Goose Island Bourbon Imperial Brown Goose (Bottled)

Formerly brewed at Goose Island Beer Company (AB-InBev)
Style: American Strong Ale
Chicago, Illinois USA

Serve in Snifter, Trappist glass

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tried at Another Santee Sampling. this time at toncatcher’s house. Brown color with tan head. Awesome brown sugar aroma. Sweetish with lots of carbonation. Excellent.

From notes. First reviewed 12/28/2010. Poured from a 750 mL bottle into a snifter. The pour quickly foams up out of the bottle. In the glass, the color is a mostly clear maple color with a huge bubbly off-white head. Great retention and a little bit of lace on the glass. A great strong bourbon aroma dominates, but the Christmas spices, oak, and sweet caramel malt are there as well. Great taste with sweet malt, oak, and bourbon up front. The bourbon dominates but allows the Christmas Ale to come through with the spices. No real hoppy character due to the age. Mouthfeel: The carbonation is fully and bubbly. It feels like there are large exploding bubbles in my mouth. Somewhat smooth and creamy, but the bubbly carbonation is the most noticeable. A little bit of bourbon touches the throat and warms the stomach. Actually a little bit light feeling -- bourbon plus a lighter bodied base beer will do that. I definitely like this better than the Christmas Ale. Probably too cost-prohibitive to regularly drink at this point, though.

(750ml bottle from jcnd9803). Pours a cloudy dark brown with thin tan head. Aroma is light bourbon, vanilla, coconut. Taste is sweet with lots of barrel characteristics. Medium bodied. Really good stuff.

Pours a deep dark chestnut brown color that’s completely opaque with a two finger frothy off-white head. Great retention only slowly fading into a lasting cap. The glass is left coated with rings and chunks of lacing. Sweet malt aroma with a prominent barrel presence. Lots of earthy oak and bourbon as wel as some vanilla and toasted coconut. Slightly vinous as well with dark fruit notes. Underneath, the sweet malts are evident with chocolate and caramel. Medium bodied with some soft carbonation up front and a strong barrel character. Lots of toasted oak/wood as well as some prominent vanilla. The bourbon flavor is there but not as powerful as I expected. Sweet bourbon flavor but it’s well integrated into the beer. Kind of refreshing to taste something that’s not a complete bourbon bomb. Underneath the barrel, the base beer makes itself known. Sweet chocolate and caramel notes give off sweetness that compliment the bourbon. Nice alcohol flavor without any heat. Extremely drinkable.

Thanks to Jwale73 for opening this up.

Pour is cloudy and light coffee brown with a large but quickly dissipating head. Smell is excellent, caramel and whiskey with notes of honey and brown sugar and a hint of alcohol. Taste is similar, leading off with maple sugar and finishing with a dry, almost astringent note and a touch more alcohol heat. Mouthfeel is initially lacking, suffering from some overcarbonation that is mitigated by a few swirls in the glass and mellows out to a frothy texture.

Would love to sit on a bottle of this for even longer and see where that caramel note is going, but it tastes great now.

I’ve been wanting to try this forever. My fiance bought it for me for my birthday. I shared it during the South Carolina tasting. It pours a light bodied chestnut brown in color with a light beige lacing. It smells of toffee, vanilla, has a light nuttiness, and also features caramel. It drinks really smoothly and has a slight bourbon aspect in after taste. It features light vanilla, chocolate, coffee and barrel. I’m impressed, I didn’t expect it to hold up this well. Everything is so well integrated. I love it. It drinks light and for a beer of this consistency it has the perfect amount of bourbon. Overall this is a very nice beer but no old ale.

2009 bottle. Cloudy brown with not much head. The aroma is rich, malty, oxidized with hints of sherry and some light nuts. Sweet, brown sugary with stickiness and not much more than light toastiness. Maybe some tart barrelly notes and light alcohol in this. Ok, but it is not knocking me out.

2006 bottle 12/19/10 from wedgie. cloudy cherry tinted brown color topped by a tan cap. nice soft iced tea aroma... mellow bourbon all the way! mixed up with brown sugar, vanilla, toasted nuts, some sort of fruit and some wet wood. the flavor is the same... a very well balanced version of the aroma. it is nice and dry... fortunately. also, medium bodied, soft and creamy. this has held up well. 7/4/7/4/16.

bottle shared by blake at peters bachelor party- nice to meet you and thanks! pleasant rustic nutty, toasted pecan, brown sugar, doughy bourbon notes with a touch of vanilla. held up pretty well. good.

750 ml bottle shared by bsuedekum- thanks again, Blake! 2006 vintage. Pours a deep, cloudy brown color with a small tan head. The aroma still shows off a lot of nice bourbon barrel character- vanilla, bourbon, oak, molasses- with some toasted malts and earth. The flavor is what has started to drop, though, and shows less pop in the barrel characteristics along with some fruit and woody/earthy notes. Medium-bodied, with mellow carbonation and a sweet, surprisingly fruity mouthfeel. Excited I got to try this one.

dirty brown body with a nice head... balanced nose showing off lots of bourbon and toffee, dark fruits and chocolate... the taste is also really smooth bourbon with chocolate... would have this again for sure