Bourbon County Stout - Goose Island, Chicago
Style:
Imperial Stout
Serving Type:
Bottle
Alcohol by Volume:
13%
Aroma:
Loads of vanilla and barrel aging at first. The bourbon is big but seems well blended into the other aromas like the dark malt, the cocoa and the milk chocolate
Appearance:
Black. Pitch black body, no highlights or accent colors... it's black. There's a respectable layer of dark brown bubbles on top of this beer
Flavor:
Super rich caramel and chocolate malt, creamy vanilla and a surprisingly mellow bourbon flavor. All of the flavors blend very very well together
Mouthfeel:
Very thick, possibly the fullest bodied beer I've had. For 13% ABV this beer goes down dangerously smooth
There's a name that keeps popping up whenever Imperial Stouts are mentioned. Bourbon County. Goose Island is a brewery I got off on the wrong foot with years ago and I haven't really gone back to their beers until very recently. When I first heard of Bourbon County a couple years ago I decided to check it out. One look at the price tag changed my mind. At $20 for a 4 pack or $15 for a bomber, I balked... I missed out on the Bourbon County last year in part because I was really burnt out on barrel aged Imperial Stouts. 2010 is a new year and I've really gotten into the other Goose Island specialty beers recently so I figured I'd finally give the Bourbon County Stout a try, President Jackson be damned.
The Bourbon County pours a burnt motor oil shade of black, so dark that light doesn't seem able to escape it. There are no highlights around the edge of this glass, it's just... black. There is a thin but very respectable head sitting atop this beer. It's a dark brown shade that you see in only the most extreme Stouts. What was surprising about the Bourbon County is how long the head stuck around. There wasn't much lacing and the head did fade away around the half way mark, but for a beer this heavy and this dark, I was impressed.
Beneath the head is a thick, viscous Stout with a big aroma. Goose Island Bourbon County Stout smells like an empty bourbon barrel. There's a lot of vanilla, some wood and a roasted, charred caramel and grainy character that is infinitely huffable. It smells amazing... There's not too much bourbon, though it is strong on the nose, everything else blends together and provides a nice compliment to the bourbon aging.
The flavor of the Bourbon County is very similar to the aroma, except you will taste everything but bourbon up front and then finish with the bourbon flavor. There's vanilla and milk chocolate first, sweet caramel and dark malt following that and then a finish of warm boozy bourbon. It's worth noting that the bourbon in this beer is much more subtle than a lot of other bourbon barrel Imperial Stouts. Goose Island did a fantastic job on this beer. The flavors meld together fantastically and you're left with a sweet vanilla barrel dark Stout that finish with a bourbon kick. It's great.
At 13% I'm not sure I'd recommend this to just anyone. Novices should start out in the single digits and work up to this one. It's a very mellow Imperial Stout, but it's still an Imperial Stout... If you enjoy Old Rasputin, Hoppin' Frog's B.O.R.I.S. or any of the other better Imperial Stouts, you owe it to yourself to find a bottle of Bourbon County Stout. It's worth the every penny.
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