Goose Island Prepares For Its Own Black Friday

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Nov 28, 2013 5:00PM

Last year more than 400 people lined up in freezing weather to attend Goose Island's "Black Friday" event at Binny's Lincoln Park celebrating the annual release of Bourbon County Brand Stout and its myriad variants, proving once again that people, for the most part, don't care who owns the brewery.

As Solemn Oath's Paul Schneider pointed out in his "10 reasons you should be drinking Goose Island right now" post last week, Goose Island is able to make "more of the good stuff" like their sour fruit beer "Sisters" line, their Belgian-style beers and the popular and coveted Bourbon County Stout.

In addition to traditional standbys BCBS and Bourbon County Coffee Stout, Goose Island is releasing a Bourbon County Barleywine aged in barrels previously used to age Bourbon County, a Backyard Rye Brand Stout aged in Templeton Rye whiskey barrels with fresh mulberries, marionberries, and boysenberries, and a Proprietor's Blend that will be available only to Chicago drinkers. This last one is the Holy Grail, folks, aged in Templeton Rye whiskey barrels with coconut toasted by hand by the Goose Island brewers.

I've sampled this year's Bourbon County Stout and the barleywine and you'll want to get your hands on the latter. Weighing in at 14.2 percent alcohol by volume this beer has hints of oak, vanilla, tobacco, a clinging mouthfeel and that signature heat from the bourbon barrels.

Goose Island's Black Friday event kicks off 9 a.m. Friday at Binny's Lincoln Park (1720N. Marcy St.). Since the line forms hours in advance you'll want to be there early for the swag. The first 200 people in line will receive a commemorative BCBS snifter. To help keep you warm they'll also be serving Intelligentsia's Los Inmortales coffee, the coffeeused in Bourbon County Coffee Stout.