Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout

Brewed By: Goose Island Beer Company (owned by AB InBev) in Chicago, Illinois

Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2012

Style/ABV: Russian Imperial Stout, 14.3% 

Reported IBUs: 60

This weekend I had the exciting opportunity to crack open one of the Bourbon County Stout variants. I was not disappointed. 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, 2012, 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. 

Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout is a complex beer. The beer starts out as Goose Island's base stout, their Cook County Stout. That beer is then aged in bourbon barrels (Bourbon County), dry hopped (Night Stalker), or aged on cocao nibs (Big John).

Goose Island has done some additional stuff to their Bourbon County Stout. This year, they aged some Bourbon County on cherries, and they aged some with coffee beans. Goose Island has been making their coffee stout for a few years, and each year they mix up the coffee beans they use. If you roll over to Goose Island's Bourbon County Coffee page, you can see that the 2012 version uses Intelligentsia La Tortuga Beans (Intelligentsia is a coffee shop that features a Chicago location). The coffee variant of the 2012 BCBS clocks in at 14.3%, packs 60 IBUs, and features all the same ingredients as the regular BCBS (Willamette hops; 2-row, Munich, Chocolate, Caramel, Roast Barley, and Debittered Black malts) along with the Intelligentsia La Tortuga coffee. With that said...onto the beer!

 Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout

The beer pours with a dark, black-as-night body, and one finger of thin, rapidly dissolving brown head. The head doesn't hang around for long. There's a brown ring of carbonation on the side of the glass, and big alcohol legs on this. This looks a lot like the regular BCBS, with one exception...you get some tiny bubbles on the surface of the beer that I've seen in other coffee beers.

The first thing I get on the aroma is big fresh coffee. This beer is probably best fresh, at least if you are looking for those big coffee aromas. I'm getting espresso, ground java coffee, spent coffee in the filter, coconut, fat brownies, big brownie/chocolate, hints of cigarette/tobacco, elusive dark fruits and complex booze, and hints of bourbon. The coffee really quells that giant bourbon/whiskey aroma in the original BCBS.

This beer is wildly complex. You get big coffee up front, including espresso, ground coffee, java, and spent coffee in the filter. There's an earthy tobacco/cigarette thing going on, which is really nice. The whole thing transitions into super sweet BCBS, with sticky alcohol, complex and elusive dark fruits, coconut, and huge brownie sweetness. The finish is boozy, sweet, and drying, with lingering coffee goodness.

This has a full mouthfeel, is quite sticky, and is sweet as hell. In some respects, this seems sweeter than the regular BCBS. Maybe I'm just off my frame of reference since this is a giant 22oz bottle. Maybe the regular BCBS seems less sweet because of the bourbon/booze. Palate depth is great, and complexity is through the roof. Thin carbonation supports this, along with some "coffee carbonation" and coffee bitterness. The "coffee carbonation" is an attribute in coffee beers....it's hard to explain. It's like drinking carbonated ground coffee. Up front is brownie, then big coffee/espresso/java which leads to dark fruits...booze; the middle is booze, dark fruits, coconut, vanilla, lactose, coffee bitterness; the finish is super sweet, vanilla, chocolate, brownie, sticky, dry, lingering coffee. This is big, boozy, and super sweet. The coffee really curbs the bourbon.

Rating: Divine Brew

As with the regular BCBS, this is a world-class, Strong Divine Brew. I would drink this fresh if you only have one bottle; if you have two, maybe age one for a year or two. This is really dynamite shit, and I was amazed at how complex this is. Food pairings: breakfast, baby. I love pairing these big coffee-infused beers with breakfast food. You could also pair this with cheesecake, coffee cake, dry chocolate cake, a raunchy burger, strong cheeses, or a nice steak and mushrooms. Despite the fact that a bomber of this is around 25 dollars a bottle...this beer is totally worth it. Check it out if you can.

Random Thought: I love coffee beers, and I've gone out of my way to try many of them. This beer blows the competition away. Founders Breakfast Stout has nothing on this beer....I'm going to need to get my hands on some KBS at some point in time, because I feel like that would be a good comparison to this beer.