Bourbon County Brand Stout

Bourbon County Brand StoutFor the 1000th batch of beer produced by the original Goose Island brewpub, they went all-out and brewed a huge imperial stout that was then aged for 100 days in bourbon barrels. The result is their Bourbon County Brand Stout, a big 13% alcohol monster that, in the quote on the label, “overpowers anything in the room.”

I’m actually unclear if the beer was originally their 1000th batch and they’ve been brewed it seasonally since; I suspect this to be the case because “2008” is pointedly printed on the label, and the ABV on the bottle is higher than the (original) entry on their website (11%).

Not that it matters either way. This is a great beer; I drank the first one I bought and went back and bought two more to lay down.

Appearance: Thick, inky black and almost completely still… a skiff of dark brown foam formed briefly.

Smell: Very dark molasses and aged bourbon, lots of smoky wood notes, dark fruits macerated in whiskey (fruitcake), gingerbread, black licorice. There are definitely multiple layers of aromas all interacting.

Taste: Where to start? Woody bourbon-scotch notes, alcohol heat, smoky-sweet black malts that’s syrupy and intense and chocolaty, with tobacco, leather, burnt toast, gingerbread—that’s just the first few sips. Pretty amazing.

Mouthfeel: Amazingly smooth and warm for such a full-bodied, viscous body… thick and filling. Fantastic sweet aftertaste-slash-coating lasts for long time.

Overall: Phenomenal. I need to go get more of these to save. [I did.]

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of A. On RateBeer, it scores 4.18 out of 5 and is in their 100th percentile.

2 comments

  1. I couldn’t agree more. This beer is amazing.
    I had to stockpile some because it is getting harder to find.
    Cheers!

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