Goose Island Proprietor's Bourbon County Stout (2013)

Brewed By: Goose Island Beer Company in Chicago, Illinois

Purchased: 22oz bottle from the Sheridan 'L' Longue in Chicago, IL; 2014 (bottled on 11/19/13, #1235)

Style/ABV: Barrel-Aged American Stout, 14.1% 

Reported IBUs: 60

Something, something, slaying whales, chasing beer, blah blah blah. I'm just curious to see how this one stacks up to other piles of shit like the Toasty Nut Abduction and my French Pressed/Randall'd experiments. About Goose Island:

Goose Island is a Chicago-based brewery that began as a brewpub on Clybourn, which opened on May 1988. The actual brewery opened on 1995, and is located on the Southwest side of Chicago. The second brewpub, located in Wrigleyville by the Chicago Cubs, was opened in 1999. On March 28, 2011, Goose Island sold 58% of the brewery to Anheuser-Busch. The remaining 42% of the brewery is supposed to be acquired by A-B InBev in the future, and there has been much discussion about the brewery's takeover. On November 16th, founder and CEO, John Hall, announced he would be leaving Goose Island. On January 1st, 2013, Anheuser-Busch "veteran" Andy Goeler will take over Goose Island. Additionally, around the same time as John Hall's departure, resident barrel-program leader John Laffler also announced his departure from Goose Island. There have been many changes regarding Goose Island...so we will see what the future has in store for Goose Island. 

The Proprietor's BCS was a Chicago-only release, and one-off brew. This one is brewed with the same Bourbon County base as all the Bourbon County variants (2-Row, Munich, Chocolate, Caramel, Roast Barley, and Debittered Black malts; Willamette hops), and punches in at 14.1% and 60 IBUs. Unlike regular Bourbon County, this one was aged in Rye Whiskey Barrels with toasted coconut that the brewery toasted themselves. 

Proprietor's Bourbon County Stout (2013)

This one pours like your typical Bourbon County: inky black, sticky, opaque, and with a finger of fleeting, dark brown head. The head can't exit any quicker, and you are left with glossy alcohol legs and thick, inky black beer. Unique to the Proprietor's are the white chunks of residual toasted coconut just floating around on the surface of the beer. 

Wow...the aroma reminds me EXACTLY of my own experience french pressing toasted coconut into regular Bourbon County Stout. That makes me really happy, to be honest. The nose is super sweet, with lots of sugars, coconut, and bourbon. Unique to this beer (and different from regular Bourbon County) is the rye barrel. The aroma here is definitely a departure in that regard, with hints of subtle wood, rye, and rye spice. I'm getting big bourbon on the nose, vanilla sweetness, coconut, chocolate, coconut cake, and Almond Joys. It's a remarkably sweet and simple aroma, maybe even less subtle and complex than the standalone base beer.

Oh man...wow. So the taste. How to describe this... This tastes like someone took an Almond Joy, melted it down, and made it boozy. Wow, wow, wow. I am very surprised, because like I said, I have messed with toasted coconut and Bourbon County on several occasions. This is much better. I mean, it should be. I'm getting huge liquid Almond Joys, velvety chocolate that coats the entire tongue/mouth, toasted coconut, brownies, vanilla, macaroons, and bourbon heat. The rye character shows up as complimentary to the Almond Joy, with big wood, rye, and almonds. There's also a lot of Bourbon in here. I'm getting Bourbon heat, barrel, raisin sweetness, brown sugar, chocolate/brownie, and some fusel coconut rum notes. 

This is a huge, sweet beer. This has a full-bodied mouthfeel, and the duration and palate depth are both huge. You feel the weight of 14.1%, both in terms of the alcohol warming and the bourbon heat. This is a certified sipper, or beer to be shared, as it should be. The coconut really ratchets up the sweetness in the base beer. Bourbon County is already sweet, so adding things like coconut or vanilla are only going to increase the sweetness. Having said that, the sweetness here isn't overbearing in any way. The beer cleans up nicely, and the huge rye bourbon balances everything out. It's not as complex as the base beer (IMO), but for a barrel-aged coconut stout, this is hitting all the notes I want. Up front is a huge tongue-coating cumshot of chocolate, coconut, brownies, brown sugar, liquid Almond Joys, bourbon, and raisin sweetness; the mids dial up the coconut, chocolate, brownies, brown sugar sweetness, coconut cake, and huge tongue-slapping sugars; the back end hits you with rye, almonds, barrel, Bourbon heat and some fusel alcohol, lingering coconut....the finish is huge and boozy, with tons of heat. Damn. 

Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Divine Brew on this. This is a treat. It really is. And there are no food pairings here...this is not a beer to pair with food. Drink it by itself, in a snifter, and enjoy it. Or Randall it with some Wendy's, whatever. 

Seriously though, I don't know how to rate this beer. It's a one-off brew, and what makes this beer special, IN MY OPINION, isn't even the addition of the toasted coconut. To me, what makes this beer pop is the Rye Whiskey. Any asshole can toast some coconut and add it to a beer. Seriously, I've done it many times. It's not hard to do, and it's not worth $60 a bottle or some crazy trade.

But the Rye Whiskey really adds nuance to this beer...contributing some rye character and rye spice that seems to play up the almond and macaroon note, and adds to the liquid Almond Joy character. And that's the magic, I think. 

I like this a lot...but it's very sweet, and it's not as complex as the base beer. It just isn't. The sweetness really take something away from regular Bourbon County Stout, which is a brilliant beer that balances the bourbon, barrel, chocolate/brownie, dark fruits, sugars, coconut, and coffee characters. My favorite Bourbon County variant is still the Bourbon County Coffee Stout, and that beer might also be slightly better than the regular Bourbon County Stout. 

Having said all that...the Proprietor's isn't getting any younger, and the coconut is probably going to be the first thing to drop off. I'm happy to report that after 6 months this beer still tastes like liquid Almond Joys and still has a ton of coconut character. It's good. But you probably want to drink this beer sooner than later. I see this beer's trade value declining QUICKLY with time, and even now, you can get a very similar experience to the Proprietor's by French Pressing/Randalling in some coconut to your regular Bourbon County Stout. If you have some Bourbon County laying around, definitely consider adding some toasted coconut. If you can snag a bottle of the Proprietor's for a reasonable trade/price...do it...but do it sooner than later.

Random Thought: All things considered, the Pipeworks Toasty Nut Abduction's coconut character compares very favorably to the Proprietor's, BUT the Toasty Nut Abduction was not barrel-aged, so it's not really a fair comparison.