
So he opened Goose Island Beer Co. as a brewpub in Chicago in 1988. Woven through the narrative about "the biggest brewery in Chicago the most interesting brewery in Chicago" is the story of John Hall, a high-ranking executive for a container company who thought starting a brewery was the best way to be his own boss. Noel admits that unraveling the system was "easily the hardest part of the book to write and write well." It was a necessary exercise to help readers understand the motivation for Anheuser-Busch and its competition, MillerCoors, for absorbing craft breweries into the fold, he said.


For others, it offers the most relatable description of beer's three-tier system from brewer to distributor to retailer.
