The news that rocked the beer world today, that of Anheuser-Busch buying Chicago’s Goose Island Brewing, has (predictably) generated a ton of comments and I’m quite sure a mess of vitriol on the various craft beer forums. I prefer to take an even-handed approach to this news: let’s wait and see what happens. From a day-to-day standpoint for Goose Island, nothing changes except for some shifts amongst the brewers (interestingly, the new Brewmaster as of May 1st is Brett Porter, a Deschutes alum). Long-term? Well… again let’s wait and see.

I’m gratified to see many other bloggers with similar level-headed responses (not speaking to their commentors, necessarily):

• Lew Bryson: “Or do you just…wait and see and try to stay impartial?”
• Mario Rubio: “Unless we see this actually happen with Goose Island, I don’t think it’s fair to start personal boycotts on the brand.”
• Melissa Cole: “…we shall just have to trust that the Hall family didn’t bust their asses to build this business only to see it dismantled.”
• Andy Crouch: “The Goose Island sale to AB-InBev in one sense must be seen as a victory for craft brewers.”
• Stan Hieronymus: “Since everybody else has an opinion about what the Goose Island sale means I’ll be honest and type, I don’t know.”