Ladies and gentlemen, the Bourbon County Brand Stout beers you will not be drinking from Goose Island this year: Blood Orange BCS. Chicory BCS. Mole BCS (with three kinds of chilies). Mint Chocolate BCS. Oregon Huckleberry BCS.
“That one tasted terrible,” Goose Island brew master Brett Porter said of the huckleberry effort, which was his idea. “The fruit is quite lovely, but the seed character took over.”
Every year Goose Island attempts several styles of its lauded Bourbon County Stout that never reach taps and shelves. Those are the ones that are good, but not quite good enough to release. Or, in the case of huckleberry, terrible.
However, some of the experiments work, and those bottles, along with some venerable veteran versions, will be released Friday in what has become a day-after-Thanksgiving ritual. The Goose Island brewpub on Clybourn Avenue will also be hosting several tasting sessions that day, but those are long sold out.
Over the course of a couple visits to the brewery, I tasted this year’s crop of Bourbon County beers, some old and some new. Here are some thoughts:
Proprietor’s (imperial stout with toasted coconut, aged in Templeton Rye barrels) Limited to Chicago and limited in general (only about 1,000 cases were made), this will be a tough, worthy, score. Proprietor’s is simply one of the best beers I’ve had this year, its silky richness gliding gently along a chocolate-vanilla-coconut axis that is complemented by lush notes of rye from the Templeton barrels. Most BCS beers — and most imperial stouts — are best aged to let the flavors mellow and meld. This beer is so deftly balanced that Proprietor’s demands to be sipped fresh. Do not age this beer. Do not trade it. Do not save it. Do not hoard it. Just drink it. And share it. Available in 22-ounce bottles.
Barleywine (barleywine aged in bourbon barrels) Goose struck gold with its first barrel-aged barleywine, King Henry, in 2011. Bourbon County Barleywine is its second. This beer is composed of a 4:1 ratio of second-use barrels (that previously housed BCS) to first use (which only housed bourbon). Compared to the Bourbon County stouts, Barleywine is, of course, thinner and sweeter, but that isn’t a criticism; it’s a welcome change of pace. With a deep toffee color, Barleywine invokes many versions of sweet — bubble gum, candy, toffee and burnt sugar — but the oak and bourbon smooth the sweetness nicely. Available in four packs of 12-ounce bottles, this beer is worth trying now and exploring as the bottles change through the winter.
Backyard Rye (imperial stout aged in Templeton Rye barrels with marionberries, boysenberries and mulberries) Goose has attempted berry incarnations of BCS twice before; I wasn’t the biggest fan of either, though both improved in the bottle over time. Backyard Rye is the most ready-to-drink berry BCS so far, partly because its fruit character isn’t terribly up front. The berry tartness arrives closer to the finish. Importantly, it’s a finish with a hint of sourness but no medicinal character, which is where previous versions of berry BCS have struggled. Bonus Chicago love for many of the mulberries being harvested in Humboldt Park. Available in 22-ounce bottles, and if you get only one, I’d suggest waiting on it a bit to let those berry flavors meld (but not too long).
Templeton Rye BCS (imperial stout aged in Templeton rye barrels) A “happy accident,” according to one brewer, which will only be available on draft and not in great quantity. Goose aged a portion of BCS in Templeton Rye barrels for the Backyard Rye, but when it came time to add fruit, beer had to be removed. What to do with it? Keg it, of course. Never intended to see the light of day, Templeton Rye BCS will appear at random events until it’s gone. Warming and smooth with a low alcohol burn, this is most interesting as a window into what became both Proprietor’s and Backyard Rye, both of which are superior beers. Available only on tap.
Coffee (imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels with Intelligentsia coffee) Always a highlight, and it is again this year. Boasting a particularly wonderful nose, BCS Coffee is the perfect intersection of deep, dark, roasty and luscious. One person at the brewery compared it to a boozy iced coffee, and that’s not far off. The El Salvadoran beans chosen for this year’s batch are earthy, slightly redolent of ripe fruit and relatively free of acid and bitterness (partly because the wood and bourbon-aging have a moderating effect). Smooth enough to drink copiously now, but I’d stash a little for the coming months, which will be made easier by the fact that Coffee is available in four packs of 12-ounce bottles rather than the usual 22-ounce bottles.
Bourbon County Stout (imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels) The classic that started it all. I find this beer has up and down years, and this year is a good one — big, malty, sweet and smooth with a nice boozy hit at the end. But I tried this alongside 2012 BCS, and the comparison was a testament to aging this beer. Though largely the same recipe, the 2012 version drank bigger, rounder, smoother and more nuanced, with hints of fruit and tobacco. Available in four packs of 12-ounce bottles, feel free to hold onto these for a bit.
Good luck tracking these beers down. You might need it.
The Clybourn pub will be pouring BCS and other rare Goose beers throughout Friday for those who didn’t get tickets to the BCS tastings. The tapping schedule is: Flanders Red and Bourbon County Brand Stout 2012 (11 a.m.); Bourbon County Brand Cherry Stout 2012 and Brettanomite Sour Wheat Ale (2 p.m.); Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout 2012 and Baudoinia 2012 (5 p.m.); Bourbon County Brand Stout 2011 and Cthulhu Barrel Aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout (8 p.m.).
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