Bourbon County Brand Two-Year Barleywine Reserve (2022)
Goose Island Beer Co.

This one pours a dark-ish brown color, with a small head, and a little bit of lacing.

This smells like caramel, vanilla, dark breadiness, fig, and nuttiness.

This was really, really solid, but slightly underwhelming compared to my expectations. It was quite dry, and barrel heavy, which I very much enjoy, but I would have enjoyed just a slight bit more sweetness overall. There’s tons of oak here, spicy, and drying, with tobacco, caramel, vanilla, chocolate, toffee, and caramel.

This is medium bodied, boozy and slightly warming, with a decent drinkability.

This was obviously brewed well, but I wanted a bit more out of it.

 

 

poured from a 500mL bottle into a revolution deep woods tumbler. pours a dark puddle water brown with maroon edges. huge bourbon and oak presence in the nose. i also get figs, plums, raisin, brown sugar, molasses and toffee. it’s a dark fruity, sweet bourbon mix but it’s really nice and the bourbon definitely leads the way. the taste mostly follows but offers up a little more chocolate and caramel flavors in addition to everything the nose had going on. huge, syrupy thick mouthfeel. really costs the tongue and mouth as the liquid is consumed. this is classic BCBSBW with a little extra (and extra fine) barrel component. exemplary english-style barleywine. been sitting in the back of my fridge for far too long and glad i finally cracked it. had high hopes for this one and it delivered.

 

16.9oz bottle (2022) poured into a teku glass at 55F after nearly a year in the 55F beer fridge. Drink By 26 JUL 27 GI 15:14 17.0% ALC / VOL noted on label. The beer pours dense, very dark brown with meager light brown head. The head recedes to a pencil thin ring and nothing else. The aroma is moderate in strength featuring sweet malt, bourbon and oak. The taste is boozey, sweet bourbony, malt with significant ethanol. There's some hints of fig, leather and oak, but the sweetness, lack of carbonation and ethanol make it hard to find flavor. Negligible bitterness. The mouthfeel is full bodied, syrupy, with minimal carbonation and the finish is saved from cloyingness only by the ethanol burn. Overall, good, but not even worth half MSRP.