Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

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

In the bottle. If you can get beyond the immense alcohol inhalation experience, you will see a jet black brew with a dark brown head. The head, like all other matter, cannot survive the solubilizing excesses of the ethanol solvent. It smells exactly like dark malt extract BEFORE you dilute it to brew up a homebrew stout. It almost pours as thick as well. The sweetness is beyond sweet, but the alcohol burn needs it. I’m afraid this beer is fixing my innards. God, but it is a great way to die! Coffee, honey, chocolate, molasses all abound, but the killer aroma and flavor is BOURBON. If you took the Rogue Chocolate Stout, fed it steroids for a year , and then locked it away in a Bardstown distillery until it was old enough to drive, this is the monster you would have created. My palate has been righteously defeated. I am looking forward to updating this entry 5 years from now. By then, BCS will be old enough to legally drink other alcohols.

I have to make a disclaimer that I am a Bourbon drinker....This one is thanks to JCW. Pours out a very nice dark black color with a small lacing dark brown head. Awesome aroma of Bourbon with some notes of roasted malt. Taste was very good of bourbon, roasted malts some vanilla and maybe some smoke malt flavors. Wonderfully complex, will have to have with a cigar (as the bottle suggests) next time

12oz Bottled on 070306. Bourbon, smoked wood, chocolate, roasted barley and vanillia mutiple aromas here on the nose. Black oil body with thin chocolate milk head. Flavor had the texture of a chocolate milk shake. Chocolate and bourbon blend along with the chalky coco was the right mix. Somewhat dry coco chalk on palate but somooth with a heavy forehead afterwards. Alcohol will be felt after liquid is all but disappeared. My wife is one hell of a beer shopper.

This is the good stuff. I would describe it as stout extract you could take a tablespoon of this stuff mix it with a little Budweiser and have a good stout. Alone it is the stuff beer legends are made of. It pours so thick almost syrup like and I thought it flat at first but the carbonation was there it just took time for it to push through the viscous liquid. Its black and has a 1.5”dark brown head that resembles polyurethane foam that you fill cracks around your house with except this foam is perfectly flat. The aromas of bourbon, burnt malt, anise and dark fruit. The sip tasted of strong alcohol and sweet roasted malt leading to bitter coffee then to a treacle finish. I couldn’t sip this beer it would take me 2 days to finish. I gulped it down it and enjoyed the rush of alcohol and flavors. Just writing this rating has got me jonesing for more.

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>

Bottle from 8/16/2005. I don’t think I poured this one very well; I just got a hint of head, and the bubbles were very short-lived. The aroma: what can I say? Bourbon. Other things are there, but the bourbon dominates everything. It would have been a 9 or 10 had it been better balanced. In the mouth it is rich and creamy; just what I’m looking for in a rich stout. Once it got in my mouth, the other aromas really came out, and the bourbon receded to where it was very balanced. Vanilla and chocolate come to the forefront, still with echos of the bourbon. In my opinion, an amazing stout, and my first 10 for flavor. I wouldn’t want all stouts to taste like this, as it’s really huge and I don’t think I could drink one every day, but it’s amazing. Significant warming finish. Thanks a million, Matt of the Beer Cellar!

Beautiful aroma of the roasted coffee in the stout, the sweet smell of bourbon and a touch of oak. The appearance is redish/black, no translucence, very attractive. Not much head. The stout is my personal favorite, and this is one of the best I’ve had. The bourbon comes through on the flavor. The alcohol makes its presence known, but is not overpowering. (Amazing considering this is a 13% ABV). The flavor includes a nice roastiness, and vanilla. Very nice. A warming alcohol finish, with some sweetness from the vanilla thrown in. The beer is an appropriately thick winter beer, with a thick mouthfeel. Absolutely one of the best beers out there, and for $6 a 12 oz. bottle, it had damn welll better be.

12 oz. bottle from bgburdman9...thanks. Incredible aroma of mostly vanilla and bourbon. Superb mouthfeel, this one coats the palate like a blanket...flavors of vanilla, oak, roasted malts, coffee/chocolate, and a subtle bourbon invade the taste buds. A superb stout!!! Too bad my girlfriend spilled half the glass on the carpet. What a rookie! Definitely want to get my hands on this again...