Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

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

Serve in Snifter

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12 oz bottle pours a thick jet black with a small brown head that doesn’t last long with not much lacing either. Aromas of coconut, cake, chocolate and bourbon. Coconut, cookie, vanilla, chocolate, bourbon and coffee flavors. Full bodied with a oily thick mouthfeel, finishes sweet. This is a really amazing stout.

Dark brown pour, almost completely opaque. Thin beige head nicely tops off the beer during pour, but dissapates quickly. Smells tantilizingly of bourbon, with its distinctive choclate and molasses essence. Beer is thick, almost chewable, and follows through on its aromatic promises with lots of chocolate and thick molasses taste. Wonderful beer, one of my favorites.

Looks: solid black, thick, unyielding, with a solid slab of cocoa-tan foam resting well above. Smell: whiskey, charcoal, leather and molasses, rich and twisted with further flickers of carob and anise,...heady and delirious. Entices one to taste... On the tongue: thick and full, all the way, slick, tasty, but...damn, this is a doozy! Wow, one taste, and it sticks and lingers...oooh, la, la, la...and, every taste lasts a long time, it stands so thick on the palate and in the memory, that one needn’t return so soon. but, who can resist? I taste again, and it’s thicker and richer than before...amazing! A bona-fide runner up to Dark Lord, for thickest and chewiest IS....and so slick with the whiskey effect, which I’m especially susceptible to...I need a case of this, not one 12 ounce bottle. There’s too much flavor here tosit in so small a vessell.

Thin dark brown head of very fine bubbles. Almost no carbonation but who cares with an aroma like this. Spectacular! A light whisky note along with vanilla, milk, oak, alcohol and roasted grains. Color is black. Silky smooth and powerful in the mouth. Big alcohol presence. Loads of chewy malts (very thick), more whisky, oak, vanilla and burnt grains. Complex aroma and flavor. Finish is creamy and smooth. Thick and coats the mouth. Nice alcohol warming as it goes down. A GREAT imperial stout that reminds me of Weyerbacher Heresy. A BIG thanks to Drnk_McDermott for this jem.

Thanks to Rudolf for bringin this to SD and sharing while I was out there (yes, I am still trying to catch up on the ratings from weeks ago.) This had good aroma, chocolatey, nugat-ty, and carmel undertones. This was a pleasure to drink. I only wish I didn’t have cheetos on the palate when I tried it. lol. But serious, it had a thick good bodied mouthfeel.

draft (cask) Wrigleyville Chicago. I was excited to see that this beer was on cask at the brewpub. A lucky find I think! Poured (drawn) a dark rick black with a tan head. Intense sweet aroma of heavy malt, roasted, bourbon, and chocolate. Inintial sweet roasted chocolate, licorice, malty, taste that rolled slowly across the palate to reveal an oaky bourbon flavor with a nice dose of hops to even things out. Great mouthfeel, very very nice beer! It’s really too bad we cannot get Goose Island products here in Tennessee. One of my favorite beers I have tasted! I would like to taste it bottled...I think the cask aging is a boost to the flavor. If you live in Chicago rush over to the brewery to try this beer!

Bottle from NPDEMPSE. Pours with the viscosity of overused motor oil, thick and syrupy. No real head formation to speak of and no lacing. Aroma is great! Molasses, hints of vanilla, a little alcohol. Thick and coating mouthfeel. Sweet initially with roasted grain bitterness gaining strength slowly. Bourbon notes with vanilla being predominant. Hearty alcohol presence warms the gullet nicely. Well done.

Sure, my first rating and I couldn’t have imagined a more complicated brew to describe... Pours syrupy-thick, black, opaque, topped with a conservative caramel-colored head. It clings to the glass like soy sauce. Comes to the nose with a charred, caramely sweetness. Thick on the tongue, warming. Bold, smokey, sticky and sweet, mild EtOH. HEAVY-DUTY! Finishes like a caramel Cohiba. Not a brew I would reserve a shelf for in the fridge (not that I could afford to-with this one). ’ Glad I had the opportunity. I’m no lightweight and I enjoy a good, bold beer, but this one is a little over the top for me. 11% is apparent after 2... I’m such a lightweight.

Bottle pours a viscous black, no real head to speak of, lackluster lacing, but the shear blackness of this one speaks volumes.   Just by the looks of it, it appears as if it has been aged for years.   Strong vanilla, appleskin, graham cracker on the nose.   Some chocolate and roasted malts are noticable.   Noticing a bit of alcohol as well.   Sharp on the tongue, vanilla, roasted malts, and quite a bit of Bourbon.   Very unique.   Feeling a bit of heat from this one.   While the alcohol doesn’t really show itself, the warming of this one is quite noticable.   Body is big, mouthfeel is coating and somewhat slick.   This is not a beer infused with Bourbon, this is Bourbon infused with beer!   Finishes with more of a fig/date flavor, lots of apple skin, with the aformentioned Bourbon.   This is a strong brew, very warming.   This one is big, VERY big.   I should have shared this, considering the amount I have already had this evening.   By far one of the biggest/heartiest brews ever to grace my lips.   Thanks goes out to Captain Cougar for the trade!

Aroma is quite nice, an ever changing array of strength with dark caramel and darker still, chocolate; masked by a firm girth of bourbony sweetness that really comes across as smooth and well checked, mainly due to the chocolate tones keeping it quieter then it ought to be. A nice medley on the nose. Simple notes of vanilla and cookie dough remain ever present as well. As it warms the bourbon makes a bigger effort to overcome the chocolate. Deep and dark fudgy brown nearly and completely black once fully poured with a late-to-appear thin, dark cocoa cap of whipped cream fluff. The foam creeps away leaving a thin collar and the lacing sticks in small amounts of strings close to the collar. Taste is thick and oily with a smooth dark chocolatey front, then, as if it had a choice, gets overtaken by a very sweet bourbon heat and tinge thats pretty intense. Whhooffda! This sucker is nicely heated. Still in check though, much like the aroma, the chocolate tones tend to supersede over the top of the flavors but staying underneath the alcoholic heat. An interesting effect. Super awesome finish, subtle, warming, late return of chocolate after the heat settles off leaving leftovers of crispened charred vanilla bean, caramel stickies, and sweet, sweet bourbon. Oh my, what an encapsulated ride of fun this stuff is, wow! That sweet bourbony heat builds strongly and just cinders for what seems an eternity while all the other stuff play underneath. Feel is powerfully heated with a bourbony sweetness and back-throated burn that is absolutely awesome to behold. Thickishly full body with an oily front and somewhat creamy length throughout the rest of its stay that mediates under the overall heat. If it were a notch less heated it would be phenomenal as far as its feel and drinkability. It could be quite a drinkable treat if it weren’t so ABV hitting. Although, there’s nothing wrong with slowing down and enjoying it, appreciating it, ...loving it, cuz that’s what it’s all about with this one. I didin’t think Goose Island had it in them, but man does this stuff rock! Nicey nice!