The other day I was looking through the singles section at a local beer store when I spied a few bottles of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout (2008) sitting there. I was surprised that this store even carried this beer let alone seeing a year old bottle of an acclaimed stout on hand. I quickly scooped up a bottle and took it home with me to enjoy during the cold snowy weekend here in Colorado.
I had previously tried a sample of this beer at Nick's 10-hour birthday bash last month and knew that I wanted to get more of this beer. Surprisingly, Colorado does get shipments from Goose Island Beer Company, a brewery from the Chicago, Illinois area. I jumped at the chance to try a full bottle of this potent 13% ABV bourbon barrel aged imperial stout.
Goose Island put a lot of dark malts into this brew including: 2-row, Munich, Chocolate, Caramel, Roast Barley and Debittered Black malts. Bourbon County Stout has a fair amount of bittering units too as it weighs in at a respectible 60 IBU from all the Willamette hops that were put in.
This beer was from the 2008 batch and has a white label. I noticed from Goose Island's web site that the 2009 batch now sports a black label (see their image to left). I was more intrigued by the 2008 batch however as it had already been aged an additional year and would supposedly have mellowed in bitterness a bit more. The beer itself had been aged slightly in bourbon barrels and would supposedly pick up a lot of character from the wood and lingering traces of bourbon.
I poured the Bourbon County Stout (BCS) into a large snifter type glass to help bring out all of the aromas and wow did it ever! The brew poured a thick jet black with just a slight 1 finger head, even with an aggressive pour. There was just a trace of lacing on the glass that didn't stick around long. That's fairly typical of an aged impy stout in my experience.
I immediately smelled a huge aroma of bourbon and vanilla and alcohol in this brew. Woah! The aroma was insanely intense as I had hoped. I could pick up on the sweet chocolate malts as well. Without looking I could tell this was unmistakably an imperial stout. It was just as it should be. The brew had a nose that reminded me of a Sam Adams Utopias. The vanilla from the bourbon barrel came out quite noticeably.
The brew was thick and chewy and coated my tongue slightly. BCS had a roasty sweet big body that was bitter on the side. It was creamy and smooth right from the start. Instantly I started getting a nice warming effect from this beer.
The taste was of chocolate, vanilla, sweet malts with a nice alchy kick. I could pick up on some slight coffee tones as well but not as much as the vanilla. The wood aging had done this beer a lot of good, not to mention the extra year of cellaring that the store had already done for me.
While the alcohol bite was there it wasn't overpowering. Still, it was a nice slow sipper that lasted me the better part of the first half of a football game.
Mid-way through the tasting, I got the strong urge to make a beer float out of this beer. I got a small cup of premium vanilla ice cream and poured about an ounce of BCS over the top and swirled it around a bit. And the taste was absolutely heavenly! This was by far the best beer ice cream float I had made with any dark beer. The beer with it's vanilla overtones from the barrel aging blended perfectly with the vanilla in the ice cream. Oh yes! You've got to try this.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with Goose Island's imperial stout. The bourbon barrel added a lot to the entire experience. The inviting aroma won me over immediately. Goose Island claims that you can age this beer up to 5 years. I might just head back to that store and buy up the rest of their stock and do just that. Bourbon County Stout is one of my top all-time beers. You won't be disappointed.
Related articles:
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- Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout review.
- Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout review.
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Sunday, October 11, 2009
Goose Island 2008 Bourbon County Stout review
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8 comments:
Any advice on where to find a goose island beer? I absolutely love their IPA but have never found it in Colorado
Goose Island's web site has a "Find Our Beer" page but I tried putting in several Colorado zip codes and it didn't return any results. I have a feeling that they don't have much of a distribution here at all. You might try DaveCo Liquors in Thornton. They have a huge craft beer selection. I seem to only find Bourbon County Stout around here.
I tried this at Hopleaf in Chicago this summer and really enjoyed it. I tried some other Goose Island beers and my favorite was Matilda, check it out if you get the opportunity.
I've got some bottles of 2006 that I'm waiting on. I've also got a few 08s. It's a different beer from two years ago. The 2006 was 11% and this is a little bigger. Still, I think it's a tremendous beer and I've tried on the ice cream as well...I heartily recommend that you try it (like Dave did). I think it's my favorite barrel aged beer that is currently available.
I loved the Goose Island Bourbon County 2009 so much, I bought a case of it for cellaring. Next time, try Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia with any type of Imp Stout or better yet, Founders Breakfast Stout.
If I find a bottle of Founders Stout I'll be sure to pick it up. I looked for it at a store in Michigan earlier this summer but they had run out of it. Darn.
Nice review.
I really enjoyed this brew as well. I couldn't believe how much I pulled out the taste and aroma of bourbon. It was much more apparent than I was thinking it was going to be. I really like whiskey and bourbon so this was just fine for me.
I was intrigued by your beer float idea...I may have to go out and get another batch of this stuff just to get that a try. I bet the vanilla sweetness accentuates the vanilla in the brew, but helps to mellow out the burn of the booze.
Not sure if you have had a chance to check out my review, but if you haven't you can see it over on my site.
Review of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
Very nice!
Mike - thanks for commenting and I enjoyed your review, particularly what you added about the packaging as another criteria for evaluating a beer.
As for the beer float idea, try to get a good premium quality icecream. It doesn't have to be just a plain vanilla. Sometimes I even like to add a crumbled Heath bar and sprinkle it on top of the beer float. Adds a wonderful toffee flavor to the mix.
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