Bourbon County Brand Special #4 Stout
Goose Island Beer Co.

 

 

 

 

02/05/23 bottle @ home

 

 

Older bottle incorrectly stored (?) but still pretty dang good, I'd love to try a correctly aged bottle of this beer.

 

Poured from 16.9 oz bottle into snifter. Stamped drink by 11SEP22…just in time.
A: Pours a dark brown hue with 1/4 inch dark mocha head that quickly settles to a thin skim.
S: Dark roast coffee with cream, smooth dark chocolate, maple syrup, soft oats, subtle bourbon, and a nutty note.
T: Dark roast coffee, maple syrup, smooth dark chocolate, smooth sweet bourbon, nuttiness, oatmeal, and cream.
M: Medium body. Extremely smooth and silky feel. Layers of dark sweetness with mild roasty bitterness. Soft oat feel. Lingers nicely on the palate.
D: Extremely well balanced and a too easy to drink sipper at 13.3%. A superb variation!

 

 

A: Poured into a snifter to a black beer topped by a dense and slightly rocky finger of tan head which fades quickly to a collar around the edge of the glass with minimal lacing
S: Smells of coffee, bourbon barrels, dark chocolate, roasted malts and hints of maple
T: Taste is coffee up front with some hints of maple, nice bourbon barrel notes with oak, caramel, and vanilla along with some dark chocolate and roasted malts interwoven with some maple sweetness. On the swallow there's more coffee, maple, dark chocolate, oak, caramel, and vanilla.
M: This beer sits at the heavier side of medium on the palate. Carbonation is on the slightly effervescent side but it's fine while the beer has a drying finish due to the ABV.
O: Overall this is an excellent beer. Really good flavors and complexity along with some very nice balance. It's a little coffee forward which is fine, but there's still plenty of other stuff going on to keep things interesting. I'd like for this one to come back.

Look - Black and thick with a great tan head and even better tan thick rimming and sticky lacing
Smell -chocolate coffee maple roasted malts slight barrel
Taste -nice barrel slight roasted malts pretty good amount of coffee slight maple oatmeal
Feel -medium full body with a slight carb
Overall - if it was a little thicker and more barrel it would be just incredible, great balance

Decedent! Like drinking an oatmeal-chocolate chip cookie that's been dunked in coffee that had a splash of Bourbon added! 13.3% extremely well-hidden!

500 ML bottle, born on 9/11/2020, poured into a tulip glass at 55 degrees F:
L - dark and static with a hazelnut head that quickly dissipated
S - molasses, bourbon, roasted malt
T - follows the nose, great blend of flavors
F - thick mouthfeel with minimal
O - excellent beer, my favorite variant of 2020

Very smooth w no harsh bourbon county edge, smooth and fruity.

Consumed 3/27/22

This is one of the variants (like most honestly) that is best fresh. But, this is still hitting it out of the ballpark for me. The mouthfeel is thick and full. It's less syrupy than a regular non oatmeal stout. There's still a sweetness that a BCS normally has, but the maple adds a nice nuance. The coffee has dropped off a bit more than I expected from fresh, but it's still there on the backend the most. I should try this against a CBS to see which is my favorite. I feel like this has more maple for sure. If you like coffee and maple, I think this is a world class version of these BA stouts.

 

Black in color and impenetrable to light. There’s a fingernail of brown around the rim and covering two thirds of the top. The aroma is of oatmeal, maple syrup, coffee, and bourbon. I’m tasting a wallop of maple syrup, coffee, bourbon, and oatmeal. The mouth is thick, chewy, and sticky.