Goose Island Beer Company Bourbon County Brand Stout - Double Barrel Heaven Hill (2025)

Bourbon County Brand Stout - Double Barrel Heaven Hill (2025)

 

Goose Island Beer Company in Chicago, Illinois, United States 🇺🇸

  Stout - Imperial Rotating
Score
7.97
ABV: 17.4% IBU: - Ticks: 10
Shared dedication to their respective crafts is what unites Heaven Hill and Goose Island in the creation of 2025 Bourbon County Brand Double Barrel Stout. As the creators of the world’s first bourbon barrel-aged stout, the brewers at Goose Island have spent over thirty years redefining what beer can be through the evolution of Bourbon County Brand Stout. Over time, the series has grown into a diverse family of beers—each expressing a distinct character and perspective.

As Bourbon County ages, it develops a myriad of characteristics: complex, layered, and deeply expressive. Drawing on decades of experience, Goose Island’s brewers have learned how to elevate those qualities by fine-tuning every variable—from ingredient selection to barrel choice to time spent aging. Every decision reveals a new facet of Original Stout.

2025 Bourbon County Brand Double Barrel Stout is a masterclass in that approach. In collaboration with Heaven Hill Distillery, Goose Island aged this release in not one, but two sets of freshly emptied Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon barrels. By centering the nuanced complexity of the whiskey, the resulting beer is a true celebration of bourbon, collaboration, and the most essential element of every Bourbon County release: the barrel itself.
 

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8.1/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8.5 Flavor 7.5 Texture 9 Overall 8
Sweet and rich and dripping with bourbon, gooey notes of milk chocolate, anise, molasses, dark roast coffee, and a charred, roasted bitterness. Finishes with tons of whiskey and oak. Delicious.
Tried from Bottle on 19 Mar 2026 at 03:24

7.8/10 Appearance 7 Aroma 8.5 Flavor 8 Texture 7 Overall 7.5
Bottle from Total Wine & More, W. Hollywood. Opaque black with nice viscosity, thin head, poor retention and no lacing. Aroma is strong sweet malt, bourbon, dark fruit, vanilla, light spice. Taste is bourbon, caramel, alcohol astringency, dark fruit, vanilla, rye spice. Smooth texture, medium bodied, alcohol astringency and heat, lively carbonation, finish as taste. Overall, good but needs a little bit of extra time to decrease astringency and carbonation. Not worth the $40 I paid for it. Would recommend holding this for a bit to let it mellow.
Tried from Bottle from Total Wine & More - W. Hollywood on 12 Mar 2026 at 04:55

8/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 8
2025 vintage from Livonia Liquor. Pours a deep brown with no head. Strong aromas of bourbon dominate the nose with oak, vanilla and toasted pecan as it warms. Palate shows more chocolate, bourbon, oak, vanilla and toasted nuts. Bourbon forward and thin on the palate but the lots of intricate warming bourbon from palate to finish. Enjoyable, but a touch thin.
Tried from Bottle from Livonia Liquor & Fine Wine on 18 Jan 2026 at 03:46

9.4/10 Appearance 9 Aroma 9.5 Flavor 9.5 Texture 10 Overall 9
500ml bottle, 2025 vintage. Rich roasted malt with notes of dark chocolate, caramel, toasted marshmallow, vanilla and oak. Pours deep brown with a thin mocha brown head that has very little retention and no lacing. Starts with rich roasted malt, toasted marshmallow and caramel flavors as well as having a rich, full body and decadently smooth mouthfeel. Finishes incredibly smooth with dark chocolate, oak and vanilla flavors that linger on the palate nicely as the warming booziness hits the belly. So damn good…especially on this frigid night.
Tried from Bottle from Colorado Liquor Mart on 10 Jan 2026 at 06:15

8/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8.5 Flavor 7.5 Texture 8 Overall 8
Refrigerated 0.5 L brown bottle poured into a a snifter. Black with medium light brown head that dissipates quickly. Aroma is nice bourbon, medium/thick body, medium carbonation, and little lacing. Taste is bourbon, wood, dark malt malt, and some booze.
Tried from Bottle on 03 Jan 2026 at 01:49

8.6/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 9.5 Texture 8 Overall 9
500 ml bottle. Black pour with a small brown head that soon disappears. The aroma is quite strong and is dominated by the bourbon. Other aromas are pretty much obscured by the bourbon. The taste follows the aroma, lots of whiskey in the forefront followed by caramel, maple, dark chocolates and vanilla. The palate is full and syrupy with very soft carbonation. Finishes long and semi-sweet with lingering whiskey. Overall: Top shelf, but not the best choice to drink before breakfast in the morning.
Tried on 01 Jan 2026 at 15:20

8.4/10
Split 2 ways aroma is chocolate, bourbon. Taste follows with a nice lingering warmth. Very nice but not overly complex.
Tried from Bottle on 28 Dec 2025 at 12:27


8.1/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 8.5
Poured from a 500 ml bottle.
Aroma is malt forward with lots of chocolate, dark caramel, toffee. Light raisin notes. Light raisin, dark cherry and prune notes. Medium light bourbon notes and light oak.
Pours a jet black with a medium sized, thick, dark, mocha head that recedes steadily to the edges where it lingers.
Flavor is fairly sweet with lots of chocolate notes including dark chocolate notes, layers of caramel and toffee. Moderate bitterness and medium alcohol notes. Medium light bourbon and light oak notes. Hints of dark fruit.
Mouthfeel is full bodied with medium low carbonation. Low.astringency and moderate alcohol warmth.
Overall, a solid BA stout. Alcohol is well hidden. Nice malt complexity and a bit of dark, dried fruit. Good bourbon character.
Tried from Bottle on 18 Dec 2025 at 03:13

8.6/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8.5 Flavor 8.5 Texture 9 Overall 9
Sampled at the BCS Media PReview.
Another beer that took a rest in Heaven Hill barrels. This variant was aged for7 years in two different Bottled-in-Bond barrels.
Meaning, I guess, that it had more alcohol-soaked oak to sit in, and more time to lose mass to the “Angel’s Share.” There is noticeable oak in the nose, and a helping of vanilla. A touch of cherry again and coconut cream. I found whiskey in competition with the barrel notes, a smooth whiskey note, and a syrupy thickness that kept the extra alcohol from getting “hot.” There was discernible malt roastiness and even some hop that doesn’t turn up in most imperial stouts.
At 17.8% abv, it's one of the strongest of the Bourbon County line.
Tried from Bottle at Goose Island Beer - Salt Shed Pub on 23 Oct 2025 at 01:30