Goose Island Imperial Brown Goose

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Chicago, Illinois USA

On tap at Clybourn, poured a dark brown, aromas of raisins, oak, and vanilla. Very full bodied, slick feleing. Tastes of roasted malt, raisins, vanilla and oak

Dark brown with a nice, by style, light tan head. Full fruit cake aromas drenched in a mild rum sauce. Full oily body that the alcohol helps keep from being too mouth-coating. Fruit again in the flavors with apricots, dark cherries and blackberries. Toffee, lightly toasted nutty malt and cocoa also seem to show up at times. Warming in the finish and linger. A really nice sniffer and cigar brew.

Draft at clyborn. Dark opaque black with small brown head. Aroma of dough, vanilla, lots of toasted malt, very nice as it warms up, lots bourbon comes out. Flavor is lots of roasted, dark malts with vanilla, dough, caramel, chocolate, very nice not overly hot bourbon flavors. Med to full creamy body. This is a pretty exceptional brew, very tasty. I could drink lots of this, but then I would get really messed up. Much better than the beers from the tour.

I drank this (draft) a week ago at the Clybourn Goose Island as well. I agree absolutely with what sersdf says: a lot of chocolate taste, very thick, and a lot more alcohol than 9%. The Imperial Brown is also a pretty pour with a nice tight, brown head. This has to be my pick for the best beer at Goose Island (for July 2007).

draft at clybourn (NOT RETIRED). way better than the christmas ale derived imperial brown goose. a ton of bourbon in this and a lot of chocolate too. pretty thick; my friend couldn’t finish it. lots of alcohol for 9.5% too (as listed at bar).

Yet another that should’ve been rated long ago.....a belated thanks to Randy at Archer Liquors for hooking me up with this. Nice deep dark brown pour.....full tan head. Big woody nose....boozy bourbon and fruity notes. Flavor is big and full....fruity, woody, malty, and hot. I’m not a big brown ale fan, but I like the extra oomph in this one. Medium bodied..wish it was fuller......nice and roasty in the end with some sweet caramel flavor lingering. Tasty.

2006 hoppage. This pours an opaque dark brown with red highlights with a two finger dirty white head. The aroma is oak, vanilla, and some bourbon. In the flavor, the roastiness and malt hit the vanilla. the balance is close but not quite there. A pretty good beer, that, IMHO, is very close with some tweaking, to being excellent.

From the bottle at Boston EBF 2007. Almost clear dark copper body with a long lasting very large beige head leaving great lacings. Body is full and silky at the same time. Very malty beer. Cake malts, brown sugar, toasted brown bread and a whole lot of “brown stuff”. Bourbon barrel is very present. Strong woody flavour adds to what appears to be a subtle but complex mix of herbs. Mouthfeel is pleasantly dry. Alcohol wasn’t well hidden, to the contrary, it felt stronger than it was. Like some kind of woody Barley Wine. I couldn’t get enough of it and had four samplings at the EBF. The brewery brought the last bottles they had in stock. (some 2005 and 2006). Knowing I was having such a great beer for the first and last time I felt overwhelmed by both joy and sadness. Like watching my mother-in-law back off a cliff in my new car.