Chocolate Cherry Bourbon County Brand Stout
Goose Island Beer Co.

 

 

 

 

A - Pours black, no head, lacing, or retention.

S - Wonderful cherry aroma, nice chocolate notes, smooth bourbon, some oak. The cherries and chocolate are outstanding.

T - Fresh cherries, smooth silky chocolate, wonderfully smooth bourbon, touch of oak. It's a mix between Belgian Red and BCBS, except better.

M - Full, rich and smooth, creamy finish.

O - Simply outstanding and one of my favorite BCBS variants to date!

I had about three samples of this yesterday at Stout Fest. It was the first tap I went to. It looked like a Bourbon County, a lifeless black with a dark khaki head. It was thick and coated my sampler glass. The aromas were very, very sweet. There was still a good amount of bourbon and vanilla in the nose with a boatload of overly sweet cherries. Luckily the chocolate toned down the cherries a bit. The flavors were of creamy milk chocolate covered cherries. It was cloyingly sweet and kind of hard to drink. The cherries were so predominant that after awhile it tasted like cherry soda syrup. It was a slight let down. The chocolate wasn't as predominant as it could've been. This beer could've used a greater balance between the chocolate and cherry flavors. It would've been much more drinkable. It coated the palate and left a cherry and vanilla flavor behind. This beer was far too sweet for me to give a high grade too. It was even sweeter than the Vanilla in my opinion. I'm definitely glad I could try it and it started off Stout Fest in the right manner.

For starters, this has Michigan Cherries in it.

A - An impressive looking black stout with a mocha head that rose up a finger and faded to a ring for a bit. I find most BCS variants to look pretty great, and this wasn't an exeption. Not quite as good looking as some of the bottled ones for some reason, but might have been due to the sampler glass I was drinking it out of.

S - The bourbon on this is much more muted possibly due to the chocolate and cherry notes. Rich chocolate with a very real cherry smell in there, quite Wisconsin Belgian Red-esque.

T - The taste on this is phenomenal. A rich chocolate taste with bourbon and a little barrel. The Cherry was done perfectly on this. It comes on the end with a strong presence that is very rich and real. Once again, think of adding the best parts of NG Wisconsin Belgian Red into some BCS and this is really what you have. Just like a chocolate covered cherry. The cherry isn't overpowering, or dominating, but compliments this beer perfectly. The person in line before me said it was hard to pick out and not very good, but I completely disagree and found this to be the best tasting beer at StoutFest.

M - Rich, full bodied, lower to moderate carbonation, slightly creamy.

D - This one pretty much ended the day for me. I drank tons of this, and paid the price later. It was also the first tap to blow, and rightly so. Awesome beer, only thing that keeps it from getting a 5 on the drinkability is I can see it being or becoming slightly too sweet if drank in large quantities.