Bourbon County Brand Northwoods Stout
Goose Island Beer Co.

Bourbon County Brand Northwoods StoutBourbon County Brand Northwoods Stout
Beer Geek Stats | Print Shelf Talker
From:
Goose Island Beer Co.
 
Illinois, United States
Style:
American Imperial Stout
ABV:
12.6%
Score:
96
Avg:
4.32 | pDev: 7.64%
Reviews:
102
Ratings:
415
Status:
Retired
Rated:
Mar 10, 2024
Added:
Jun 11, 2017
Wants:
  21
Gots:
  79
Stout aged in bourbon barrels with blueberry juice and almond extract added.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Photo of moysauce
Rated by moysauce from Illinois

4.34/5  rDev +0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Tasted of blueberry pop tart in the absolute best way.
Mar 10, 2024
Photo of pathman
Rated by pathman from Ohio

5/5  rDev +15.7%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5
04/17/23 bottle @ home
Apr 18, 2023
 
Rated: 4.16 by socon67 from New York

Nov 25, 2022
 
Rated: 4.48 by HopBelT from Belgium

Oct 22, 2022
 
Rated: 4.65 by BuxMontBeerLover from Pennsylvania

Jul 02, 2022
 
Rated: 4.65 by BKotch from Texas

Feb 06, 2022
 
Rated: 4.38 by Coronaeus from Canada (ON)

Jan 01, 2022
 
Rated: 3.85 by TMoney2591 from Illinois

Dec 09, 2021
 
Rated: 4.08 by SMH_NWI from Texas

Oct 04, 2021
 
Rated: 4.35 by BeerBeast from Florida

May 09, 2021
 
Rated: 4.18 by shehateme from Massachusetts

Jan 31, 2021
 
Rated: 4.5 by dsshuck from Delaware

Jan 25, 2021
Photo of Tilley4
Reviewed by Tilley4 from Tennessee

4.4/5  rDev +1.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Outstanding beverage...

Blueberries and bourbon...

Two of my favorites...

Had this at the brewery quite some time ago... I would love to see them revisit this offering as I found it to be one of the best variants ever...

Ticks all the boxes without being a fruit bomb...
Jan 09, 2021
Photo of jzeilinger
Reviewed by jzeilinger from Pennsylvania

4.13/5  rDev -4.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
A - Dark brown pour with toffee colored lacing.

S - Booze, very subtle blueberry, and toasted chocolate malt.

T - Boozy subtle chocolate malt, light blueberry presence,

M - Thick and silky soft on the palate with a wet finish.

O - It's Bourbon County, everyone goes ape over this stuff, you be the judge. ;o)
Jan 02, 2021
Photo of Knapp85
Reviewed by Knapp85 from Pennsylvania

4.34/5  rDev +0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Pours a deep brownish black color basically no head. The smell of the beer is a bit fruity and sweet. The taste of the beer is sweet but actually pretty dialed back. Sweet but not cloying. Overall it’s very good even after 3 years.
Jan 02, 2021
 
Rated: 5 by ChicagoShakeAndBake26 from Illinois

Dec 04, 2020
 
Rated: 4.41 by hopley from Massachusetts

Nov 27, 2020
Photo of Jugs_McGhee
Reviewed by Jugs_McGhee from Colorado

2.61/5  rDev -39.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.75
Stumbled upon a 2017 vintage (bottled on 10AUG17) 500ml bottle with a pry-off crown cap today at a beer store that shall go unnamed in New Orleans, LA for $19.29 USD plus tax. That's more than I've paid for a beer in probably 3 years, but I decided given the unlikeliness of the find coupled with the surprisingly below-MSRP price I'd make an exception.

12.6% ABV. "Contains wheat, tree nuts." "Stout aged in bourbon barrels with blueberry juice and almond extract added."

Served cold into the closest vessel I had to a snifter...a stemless wine glass.

APPEARANCE: ~3cm in height. Khaki tan colour. Thick and robust. Lasts an impressively long amount of time...~10 minutes. Leaves thick lacing on the sides of the glass as it slowly recedes.

BODY: Ink black. Opaque. No yeast/lees visible. True to style.

Appears aptly carbonated. It's a nice looking stout, but it lacks the dark gilded tan head observed in the creme de la creme of the style.

AROMA: I do get fruit juice, or more specifically sticky berry juice, but I don't think through my hyposmia I'd ever know from the aroma that it was blueberry juice. And almond? I can't find the almond in the aroma, honestly. Along with the sticky berry juice (think thawed frozen berry packets from the supermarket), I get a generic dark malt sweetness and that's honestly it.

Forget any barrel character (oak, coconut, toasted wood, etc.) or even chocolate malt...the rich bourbon barrel aroma of plain old BCBS is completely absent to its detriment. No roasted barley/carafa, no coffee-like bitterness, no burnt malt, no barrel vanillin, not even a trace of bourbon...how is this so limited given all that was done? For a bourbon barrel aged stout with almond extract added, it's shockingly lacking in terms of bourbon, barrel, stout, and almond flavours. I'm already regretting my purchase...

TASTE & TEXTURE: Sticky fruit juice and dark fruits (big plum and loud prune) are the first things I notice along with a sludgy heavy mouthfeel and a thick goopy (and frankly unpleasant) texture. Sugary sweetness and sticky fruits are big in this brew, and not to its benefit.

Almond I don't find. And the bourbon barrel is all but gone...maybe it's just due to aging at room temperature, but there's no oak, coconut, toastiness, vanillin/vanilla, bourbon spice, or anything else present I'd associate with bourbon barrel aging (or, actually, BCBS itself).

I'm surprised how simplistic and shallow this is. It's a big bold stout, but there's just not much flavour beyond the sticky berry juice, which imparts the beer with a Juicy Juice sort of artificiality sticky mess vibe.

Not chocolatey or roasty, but there is some acrid burnt malt presence on its climax.

Finishes warmly boozy and unpleasant. Not a balanced or well brewed imperial stout.

OVERALL: When the emperor's naked I have to call it, and I'm calling it. A laugh at $20 a bottle, and a poorly executed stout with no barrel flavour at all. Maybe aging has just been unkind to this one-off, but it's presenting to me as a blueberry syrup stout with zero bourbon or barrel flavour, zero almond, and none of BCBS' chocolate malt sweetness. I'd honestly rather drink Buffalo Bill's Blueberry Oatmeal Stout, and this is easily the worst BCBS variant I've tried to date.

C- (2.61) / BELOW AVERAGE
Aug 16, 2020
Photo of gholmes
Rated by gholmes from Pennsylvania

4.46/5  rDev +3.2%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Tastes like an almond blueberry pie. Silky mouthfeel. Worth the wait.
Jun 27, 2020
Photo of zac16125
Reviewed by zac16125 from South Carolina

4.32/5  rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
Bourbon County Northwoods
10oz pour into a tulip
On tap at Craftsmen in Charleston,SC
Consumed and review written on Dec 10th, 2017 (late to the posting party here)


A: Jet Black, no head or lacing. 4

S: Huge blueberry, good amount of almond, then the normal BC base beer aromas of huge roast and bourbony oak. Killer nose. 4.5

T: Blueberry is huge, almond is almost non-existent up front but becomes prominent on the finish. Roasty and charred oak on the finish. 4.25

M/D: Full bodied but not thick, ABV very well masked with good drinkability. 4.5

O: Very nice beer, not my favorite BC variant but quite nice. 4.25
Mar 23, 2020
Bourbon County Brand Northwoods Stout from Goose Island Beer Co.
Beer rating: 96 out of 100 with 415 ratings