Tag: Goose Island

Goose Island’s 2024 Bourbon County lineup is set and it looks awesome

A barleywine and a macaroon stout lead the way for some of this winter’s most anticipated beers.

Each Black Friday, Goose Island gives us another reason to run to the store.

That’s when the Chicago based brewery drops its annual lineup of Bourbon County stouts, the barrel-aged heavies that dominate the top of its Beer Advocate ratings. Last year’s lineup was an all-star list of big, boozy brews. 2024 promises more of the same.

Goose Island unveiled this year’s lineup Monday, a proper four months before you’ll actually be able to buy any. This year’s offering drops the number of varieties from six to five, but still promises bold, warm flavor and soft dessert notes — particularly from this year’s Macaroon Stout.

Here’s the 2024 Bourbon County lineup:

  1. 2024 Bourbon County Brand Original Stout
  2. 2024 Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Rye Stout
  3. 2024 Bourbon County Brand Macaroon Stout
  4. 2024 Bourbon County Brand Proprietor’s Barleywine
  5. 2024 Bourbon County Brand Bardstown Cask Finish Stout

Goose Island’s special release Bourbon County stouts are back, boozy and remarkably complex

Goose Island’s Bourbon County stouts are back for Black Friday. Surprise: they’re awesome … again.

Barrel-aged beers are a double-aged sword. Sometimes they’re the result of meticulous care and tremendous effort to make a good beer richer. Others they’re a cover-up for an unimpressive batch in hopes a higher ABV and some oaky, vanilla notes can wash away a brewery’s failure and turn it into something better.

Goose Island’s Bourbon County stouts fall firmly in the former category. The Chicago-based brewer, now owned by AB InBev, began brewing these special celebration beers more than 30 years ago. That’s a long time to perfect a process — and to add new wrinkles along the way.

This year’s media tasting, fronted virtually by senior innovation officer Mike Siegel and senior brewmaster Daryl Hoedtke, among others, took us through the arduous process of creating each year’s lineup. Employees submit their own variants on the longstanding stout in hopes of making the cut. Pilot batches are produced. The end result is an impressive array of flavor that goes above and beyond the basic, dense taste endemic to many quick-fix barrel-aged beers.

I was fortunate to get my hands on all six of this year’s Bourbon County beers right as the weather began to turn cold here in Wisconsin. I’ll tell you right now, they’re all pretty damn good. Here’s what I thought of each of Goose Island’s 2023 special brews.