Goose Island Special Ed

Hazed chocolate brown in color with no other signs of life anywhere else as it waits patiently in the glass. Aroma can’t be beaten: pastrami, smoked ham, maple butter, dried beef sticks, smocked chocolate hickory, almonds fallen close to the camp grounds and pumpernickel loaves having their meat matter only recently removed. Flavor brings a new dimension to the smoked category. Dry cocoa beans get caressed by greasy broiled chocolate and a chocolaty banana bacon surplus. Carbonation subtly allows the dry brownie batter to coat the applewood smoking board on which the gritty sweet grinds reside. In the glass and in the zone, as Columbian mocha java beans wake up in Bamberg. Welcome to paradise, amigos. The brandy brings sweet and bright highlights to the smoky cone mentality. The body is full and the palate is bright, and smoked malts have never had a such a beautiful showcase in their history as they do with this beer. Pure delight resides in each sip.

Tap or bottle? Boston EBF 2007. Cloudy brown body with a short-lived beige head. Rich smoked flavour that felt a lot more complex than a typical Smoked à-la-Schlenkerla. Like doughy food slowly cooked on a campfire. All that wonderful smoke mixed with cake flavour, brown sugar and a strong barrel character. 11% is nowhere to be seen. Unique beer that is unfortunately almost impossible to find for me. Meaning that I have an Ed problem and that’s one Viagra can’t cure.

pretty much wood, bourbon raisin. not much alcohol till it warms up. flavor is just awesome, no alcohol at all, once again wood, really malty, uh, bourbon character once again. palate is pretty much perfect, not as thick as you’d expect but it works very well. appearance is opaque brown with a nice small head.... that was the first audio note recording i’ve ever taken of a beer.... rerate: holy shit. i dont remember having this before, but it’s definitely a smoked. just like the the urbock i had recently. aroma is easily smoke and bacon. some wood but jesus there’s so much smoke.

Tap at Clybourn, served in snifter (too cold), Boy I was so happy to see this listed after passing on it at FoBAB:

Mahogany hued with a small but lasting beige head that left some foam on the glass along with some oily legs. The aroma is powerful but not as much bourbon as I figured, some vanilla along with smoky charred oak. Also detected walnut, chocolate, caramel, rye bread, raisin, ripe cherry, and some pepper esters, NICE!

The flavor start with a nice dose of sweet caramel and toffee malts, bready and vanilla too. The midsection displays a molasses and fruity twang (not sour however, again more akin to ripe sweet fruits) before leading off towards the smoked meaty and lightly spiced finish. A bit boozy but it did not get in the way and actually helped cleanse the palate.

The mouth feel is sticky and oily with prickly biting towards the finish. This rocked and is without one of the better smoked beers I have had of late. Too bad I once again could not get a growler, sniff.

Rating 250. FoBAB. Style should be "Smoked" as Kevin notes. Its over the top on the smoke. Strong notes of beef jerkey and ham on the nose leading into wood, smoke, bacon, and peanuts. Had a hard time finishing a sample because of the smoked notes, but this was an enjoyable change of pace from the festival norm.