Special Ed
Goose Island Beer Co.

A dark unadvertised beer had at the original goose island brewpub in Chicago. It pays to ask your server if they have anything special on tap. This beer is what I would call dark, in fact it let's almost no light through except some subtle ruby highlights. The head is clean and has little retention.

The nose is what I would think the inside of a bourbon barrel smells like. Which makes sense because the brew master on site says it was aged in one for 10 months. It is a woody oak smell that has a scotch like peat scent mixed with some lovely sweet malts. I asked the server and he said it was about 13% ABV but he couldn't confirm it. It sure doesn't smell like it.

The taste is smooth and chocolaty with a distinct smoky bourbon and coffee flavor. The mouthfeel is thick and creamy almost like whole milk. Just short of amazing.

An outstanding full bodied beer. It is clean for such a heavily flavored beer, a lovely subtle bitterness and a subdued carbonation that rocks the f-ing house. My only complaint is that it is such a good beer you want to drink more of it. That's really not a problem except that after I had two I felt like I was special ed.

Pours a dark brown ruby color with very little head.

Scent of smoke, bourbon, oak, chocolate and molasses. Strong and balanced, but not overly impressive.

Taste of smoke, chocolate and oak with a hint of warming alcohol and bourbon on the finish. Nothing was really over dominating in the flavor department, everything was where it should have been and in the proper amount.

Mouthfeel is heavy and smooth, and it is surprisingly drinkable.

Had this brew on tap at the Clybourn location. Pours almost black with basically no head. Smell is smoked meats, and liquid smoke. One of the smokier beers of the style. Taste is smoky malt and moderately roasty and nutty. Pretty good and strongly flavored.

On tap at Clybourn, served in a snifter.

Pours an opaque and muddy dark brown, almost no head, just a touch of brown foam around the edge of the glass forms a thin ring, no lacing. Smell is sweet, tons of thick toffee, raisins and figs, bread, chocolate syrup, light smoke, very rich, alcohol is there but pleasant. Taste is very rich, tons of toffee, raisins and dates, maple syrup, smoke, chocolate cake, alcohol well hidden, thick toffee, slightly bitter finish, really lingers. Mouthfeel is super thick and viscous, low carbonation, some warmth, very rich, feeling. Sipper, fireside in the winter type of beer, nicely done!

Snifter at Clybourn, pours dark brown to black and totally headless.

The aroma is malt-heavy-- toffee, coffee, nuts, and chocolate. Vanilla, wood, and smoke are all present in force. The aroma is a weird, sort of barleywine-stout-rauchbier hybrid, but I like it.

The flavor profile is pretty much identical, front-loaded with lighter, nutty and toffeeish malts. Mid-palate, the beer changes from English barleywine to imperial brown, with stronger hazelnut and coffee flavors. Vanilla comes in towards the end, and smoke shows up on the finish and lingers for half a minute, blending cleanly with the mixed malts.

I like this pretty much more than any other smoked beer I've ever had, and I know why-- this tastes like beer instead of sausages.

The mouthfeel is heavy and syrupy, matching the sweetness and the smoke nicely.

Drinkability is decent for a barrel-aged 11% ABV smoked beer, by which I mean chug this at your peril.

This is another fine high-ABV offering from GI Clybourn.