Goose Island Migration Week - May 26-29

[Cass]

so this starts tomorrow and the only real event is on thursday. No meeting of the chicago team, just one night of possible chaos? Pretty disappointed. Is it probably due to how strict our province is on alcohol?

Since Goose is owned by AB, who in turn also co-owns the Beer Store, they could bring in whatever they want without the same kind of red tape that others would face.

[Craig]

Have any other details about the event on Thursday been released? Like is there cover? How are the beers being served?

[Cass]

Thursday's event is free. Not sure how beers will be served though.

[napoleon]

What a strange venue for this event. I just looked at the Banknote Bar webpage and their Facebook, and there's zero mention of the Goose Island event. Their last Facebook post is from December urging us to book our holiday parties there, so there's clearly no promotion of this going on from their side.

Their standard tap menu is almost all macros plus some macro-micros (Mill Street and the mainstream Amsterdam beers). Nothing at all interesting on the list. Never thought I'd see a beer event at a bar with Labatt 50 on the menu.

Maybe I'll pop by just for fun. By the way, if anyone goes to the mini-events tonight, please shoot a post to the board if there's anything interesting.

[DeMarco]

I definitely agree. I have a feeling since most of these bars serve heavily on the AB side, and most likely have goose IPA/Honkers on tap, meaning that they were favoured to be a location for the migration week.

I'l going to try and hit up either the drake or clintons and see what the deal is as they are pretty close to me.

[Craig]

Well yeah, Goose is AB/Inbev property, it makes sense that they would hold their events at a loyal AB/Inbev bar, which will server almost exclusively Macro beer basically by definition. The weird part is how little they care about promoting the event. The only thing I've seen from the venue or the brewer is the migration week site linked to in this thread. That's nutters.

[Cass]

I think it's strangely interesting that an event like this is at the Banknote. Maybe it doesn't 'deserve' it, but it's telling about the evolution of craft beer that an event like this isn't in the exclusive realm of niche beer bars anymore.

Yesterday was an "industry night" where there were some Goose Chicago and local reps chatting with writers and bar owners. I did get confirmation that the BCBS got into the province just yesterday.

[northyorksammy]

House on Parliament only got IPA and Honkers. Spoke to the rep and he said Summer Ale not coming to Canada.
BTW IPA may look repackaged but its the same IPA as the US

[napoleon]

Looks like this got a mention in BlogTo today, but sort of buried below the lead.
I think I'm going to head over to check it out today.

[cratez]

I plan on being there. If you see a guy with a BeerAdvocate "Beer Geek" t-shirt on, come say hi!

[lister]

I'll be there, early. Hopefully the GI beers are available ahead of 7pm as I have to haul ass out to the west end for a screening of Kung Fury.

[Craig]

Me too. We could have an impromptu Bar Towel gathering at this rate.

[ercousin]

I'll be there, early. Hopefully the GI beers are available ahead of 7pm as I have to haul ass out to the west end for a screening of Kung Fury.

I have a feeling they won't be available until 7 since there is an invite-only hoppy hour event happening before. That starts at 5 though so perhaps the beers will go on a bit before 7, who knows.

[lister]

I'll be there, early. Hopefully the GI beers are available ahead of 7pm as I have to haul ass out to the west end for a screening of Kung Fury.

I have a feeling they won't be available until 7 since there is an invite-only hoppy hour event happening before. That starts at 5 though so perhaps the beers will go on a bit before 7, who knows.

Does that mean you can't even get in to Bank Note until close to 7pm?

[ercousin]

I'll be there, early. Hopefully the GI beers are available ahead of 7pm as I have to haul ass out to the west end for a screening of Kung Fury.

I have a feeling they won't be available until 7 since there is an invite-only hoppy hour event happening before. That starts at 5 though so perhaps the beers will go on a bit before 7, who knows.

Does that mean you can't even get in to Bank Note until close to 7pm?

I don't know sorry, I've never been to the venue.