Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee Stout

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company (AB-InBev)
Style: Imperial Stout
Chicago, Illinois USA

Serve in Snifter

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(bottle - 22 oz) Thick black pour with a thick tan head. Huge coffee and vanilla aroma with a heavy amount of bourbon and roasted notes coming through near the end. Flavor is a huge amount of roasted coffee and roasted malts. The smooth coffee and bourbon blend well and really enhance the heavy vanilla flavor coming in near the middle. Sweet and very smooth finish. Even at 13%, it drinks like chocolate milk. Out of this world good.

UPDATED: JUN 9, 2010 On tap: Huge roasted coffee and expresso aroma with some light dark chocolate and just the slightest hint of bourbon. Dark brown, virtually black, with a small tan head that quickly fades to a ring. The beer just coats the glass. Flavor starts with lots of chocolate with hints of vanilla. Roasted coffee starts in the middle and builds into the finish. Light bourbon in the finish balances very well. I really liked the addition of the coffee. It really adds to the flavor and cuts into the bourbon flavors making them much more subtle. A very well barrel-aged beer and my favorite of the FoBAB 2006. (9-5-9-4-19)

Re-rate (6/10/10) Bottle: The aroma is an excellent combination of chocolate, maple syrup, vanilla, bourbon, and light coffee (lighter than you would expect). It pours a dark brown, virtually black, with no transparency and a small brown head that diminishes to virtually nothing over time. The flavor starts with chocolate, vanilla, and maple syrup. The finish has some nice coffee flavors, but not as strong as when I had it at FoBAB. There’s a definite maple syrup and a touch of wood in the aftertaste. Full bodied with a slick and creamy mouthfeel. Regular BCS is one of my favorite beers at 4.9, but this is that extra .1 better.

22 oz bottle at the Clybourn pub. Pours black with a light tan head. This is amazing. Aroma has coffee, black licorice, and cocoa, giving evidence of its complexity. Flavor varies between cocoa, coffee, bourbon, molasses, brown sugar, and dark fruit. This is one amazing beer. I knew on my first sip that this was going to score at least a 4.9, and the second sip confirmed it as a 5.0. Perfect.

Ladies and gentleman, we have ourselves a winner. I did not think I would come across a beer that was as impressive as Fulton’s War & Peace, but then came Bourbon County Coffee Stout... good Lord. Pours oily black and heavy. Like your high school girlfriend, the head is excellent. Nose is slight bourbon and mild coffee with obvious sweetness. Perhaps a hint of dark fruit, like fig. Taste. I need a moment here. Taste is superb. Simply as good as a beer can get. This beer is dense and no where as bourbony as the regular. The coffee, which is not that intense, seems to tame that and adds some sweetness to it. The coffee, bourbon and high alcohol are balanced perfectly. You would never guess this beer is 13%. One of my top 2 favorite beers of all-time. BA’ers are asking if this will reach #1. my answer... it better.

Enjoyed on tap at Goose Island Clybourn at Rare Stout Night, which is part of the Chicago Craft Beer week. Appearance pitch black with no head...like coffee. Aroma of mocha, coffee, chocolate, and bourbon, super rich black coffee flavor. Taste less alcoholic than regular BCS, very rich but not too rich, mainly coffee but it also enhances the chocolate greatly, you can still get the bourbon in the mix. I typically would give the appearance a 4 but since the taste should be an 11, app will get a 5 which makes this the 2nd perfect beer I’ve ever had. BCS can’t get better than this, beer can’t get better than this.

22 oz. bottle, pours black with a very quickly dissipating light brown head. Nose is very deep with a wide array of qualities, featuring coffee upfront, bourbon, vanilla, molasses, and treacle toffee / fudge - orgasmic. Flavour is a sublime mix of bourbon, coffee, chocolate, and caramel fudge. Finishes with vanilla, chocolate and very mild booze (though well-hidden). Low carbonation. Body is viscous, sticky, velvety and super smooth. Simply one of the best imperial stouts out there.

