Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Chicago, Illinois USA

2006 bottle from iowaherkeye; nose of bourbon, chocolate, coffee, vanilla, oak, and smoke EXTREMELY COMPLEX; Balcker than night with a tiny tan head; thick syrupy body exhumes these flavors, 1) coffee, 2) caramel, 3) chocolate, 4) bourbon, 5) vanilla, and 6) a liitle bitter hop finish! Alcohol extremely well covered!

Bottle. Pitch black colour with a nice head. Lovely aroma of thich oliy, roastedness, liqouirise, vanilla, sweetness and a touch of oaks. Lovely flavour of smooth roastedness and hints of coffee. Ends up little alcoholic and very powerfull.

(Bottle, Monk’s Café, Stockholm, 1 July 2008) Black colour with brief, brown head. Malty, roasted nose with vanilla, oak, ashes, liquorice and strong espresso. Malty, roasted taste with notes of liquorice, vanilla, bourbon, espresso, chocolate pudding, cocoa powder and distinct flavours of charred oak wood. Fairly sweet, full body. Very powerfull with fiery alcohol notes coming through. Not really balanced but very tasty. Lovely sipping beer with lots of character.

[upon tasting several more samples, I’ve come to think that this beer is a bit too cloying and needs to age for quite some time - still great, though] Only a handful of beers have made me exclaim "holy shit!" upon my first sip, and this beer is one of them - inky black, viscous pour, with the darkest tan lace a beer can hope for - aroma of bourbon, vanilla, cinnamon, figs, plums, oak, a roaring fireplace - a bit hot, which is my only complaint (a little aging should help with that) - alcohol and bourbon up front, along with the oak of the barrels - followed by vinous notes and dark fruit - vanilla and toffee, then some dark-roast coffee and cream - smokey, woody finish - once this mellows out it will be the perfect Imperial Stout IMHO.

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with footbalm, thanks Eric!) Well, this is it, my 50th consecutive Imperial Stout during May/June of 2005, and what a way to reach number 50. Words cannot express the nirvana (in the non-Buddhist sense) I’m in right now. True, I’m an absolute sucker for stouts aged in bourbon barrels, but even compared to others of similar ilk, Goose Island’s offering is absolutely incredible. I’m just totally blown away by how wonderfully delicious this beer tastes. Delectable to the point where I’m just sighing with bliss. It’s like listening to Beethoven’s 9th, a piece which moves me to tears. This is a masterpiece, perfection in a bottle. Sweet, malty, roasty, and bitter, with all seemingly in perfect unison and balance. Sitting on top of all that is a strong, but not overwhelming bourbon flavor, fruity and cherry-like, that takes this beer to heights rarely attained in the beer universe. Alcohol is fairly strong, and as the beer warms, shows a bit too much relative potency. The aroma is gorgeous, extraordinarily balanced between roast, sweetness, maltiness and bourbon. This is a treat for the palate as well as the nose. Full bodied, yet soft, velvety and caressing, this is palatal bliss. Fairly viscous, somewhat sticky, but not syrupy, a quick swirl leaves a thin brown film on the glass. The major negative is with the visuals. The beer is very dark brown, slightly ruddy at the edges, which isn’t the issue. When I popped the twist-off cap, there was almost no sound, and pouring the beer, it took several seconds for a small, quarter inch of head to form, and then that completely dissipated before I could rinse out the bottle. Nevertheless, while visuals are nice, they don’t make or break a beer for me. I’m gonna be thinking of this beer for days, months, years. Incredible stuff, and I must obtain more, but this time, I’ll try to get more than just a single bottle. Like with Beethoven’s 9th, I’m once again moved to tears, partially because this beer is so incredible, but also because I only have a few more sips left in my glass.

Re-rated - 12oz Bottle 2006: Pours oily black with a deep brown head. Aroma is smokey, barbeque sauce, lots of peat notes, tobacco, wood, bourbon whiskey, dark chocolate, vinegar, and paint thinner. Flavor is very rich and salty. Tons of sweet sour mash, vanila notes, smokey oakey/whiskey. There’ plenty of earthy peaty notes followed by a long rich roasty finish. A rich and unique Stout.

2006 bottle from Holdenn, although a week later I could buy it locally. Whoops. Big, big beer. I’ve been missing this in ISs lately, stuck with astringent and powerful noses but a lack of the motor-oil thick body I’ve come to expect from the top specimens. This one certainly delivers there, falling short only of Bells Expedition and Batch 7000 in mouthfeel. The degree to which the bourbon accents the beer is very nice too, letting the beer itself do the speaking and merely playing a crescendo on the taste. It is clear the Goose Island has been honing the craft of barrel-aging far longer than most American brewers. They’ve certainly nailed this one.

This is one unique beer! Pours a pitch black body with a small brown head. Aroma is weird, soya and prunes, bitter and cloying. Flavor is very different as well and very extreme. Strong tones of liquorice and anise with a roasted tone and some alcohol. Quite interesting but too much..... [3,2]

Rerate: I like it a lot better this time, maybe because my palate has grown or maybe because I was more in the mood for it. Rather strong notes of bourbon is noticeable in the flavor, I don’t like bourbon but it is well integrated and gives a nice smooth flavor with winous characters. A sipping beer, very enjoyable! [3,9]