Bourbon County Brand Stout - 30th Anniversary Reserve (2022)
Goose Island Beer Company in Chicago, Illinois, United States 🇺🇸
Stout - Imperial Special Out of Production|
Score
8.20
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36% Booker's® bourbon barrels
33% Knob Creek® bourbon barrels
17% Basil Hayden® bourbon barrels
14% Baker's® bourbon barrels
30 years ago, before the 1,000th batch of beer at our Clybourn brewpub, putting an imperial stout in a used bourbon barrel had not been done before. That idea altered Goose Island's history and that of the craft beer world.
We thought we'd never make it again.
And after 30 years, we still find every year crafting Bourbon County Brand Stout more fulfilling than the last. It started as an idea shared over cigars and whiskey by an unlikely union between brewer and distiller. It was brewed to commemorate the 1.000th batch of Goose Island beer. This year, we honor that partnership, the friends we’ve made along the way and a legacy of brewers as passionate as the beer drinkers we serve.
Each year of Bourbon County Brand Stout is a snapshot in time—with a remarkable journey from oak to stave, cooperage to rickhouse, and finally to our Chicago barrel house. To every person involved in-between, to every Black Friday event, to every bottle share and beer trade, beer dinner and fest: Bourbon County Brand Stout is a testament to the dedication of a community built around the creation and love of a truly original beer.
Cheers to all who understand and appreciate this journey; cheers to an incredible 30 years of the original Bourbon County Brand Stout.
In 1992, Frederick Booker Noe II, 6th generation master distiller of James B. Beam distilling company, fundamentally changed the whiskey industry forever. A tour-de-force that indelibly made his mark in history by launching the small batch bourbon collection. Inspired by a 200-year-old tradition, Basil Hayden®, Knob Creek®, Baker’s® and, of course Booker’s®, marked the beginning of a new chapter elevating and transforming bourbon forever. Like siblings in a family, each expression brings their own personality and nuance for every type of drinker. A true representation and celebration of the meaning of heritage.
We created a special 30th Anniversary Stout to pay homage to the serendipitous union between Gregory Hall and Booker Noe that then led to subsequent years, variants, and traditions - from Black Friday lines to bottle shares and more. Going back to the inception of Bourbon County Stout, the 30th Anniversary Stout is aged from a blend of Jim Beam barrels from their Small Batch Bourbon Collection barrels. Each of the remarkable bourbon barrels offer characteristics unique to each bourbon's distinct nuances. They are then blended together for a complex and balanced expression that celebrates the heritage and legacy of both brands. And, as history would have it, Jim Beam launched their first-ever Small Batch Bourbon Collection 30 years ago. This 30th Anniversary Reserve Stout is a culmination signifying the historical, groundbreaking shifts in both the bourbon and beer industries from two visionaries all those years ago. Both the concept of small batch bourbons and bourbon barrel-aged beers have changed our respective drinking communities forever, and the 30th Anniversary Stout is a celebration of all the people that have enjoyed, worked on, and been a part of the Bourbon County Stout brand over the years. Expect notes of dark chocolate, vanilla, cherry, and almond. We’re excited to raise a glass to this extraordinary 30-year-old history and craftsmanship.
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Appearance - 9 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 9
Bottle. Color: Black, very thin brown head. Aroma: Roasted malt, Bourbon, some spicy rye notes. Taste: Roasted malt, Bourbon, vanilla, some spicy rye, hints of dark coffee. Full body, below average carbonation. Medium sweet, over moderate bitterness. Subtle boozy. Very nice.
Magus, mõru, röstine, šokolaadine, linnaseline, vaniljene, alksine. Hea.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8
dark dark brown with a brown small head.
strong aroma, sweet bourbon, roasted malts, licorice, brown sugar, faint mouldy coffee, faint sweet honey. alc. is strong and notiacble, but not in the way or dominating or phenolic.
pretty solid imp stout Borubon BA aroma
flavor is roasted malts, salt licorice, coconut, bourbon, rustic woody notes that can be felt both in texture and flavor - mostly in texture, end is roasted malty, strong and woody. pretty solid BA imp stout, classic, not pastry, reasonably not so sweet. Interesting to mix 4 kinds of jim beam barrels, but would perhaps be even more interesting with unrelated barrels.
Bottle. Pours a pitch black hue with a medium creamy brown head. A huge woody, bourbon nose. Big, boozy, sour mash, rich mellow barrels. Damn good. Buttery.
500ml.
A: Dark brown with a beige head. 8
A: American oak, some chocolate. 5
T: along the same lines, good body, nice oak, moderately sweet, some bitterness. 8
M: 4
O: Pretty good, but it's definitely another overpriced BCBS variant. 16
T: 41/50
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9.5
Bottle, 500 ml at my Grande. Dark brown with beige head. Bourbon chocolate, some caramel, barrel. Intensive and somewhat warming. Medium bodied.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Special luxury edition of the famous and pioneering Bourbon County Brand Stout, the original ‘BBA stout’ and one of the world’s very first beers in which the flavours of a non-beery beverage (bourbon in this case) are actually an intentional part of the beer as a whole – an anniversary worth celebrating indeed, considering the vast numbers of such beers available everywhere in the western world today. Thanks to Martijn for sharing! Pale yellowish beige, moussey, quite stable head on a black beer with thin mahogany edges. Strong bouquet of toffee, pecan nut pie, bourbon of course, vanilla from oak, milk chocolate, chocolate-flavoured chewing gum, liquorice candy, fig compote, plums in brandy, caramel liqueur, almond, slight beef stock in the background. Sweet onset, a tad sticky but not annoyingly so, candied fig and yellow raisin impressions with a slight touch of beef stock-like umami; soft carb, thick and oily mouthfeel but not so syrupy that it hinders drinkability. The mouth cavity is lined with caramel, milk and dark chocolate, pecan nut paste and toffee, bittersweet but initially more bitter than sweet, with almondy and vanilla-like elements retronasally, linked to both wood and bourbon. Light coffeeish roasty accents in the end, enough to help balance the sweetness (as do the wood and the bourbon, as well as trace of spicy hops), making for a rich, evidently warming but softly soothing, very long, chocolatey and bourbon-y finish. Owner AB InBev started pasteurizing these BCBS stouts after infection hit the brewery many years ago and I have not had many of them since so this is an interesting revisit with this famous brand – and indeed, there is a sort of cleanliness and ‘bubblegumminess’ to it which I cannot but associate with pasteurisation, slightly compromising complexity and credibility for me. So one point off for that – the unpasteurised ones from years ago were absolutely majestic but this one is just a bit short of that due to this intervention. That does not, however, change the fact that this is still a beautiful and rich anniversary edition which was highly appreciated by all the tasters present (at least those ‘into’ imperial stouts).
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color stout with a dark brown foamy head with some retention and some lacing notes. Aroma of deep rich chocolate notes with some strong woody bourbon notes with traces of vanilla. Taste is also a mix of deep rich chocolate notes with strong woody bourbon notes, light charred notes with a semi-sweet finish and notes of vanilla. Body is above average with creamy/oily texture and good carbonation with some discernible alcohol notes. Solid classic BA stout with great level of complexity.
Bottle, from Binny’s, Lake Zurich, Il, at home. Dark brown with little head. Roasted malts, Caramel, bourbon, raisins, barrell, Smooth!
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle at Joe's. Pours black, nose is chocolate, vanilla, coconut, huge bourbon, taste is similar, so much barrel character.