From notes. First reviewed 5/2/2010. 2011 bottle update 2/6/2012. Poured from a 22 oz. bottle into a snifter. 2011 update: The 2011 version of this beer maintains everything that I loved about the first time I had it, and somehow is even better. I opened a 2011 bottle at cellar temperature and another was opened at fridge temperature at Kelly’s Pub. Like every other bourbon county (and variant) I have opened, this viscous black imperial stout oozes out of the bottle like some kind of black tar. Pitch black with just the slightest mahogany brown edges. The bottle I opened up at cellar temperature manufactured a robust mocha brown head on the initial pour into my snifter. With the ABV, the cap was not destined to last long, but it still provided a nice thin film over the beer and a frothy ring around the edge of the glass. When opened at colder temperatures, it is much more difficult to get much of any head to form, even with an aggressive pour. The biggest difference in my mind between the two vintages is the aroma. The Anjilanaka coffee beans used in this year’s batch simply explode out of the bottle when opened and waft up from the glass throughout the glass. As a coffee drinker, this is simply heaven. This coffee smells thoroughly roasted, with notes of hazelnut and burnt caramel in addition to a distant fruit note. Dark roasted malt, bitter chocolate, molasses, vanilla, oak, and bourbon all fade to the back behind a dominant coffee presence. There is no alcohol anywhere in the nose. The flavor is still very coffee-forward, but much more balanced than the aroma. Fresh Bolivian coffee roasted to perfection comes through first, with a strong showing from the dark, bitter chocolate, and roasted malt. Each of these blend and interact so well with the others flavors, creating an ever-changing wall of roasted and bitter flavors. Vanilla, molasses, and bourbon step in next, adding some sweetness and further depth to the flavor. The bourbon presence grows as the sip progresses and my tongue accustoms itself to the bitter coffee and roasted malt flavors. By the end, I get a bit more vanilla and some light oak as well. It has varying degrees of bitterness all the way through, with a clear emphasis on the coffee. The mouthfeel is exactly what I want in an imperial stout, and even though I have tried quite a few since I first had the Bourbon County Coffee, I have yet to find its equal. Each sip coats my entire mouth and tongue with a chewy, grainy, and smooth liquid. The flavors seem to permeate into every part of my mouth, and it is more of an experience that just ’drinking’ the beer. The carbonation is perfectly tuned to the ultra thick and viscous nature of the beer, giving it a milky creaminess and never getting in the way. This is as close to a perfect beer as I can think of; it is just absolutely incredible. Original review: 9/4/10/5/19 Poured from a 22 oz. bottle into a snifter. Bottled 3/26/10. #2133. This almost oozes out of the bottle, it is that thick. The color is completely pitch black, with thin brown head, which quickly erodes to a ring. It communicates the message - "Be ready, this is intense." A charismatic aroma; a smooth blend of robust roasted malt, roast coffee, with a nice bourbon presence, some bitter chocolate, and a few lingering alcohol phenols. Wow. If Bourbon County Stout is a smokey dragon, this is the well-refined dragon you can take out to a fancy dinner. It is wonderfully put together, with a smooth flavor all the way through. Roasted malt with hints of chocolate and vanilla start the sip, with roast coffee and bourbon balancing each other out. There is a slightly bitter aftertaste, and the alcohol warms the stomach. There is no real alcohol bite, though, which is quite surprising. The espresso flavor prevents this from being as overtly smokey and boozy like the regular BCS. Substantially better in my opinion. Could this be any smoother? Creamy, with perky carbonation contained in a very full body. I could sip this all day and all night. There is enough complexity to keep the whole glass interesting, but the smooth construction makes each sip wonderfully simple. I just had a revelation.

Smells like a super rich brownie with slight coffee tones and heavy vanilla and charred wood tones. Thick with a complex chocolate, roasty flavor with a finish of vanilla, coffee and wood...nice alc finish. Pure black with a ring of tan head.

UPDATED: NOV 13, 2011 Sampled at GABF! Had this back in the day with Sparky27 but didn’t remember enough to rate it. Now I have no idea how I could have forgotten this one! Black hole pour with a creamy dark latte head that left lacing. Aroma is very assertive with deep rich espresso, vanilla, bourbon, Nestle Quik, and caramel. Flavor has the sweet BCS bourbon qualities with an amazing bitter Starbucks coffee punch. Truly reminiscent of a chocolate covered coffee bean soaked in bourbon. Doesn’t that sound awesome? Nice coat left on the palate and memory etched into my mind. World class!!! BUMP!!!

After making the original Bourbon County Stout a top 10 personal rated beer and it’s cousin/brother/sister the Night Stalker a top 35 peronally rated beer I still had low expectations for this thing. Coffee mixed in with that original amazing brew that is BCS just didn’t seem like a great idea, but Greg Hall has really come to the plate and produced a stellar, smooth as silk, not over the top but brimming close to it, high quality beer with this thing. So rich, so smooth, so damned delicious. I bought 5 and know it will not be enough to satisfy my taste buds until we see it again next year. Produce more of this please. This new BCS series they have going is getting very interesting, excited to see what else it will bring.