Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

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

2005 bottle, consumed December 2005.
In my new Goose Island Brewmasters Reserve glass, nonetheless, which I picked up last weekend for this special pilgrimage. Deep, dark black liquidity and a beautiful dark, creamy tan head that sits on the surface and moves down the sides of the glass with elegant frothy ripples. A little thinner on the pour than last year’s batch, but still opaque in the glass. Aroma and flavor are uncannily consistent with last year’s batch. Perhaps a touch more caramel nougats in the aroma, and vanilla via nose and mouth, but I think it’s just been my evolution as a beer rater and my appreciation for what Greg Hall and the rest of the Goose Island team has accomplished with this beer. Flavor dimensions resound with familiar echos and predominantly pull from dark chocolate truffles basking in bourbon. Authoritative with every nuance. The bourbon’s not a little pick-me-up, it’s the leading lady and she daunts the shit out of you, yet masochistically, I don’t think I could ever get enough of her.

I waited nearly a year to have this one again, and now after doing so, I feel absolutely certain that this beer has attained perfection, which was something I was hesitant to exclaim in my early rating days, but something that definitely warrants declaring now.

2004 bottle, consumed April 2005.
Thick and black; dense. Minimal amoeba shaped head. Aroma is... holy bourbon, Mother of... Some molasses, charred oak and alcohol wafts. Flavor is... my Lord, rich rich rich. Velvety chocolate. Smooth vanilla, bourbon and oak. Tastes like a white chocolate truffle filled with Irish cream liquor. So thick. So smooth. Divine execution of malts and hops. A fine beer in every sense. Finish is mocha-laden and cotes the palate like wax. This one could easily replace any meal of the day.

12 oz bottle from 2006, thanks to NachlamSie. Pours super black with some amber at the extremities and a thin, but everlasting brown head. The aroma is chocolatey with a distinct hazelnut note to it, along with some sweet bourbon, a touch of smoky char, and distant notes of cherry and coffee. The flavor is pleasingly complex right off the bat. Cherry and dark fruits hit immediately, then that hazelnut again. Smoke and coffee notes dance around with some sweet tobacco and alcohol. Everything is mellowed by a smooth chocolate taste all through the mouth. Vanilla starts to come out toward the finish, as does a bit of straight bourbon. This truly is an excellent beer.

2007 bottling. Black with a brown head. Big smell is whiskey vanilla charred wood with blackened malts and smoke. Creamy smooth mouthfeel. Great taste of black malts, whiskey, oak, char, sweet vanilla, everything i love about barrel aged beers. Excellent. 11147

black with a red tinge. green fig aroma with roasty chocolate. taste is liquid s’more. chocolate and caramel with marshmallow, a bit doughy. the only thing that keeps this from being a candy bar is the lack of a nuggat center. nice alcohol and smokey finish. very good, muy bueno.

Bottle from Secret Santa. Wow. Pours an oil like black. Thick & murky. Aromas of oak, vanilla, bourbon. Alcohol listed @ 13%. Phenominal beer. Bourbon doesnt dominate but adds a great dimension to this beer. Beautiful full mouthfeel. Lived up to the high expectations & that is rare

2007 bottle courtesy of rollinhard. wow that’s a black beer with no head at all. very hardcore bourbon, vanilla, wood and syrupy smell. good thickness and a nice very smooth woody taste. the aftertaste seems to mainly be all bourbon with a slight alcohol burn in the end.

12 oz bottle from my Secret Santa - thanks, whoever you are! Pours black with a ring of a beige head. Sweet raisiny soy nose, hints of bourbon and smoke. Fruity sweet dried dark fruit flavors with sweet roasty malt. Bourbon makes a splash in the finish. Alcohol well hidden. I found many of the flavors and aromas quite similar to a well aged SATB, which is amusing since that beer is so reviled and this is so well regarded.

Rating #1500

Seriously pours like ink (or maybe thin tar?) and commands a staunch, mocha head after a small reverse-cascade. Powerful, whiskeyed aroma over sweet chocolate syrup and caramel. And that’s what gets delivered in the flavor... a dumptruck of chocolate/caramel candy over a heady, bourbon backdrop that heats the belly and singes the tongue. Over-roasted coffee joins the finish. Extremely full-bodied (almost chokingly so), and the flavor lasts and lasts. I like Greg Hall’s comment about there not being a cigar that could stand up to BCS, but I think an Acid Kuba Kuba would hold its own just fine. Oh, what a killer beer this is... totally worth its high price tag. And it really makes me wish I was back at <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Events-Detail.asp?Eve (sniffle)...

<font size=-4>4 pack/12 oz. from <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Liquors, Oak Lawn, IL 60453</font>