Goose Island's Greg Hall Urinated In Glasses At Chicago's Bangers And Lace

It's been a real up-and-down couple of weeks for Greg Hall.

The brewmaster at Goose Island announced in late March that he'd be leaving that role, as the Chicago-based craft brewer was bought up by Anheuser-Busch for a hefty $39 million. He'll be leaving for an undisclosed new project, according to statements at the time.

And last Friday night, Hall celebrated his 45th birthday at Bangers and Lace, a self-described craft beer and sausage bar that Time Out Chicago recently named its Best New Bar.

Unfortunately, according to the Chicago Tribune, the celebration got a bit out of hand. In a conversation with the Tribune on Monday, Hall didn't deny accusations made by the Bangers staff that he urinated in two beer glasses and left them at the bar.

More details:

As Hall and his group began to leave, [bartender Matty] Eggleston said he heard Hall tell his friends, “Don’t drink that.”

Eggleston said he put his finger on the side of one of the two full 8-ounce glasses. It was warm enough to know it wasn’t Honker’s Ale, he said. ...

On Saturday, Eggleston said, he received a message from Hall via Facebook which he forwarded to the Tribune. It said, “I apologize for my outlandish behavior last night. I enjoyed myself at Bangers and Lace very much, the beer selection is tops as was our service . . . I'm very sorry to have ruined the night as I did. No excuses, just sincere apology.”

“It was disgusting, vile and revolting,” [Eggleston] said. “We all do dumb things; that went to a level that was pure insult.”

Goose Island apparently sent a case of the brewery's Big John beer over to Bangers and Lace as a peace offering on Saturday morning, but bar owner Matt Eisler said it was "up in the air right now" whether or not B&L would continue to carry Goose Island products, the Tribune reports.

The zingers were already flying on Twitter Tuesday, shortly after the publication of the Tribune story. Many of the jokes were in the vein of this barb from user @CrazyMacHarris: "I think Greg Hall was just trying to show them what the AB-owned Goose Island beer is going to taste like."

But the line of the day might come from @Davbak, as BeerNews.org reported: “Am I the only one who saw the irony of someone apologizing for taking his [removed] out by sending a case of ‘Big John’?”

Yet to weigh in, surprisingly, is @Goose_Island_PR, the fake Twitter account used to "promote" Anheuser's purchase of the craft beer maker.

Comments

[Sixtracks]

11:19 AM on 04/14/2011

Now that AB owns Goose, it won't be long until ALL their beer tastes like p-water.

[NightEditor]

02:24 AM on 04/14/2011

So ... was there a head on it?

[George Slefo]

10:49 AM on 04/13/2011

ha good read!

[ebroadcast]

10:07 AM on 04/13/2011

Gee what a classy guy

[ThePhantom]

08:59 AM on 04/13/2011

If this is what the brewmaster is like, then Budweiser is a good place for Goose Island beer.

[AMlegion]

08:21 AM on 04/13/2011

Thats awesome. I remember drinking a can full of ash and cigeratte butts.

[Joshua Trost]

02:59 AM on 04/13/2011

What's the harm in peeing in some glasses? To staff and servers normally drink the leftovers?

[jsgaetano]

02:38 AM on 04/13/2011

That's one dude I'd never want to be around.

[littlebrowngirl]

12:37 AM on 04/13/2011

I predict tumbleweeds.

[Z2a]

09:48 PM on 04/12/2011

The guy's a sellout and this was just one last giant middle finger to his loyal customers.

[Tim Moore]

08:49 PM on 04/12/2011

Honker's Ale is one of my favorites.. I hope AB doesn't destroy it. If so, there are plenty others out there.

[gregory57]

08:34 PM on 04/12/2011

RIP Goose Island.

Try Three Floyds!

[turk96]

12:29 AM on 04/13/2011

Even before the sellout to AB, 3 Floyds was a far superior brewery. Try their Gumballhead, or Dreadnought Double IPA if you can find it.

[jsgaetano]

02:39 AM on 04/13/2011

I always found floyds to be too bitter, that's just me.

[robodawa]

08:06 PM on 04/12/2011

I know that the FDA allows 'foodgrade urea' as a foaming agent. Yet it is usually a synthetic or from horses. And not, as in this case, from a pig.

[Meggie]

09:41 PM on 04/12/2011

one wonders what kind of friends this guy has that they'd be seen in public with him again. 

[EricBishop]

06:55 PM on 04/12/2011

Just an indication of what Goose Island beer will become under Anheuser-Busch, I'd imagine. Although, this might be the one industry in which this type of behavior doesn't necessarily prohibit you from moving up the corporate ladder.

[kramereng]

06:16 PM on 04/12/2011

A lot of Goose haters on here. While I've never been a big fan of Honkers or most of their mass marketed, flagship brews, they really make good Belgians and their BCS line is nothing to scoff at.

[EricBishop]

06:59 PM on 04/12/2011

They're on par with Flying Dog, New Belgium, Sierra Nevada and the like. I don't know what Yuengling has besides its standard lager, but that's pretty good. Anchor Steam is floating around there somewhere.

I feel like it's my responsibility to our children to make sure that micro-brews measure up to our collectively high expectations.

[Snippert]

10:30 PM on 04/12/2011

Yuengling actually makes a pretty good porter. It might be their best beer.

[Meggie]

09:41 PM on 04/12/2011

tastes like pi22 and now we know why.