Here's All Of This Year's Bourbon County Beers From Goose Island
By Stephen Gossett in Food on Jun 12, 2017 4:40PM
With these 90-degree dogs bearing down, we quite understand if your first thoughts in terms of imbibing aren't toward barrel-aged ABV bombs. But summer flies by in the blink of a mosquito's eye, and before you know it, it'll be time again for those big fall beers, including Goose Island's locally-rooted, internationally-famed Bourbon County line. Well, when BCBS and its queue-inducing brethren do return for 2017, we're happy to learn that there will be more options than ever—plus a Proprietor's change that looks very promising.
Goose Island on Monday officially announced this year's lineup for its still-immensely popular bourbon-barrel -aged stouts and varietals:
- Bourbon County Brand Stout (the original)
- Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout (with Intelligentsia’s Black Cat Espresso)
- Bourbon County Brand Barleywine
- Bourbon County Brand Northwoods Stout ("marzipan-like" with blueberry and almond flavors)
- Proprietor’s Bourbon County Brand Stout (Banana's Foster-inspired)
- Bourbon County Reserve Brand Barleywine (20-month-aged)
- Bourbon County Reserve Brand Stout (similar to BCBS, but aged in 11-year-old Knob Creek barrels)
The original-recipe stout remains our favorite, but it's wonderful to have so many options. And we're particularly excited about the shift in the Proprietor's (which is of course only available in Chicago) into fruity/nutty territory. Last year's chipotle pepper/cocoa nibs was pretty overwhelming for anyone who isn't totally sold on spiced stouts (raises hand).
Goose Island brewmaster went over them all with Josh Noel, the Tribune's beer reporter, in a conversation published over the weekend, and their chat—which includes moving beyond the image hit taken after 2015's bacteria-infected batches. (While the bacteria was not harmful, it caused some off flavors.)
That slip certainly didn't keep the beer geeks away at last year's annual Black Friday release blowout, at the Binny's in Lincoln Park. This year's roster has us thinking that'll be the case again.