Goose Island Vanilla Bourbon County Stout

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Chicago, Illinois USA

I love Bourbon County Stout...adding vanilla was a fantastic change. Pours black with a thin head. Aroma of bourbon, chocolate, vanilla. Great thick sweet flavor and the vanilla does very well with the Bourbon. One of the best beers @ FoBAB.

FoBAB ’09, pours black with no head. nose is loaded with sweet vanilla, dark chocolate in the background. flavor is tons of vanilla, dark chocolate, very full bodied. this is exactly what you’d think it’d be, bourbon county with tons of vanilla. the vanilla seemed to mellow the bourbon out a bit. it’d be great to get a few bottles of this to mix up the BCS intake now and again.

Sampled at FoBAB 09. Love BCS, Love Goose Island, went into getting a pour of this bad boy with a kind of an excited curiosity. Surely they couldn’t improve on the real thing, could they? Big nose of smooth bourbon and vanilla. Flavor is an explosion of chocolatey bourbon, vanilla bourbon, bourbony chocolate. Smooth, rich mouthfeel. Great. A Standout at an awesome festival

FoBAB. I have to preface this rating by telling you that regular BCS is one of my favorite beers. This took it to a whole notha level. It is exactly what you’d expect as previously noted, but I liked it. Black and thick as hell. Huge vanilla and bourbon in nose with really nice malt backbone. Flavor is blindingly huge vanilla, bourbon, and malt. They are all so huge that it’s actually smooth and nicely complex. Oh man, I loved it. So full bodied too. Wonderful.

FOBAB 09’. Pretty sure Andrew described this beer as "exactly what you would expect". And I think that pretty much sums it up. Sweet for sure and just like the normal BCS, you wouldn’t want this in large doses. But, for a big sweet stout, this was absolutley delicious. I like vanilla and I like BCS, so this was great. It was sweet but not overly cloying and the finish left you ready for the next sip. Pair this with cheesecake and call it a night.

Sampled at FoBAB 2009. Pours a thick viscous black, small offwhite head. Aromas are vanilla, roasted malts, bourbon and wet oak, chocolate and coffee, a full assortment of flavors. Initial is very vanilla, thick and viscous with bourbon, booziness, roasted malts and smokey ash, dark chocolate, coffee. Full bodied, wonderful fullness on the palate, with good flavor complexity, not thinned out. This definitely gives the vanilla bean dark lord a huge run for it’s money. Definitely in my top 2 of the fest.

FOBAB 09. Pours black with a small tan head. Aroma is of bourbon, vanilla, chocolate, slight alcohol, and roasted malt. Smells absolutely fantastic. Taste starts off with a ton of vanilla flavor and chocolate. The bourbon flavors of the base beer aren’t as strong, but they do blend it well with the vanilla. From the base beer, the alcohol content is also more masked now. Mouthfeel is sticky and thick. Sharp alcohol bite after each sip. The vanilla didn’t come off as overpowering, it just made the base beer even better. I really liked it.

FOBAB - 2009- No huge surprises. Pretty much just BCS with vanilla added. pours a deep brown with a small tan head. strong bourbon, vanilla, chocolate, and booze notes. bourbon is a little overpowering. I’d be interested in trying this with some age on it. Very good beer though.