Goose Island Special Ed

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

Hazed chocolate brown in color with no other signs of life anywhere else as it waits patiently in the glass. Aroma can’t be beaten: pastrami, smoked ham, maple butter, dried beef sticks, smocked chocolate hickory, almonds fallen close to the camp grounds and pumpernickel loaves having their meat matter only recently removed. Flavor brings a new dimension to the smoked category. Dry cocoa beans get caressed by greasy broiled chocolate and a chocolaty banana bacon surplus. Carbonation subtly allows the dry brownie batter to coat the applewood smoking board on which the gritty sweet grinds reside. In the glass and in the zone, as Columbian mocha java beans wake up in Bamberg. Welcome to paradise, amigos. The brandy brings sweet and bright highlights to the smoky cone mentality. The body is full and the palate is bright, and smoked malts have never had a such a beautiful showcase in their history as they do with this beer. Pure delight resides in each sip.

Tap or bottle? Boston EBF 2007. Cloudy brown body with a short-lived beige head. Rich smoked flavour that felt a lot more complex than a typical Smoked à-la-Schlenkerla. Like doughy food slowly cooked on a campfire. All that wonderful smoke mixed with cake flavour, brown sugar and a strong barrel character. 11% is nowhere to be seen. Unique beer that is unfortunately almost impossible to find for me. Meaning that I have an Ed problem and that’s one Viagra can’t cure.

Draft at GI Clybourn. Pours dark brown, almost black with almost no head. Very noticeable carbonation. Aroma is of smoked meat, vinegar, raisiins, roasted malt, and bourbon. Heavy alcohol presence in the aroma. Taste is very heavy malt, balanced by smoky meat flavors, bourbon, and chocolate. Mouthfeel is thick and sticky. Alcohol is not hidden, but right up front in the taste. Amazingly good.

FoBAB 2008. Poured an opaque dark brown color with a soapy tan head. Nice aroma of vanilla, bourbon, subdued smoke, and a hint of bacon. Medium to full bodied and delicately sweet. Flavor followed the aroma with smoky bacon, chocolate, booze, and vanilla. The barrel aging was a nice addition to an already great beer.

pretty much wood, bourbon raisin. not much alcohol till it warms up. flavor is just awesome, no alcohol at all, once again wood, really malty, uh, bourbon character once again. palate is pretty much perfect, not as thick as you’d expect but it works very well. appearance is opaque brown with a nice small head.... that was the first audio note recording i’ve ever taken of a beer.... rerate: holy shit. i dont remember having this before, but it’s definitely a smoked. just like the the urbock i had recently. aroma is easily smoke and bacon. some wood but jesus there’s so much smoke.

Tap at Clybourn, served in snifter (too cold), Boy I was so happy to see this listed after passing on it at FoBAB:

Mahogany hued with a small but lasting beige head that left some foam on the glass along with some oily legs. The aroma is powerful but not as much bourbon as I figured, some vanilla along with smoky charred oak. Also detected walnut, chocolate, caramel, rye bread, raisin, ripe cherry, and some pepper esters, NICE!

The flavor start with a nice dose of sweet caramel and toffee malts, bready and vanilla too. The midsection displays a molasses and fruity twang (not sour however, again more akin to ripe sweet fruits) before leading off towards the smoked meaty and lightly spiced finish. A bit boozy but it did not get in the way and actually helped cleanse the palate.

The mouth feel is sticky and oily with prickly biting towards the finish. This rocked and is without one of the better smoked beers I have had of late. Too bad I once again could not get a growler, sniff.

Draught at EBF on 2/10/07
Goose Island was my favorite brewery at the fest. Allagash certainly brought their A game, but Goose Island Matilda singlehandedly stole the show, or wait was it Bourbon County? Or maybe this beer? Just awesome stuff. Another brewery that is very good with attenuating their beers properly and dosent compromise anything in mouthfeel.
This auburn/ruby-mahogany beer was well-conditioned and showed brightly, despite the darkness. Tan head is foamy and rocky, receding quickly, but leaving light lacing in its wake
Strong, stiff chocolate and light phenols impress the nose drily, with the smoke starting out slowly and building up steam. Estery cherries and liquorous alcohol vapors keep things very dry, but a rum-raisin-like sweetness and some soggy but welcome sweet malts help bring back the balance. The smoke unfolds hugely with warming and provides dry, hickory smoke, light bacon and sticky treacle. Really all over the place, but you have to respect the absolute stunning complexity and individual intrigue of the notes. Bourbon adds more spiciness but dosent seem overdone.
A bit more focused in the flavor, with bready, dry smokiness giving notes of bacon and applewood, while cherries, vanilla and dry chocolate all create one hell of a unique smoked beer. Strong alcohol warmth, a bit unruly at times, but if you can get passed that, it’s incredibly interesting how developed the smoke is (not just blunt, salty, beefy-thick smoke). Probably a product of everything else going on in here that helps take some of the focus off of the smoke. Sticky molasses hold everything together on the end, somewhat precariously (breadiness begins to build and some acidity as well). Crazy, just crazy stuff, but I guess it hit me the right way. The dryness helps.

Pours brown with no head. Sinky fresh smoked nose. Not too hammy or porkish. Flavor is a bit more meaty with a bit of ash and a lot of alcohol heat. Medium easy drinking body with a long finish.