Chicagoist "Beer of the Week:" Goose Island Black Mission

By Paul Schneider in Food on Jun 13, 2012 6:20PM

Black Mission at its coming out party in the Goose Island barrel warehouse. Photo: Ken Hunnemeder/Goose Island

Goose Island's Fulton & Wood series of innovation beers has yielded more fruit. This time: figs. Black mission figs, to be precise. They are the namesake and critical ingredient in Goose Island's new Fig Newton-inspired Belgian-style abbey ale.

The malt backbone of Black Mission is essentially a Vienna lager, but the beer is fermented with Belgian tripel yeast. The aroma is sweet and bready from the aromatic German malts and estery from the Belgian yeast. The flavor is all fig sweetness up front, with a pleasant minerality, which broods its way into dark fruit and caramelized sugar through the middle. A generous lactose addition makes for a creamy, velvety mouthfeel, but the flavor finishes dry and graham-crackery from an inspired selection of carabrown malt. Black Mission could be a close cousin of Goose Island's year-round Pere Jacques, with more fruity depth and body. It goes down easily for an eight-percenter, so pace yourself. Our only beef with this beer is the timing: how great would this be in the fall? Certainly more palatable than in the heat of a Chicago summer.

Paired with scratch-made Fig Newtons from the Clybourn brewpub kitchen, you can see exactly what the brewers were shooting for, and it only takes a sip and a bite to determine that they were spot on. As with all Fulton & Wood beers, you can only find Black Mission on draft in the Chicago area, a nice touch for Goose Island's hometown fans. Check out what the brewers had to say about the beer.