with him and ask about beer, life, and the enormous new Shanghai Brewhouse. 


Is this your first time visiting Shanghai? 

This is my second time, I was actually here a little over two years ago. That’s when they were first talking about Goose coming to China. 


Shanghai’s Goose Island Brewhouse


Have you visited all the international locations? 

I haven’t been to all of them. Actually it’s funny, when people first said they wanted to open Goose Island Brewhouses internationally I said “you gotta be fucking kidding me.” I mean first of all that’s not an easy thing to do, and quite frankly it scared me to death. I wasn’t concerned about the beer, because we know how to make good beer, and AB is terrific at making good beer, they understand us and we’ve worked together really well. All the brewers they hire are all quality guys I’d hire in a heartbeat. But the last thing I wanted was a cookie cutter approach, so that was a big concern. But being in Shanghai this week, and Seoul last week, I’m blown away by the job everyone has done. It’s Goose Island, but it reflects these locations enough that it strikes a really great balance with the surroundings. 



What is it like to travel half way around world and see your brand doing so well?

Surreal is a good word for it, it’s more than surreal. 


How often do people recognize you when you’re out and about? Do random people ever approach you and say oh my god, you’re John Hall! 

No not really, they don’t. I mean once in a while they do, but more in Chicago. Actually I was in Des Moines, Iowa last week for my father-in-law’s funeral. It was pouring rain and we were having a party and I had to run out to buy a few things, I went to a liquor store and saw a distributor van and the guy recognized me and really took care of me like you wouldn’t believe. So that kind of stuff happens occasionally but for the most part no.


Photo source: Kevin Hann


Who is the most famous person you’ve drank a Goose Island Beer with? 

Well, I mean the best is Barack Obama, who is obviously a Chicago guy. I’ve had a couple with him, both were before he became president though, I haven’t seen him since. It’s pretty amazing though, when he first met the prime minister of England he gave him a 312 to welcome him, which just, was unbelievable to me. 


Photo source: Wall Street Journal


And then Lebron James, I didn’t have a beer with him but he was at the Cubs Indian World Series, drinking a 312 in the Skybox on national television. And so of course I sent a text out to some Great Lakes guys I know just to give them some shit like ‘Hey how about that!’ Boy were they pissed!   



Any good Michael Jordan stories?

Actually yes, and this goes along with the sort of learning curve you have when operating a growing business. My son Greg, who was our brewer and marketing guy, he did radio commercials. So the Bulls had just won a championship, and we had actually just won some big award for our beer, so Greg gets on the radio and he ad libs something to the effect of “ya know, if Michael Jordan were a brewer, he’d be brewing for Goose Island.” Two days later I got a phone call from his agent, a very high profile guy named David Faulk, and he’s like “is this John Hall?” and I’m like “yea” and he’s like “This is David Faulk, and I hope you’ve got two million dollars, because that’s what it’s gonna cost you to use Michael Jordan’s name.” We ended up talking about it for a while, I had to sign a letter acknowledging we’d screwed up and wouldn’t do it again basically. It didn’t cost us anything, but it was a valuable learning experience. 


Michael Jordan’s long-time agent David Faulk, photo source: solecollector.com


Cliché but necessary question: you can drink a Goose Island Beer with any person throughout all of history (living or dead), who would you choose?

My father. I would love that, he died quite a while ago, so he hasn’t seen all this and it would just be… yea that’d be incredible. 


What’s the last beer you drank that was NOT a Goose Island?

Last night I had a Rochefort 8, which is one of my favorite beers. And ya know I’ve sampled some of the beers over here. We went to Boxing Cat, and Liquid Laundry and that was just great, the beer but also the food and the presentation.  


How important is it to you to represent Chicago and the Midwest with the Goose Island Brand? 

Terribly important. That’s our hometown so it’s who we are and our values and just…everything really. And I think Goose really reflects that. You know before we sold to AB I had opportunities to sell to others, and one of the reasons we went with AB is that it allowed us to stay who we were totally. There were the stakeholders and equity holders to worry about of course, but my employees were very important. And selling to AB gave my employees the best future. And then when it comes to the beer, they’re in the beer business they know how to make beer, if you’re gonna go out and find a contract brewer to make your beer, you couldn’t find a better one than AB. They were really accommodating and willing to protect our legacy in Chicago as well. So it’s been A+ on all fronts, that decision was a really easy one for me and my management team at the time. If we would’ve sold to private equity or another craft brewer I don’t know if we would’ve stayed in Chicago, or maintained that position. 



What’s the story behind the name, I know it’s based on the small island in the Chicago River, but how’d that come about? 

We went through a lot of different options, Chicago is a brewing center. Not a lot of people know this but we had more breweries before prohibition than any other place in the country. So Goose was actually the 99th company to receive a brewers license in Chicago. I wanted something that wasn’t too focused on the past, more forward looking with a sort of nod to the history. And Goose island is a little island on the river. I went to the historical society and I learned about it, there was never a brewery on it, so we could sort of create this whole identity for ourselves. And it’s funny, for like the first 10 years or so when we went outside of Chicago and people heard our name they thought maybe we were a Wisconsin or a Michigan brewery because not many people would associate Chicago with an island. 


Unless my math is wrong, Goose Island will celebrate its 30 year anniversary next year, anything special planned for that?

Yea actually, we’re doing a collaboration with Fuller’s Brewery in both London and Chicago. We’re gonna do an ESB (extra special bitter). So that’s a huge thrill and we’re all excited. 

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