Goose Island Brewing Co. Bourbon County Stout
Once I’d tasted Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout and Canadian Breakfast Stout, my perceptions of (bourbon) barrel-aged beers changed precipitously. Prior to that I had only tasted a couple, and generally found them wanting for lack of balance. Either the beer couldn’t stand up to the barrel-aging, or the barrel-aging was left to go on for too long, overwhelming what was a great beer to begin with.
Yet I continued to believe that barrel-aged beers could be really great if done right. And so at this year’s Extreme Beer Fest I made a point of trying most of the bourbon barrel-aged beers on offer. And let’s face it, I was stunned by how good some of them were. The best of them, namely the above two from Founders, Older Viscosity from Port Brewing, and Bell’s Bourbon-Barrel Aged Expedition/Double-Cream blend were spellbinding. The bourbon barrels added a dynamic flavor element to these beers that was extremely well-integrated with the array of other flavors. The end result was not a better beer, but an equally good beer, albeit in a very different expression.
Since then I’ve slowly become more aware of other bourbon barrel-aged beers being released by breweries across the country. There are quite a few, and the number is growing, which only make sense. There is a big demand for these beers and they receive near-unanimous accolades from beer drinkers. At the same time, bourbon producers have thousands of barrels every year that they need to dispose of. So the barrels are there for the taking.
But it is clear that this is not as simple an equation for a brewer as taking a beer, dumping it into a 55-gallon barrel, waiting a month or two, and…voila, barrel-aged beer! The number of barrel-aged beers that I’ve had the chance to taste has made it clear that to successfully make a great barrel-aged beer requires an understanding of what kind of beer will best marry with the flavors that will come from the barrel.
There are a few barrel-aged beers that consistently get mentioned as barometers, setting the bar for others to live up to. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout is one and Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout is another. Often the two are mentioned relative to one another. Unfortunately, Goose Island is not distributed in this state, and so I did not expect to get to taste it anytime soon. That is, until I stumbled upon a four-pack while in a shop in New York. I snapped it up, excited at the chance to taste another of the hallmark barrel-aged beers.
Goose Island first brewed this beer back in 1994, to celebrate their 1000th brew. It’s amazing to think of them brewing this back then, in the midst of the first micro-brew revolution, and long before barrel-aging was common practice. Since then, it’s annual release has become an event, as it has for many other beers of this sort.
The Bourbon County Stout is a seriously imperial stout, weighing in at 13%. The statement on the bottle says,
I [Greg Hall, Brewmaster] wanted to do something special for our 1000th batch…we brewed a beer. A really big batch of stout – so big, the malt was coming out of the top of the mash tun. After fermentation we brought in some bourbon barrels that aged the stout. One hundred days later, Bourbon County Stout was born…One sip has more flavor than your average case of beer.
This bottle is from the 2008 batch. The Goose Island website indicates that it has 60 IBUs, and was brewed using Willamette hops, and a number of malts including 2-Row, Munich, Chocolate, Caramel, Roast Barley, and Debittered Black malt.
The beer is pitch black with no highlights at all. It pours thick and viscous, and a vigorous pour brings a thin, tan head that quickly dissipates, leaving little head on top of the beer and not much lacing. The nose has huge flavors of chocolate and bourbon that leap out of the glass, accompanied by more subtle flavors of black cherries, mince pie, blackstrap molasses, and a dusting of cocoa. The palate is creamy and unctuous. The bourbon flavor grows in strength throughout the palate, from mild at first to very strong by the end. This is no easy sipper, the 13% alcohol is not hidden whatsoever, and a couple of sips into it you can really begin to notice the warming alcohol, and this is slightly more noticeable as the beer warms up. The bourbon flavor really dominates the palate, accompanied by hints of rum, port, sweet caramel, and vanilla. But again, like the nose, these flavors are much more subtle relative to the bourbon flavor. The finish brings a welcome note of roasted coffee, that quickly gives way to smooth bourbon flavor, and a very sweet finish.
This beer is BIG. I almost wish they sold it in 6oz. bottles, as a full 12oz is tough to drink. The beer is quite good for what it is: an imperial stout built to showcase the extreme end of bourbon-barrel aging. Unlike some other barrel-aged stouts that I’ve tasted and really enjoyed, this beer fully gives the spotlight over to the bourbon element, and much like many double IPAs that are totally unbalanced and massively hoppy, the Bourbon County Stout is totally unbalanced and massively bourbon-y.
Coming back to the theme from earlier, about the trickiness of barrel-aging, this beer demonstrates that even when taken to extremes, if the base beer is strong enough on its own, then even the extreme flavors from long-term bourbon barrel-aging can be accommodated. Again, it ends up coming down to the beer that goes into the barrel.
It almost makes you want to try the Goose Island Imperial Stout, before it goes into barrels (but I don’t think they release the beer on its own…).
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