Goose Island Bourbon County Wheat-Wine for 2018!

Nice! Hopfully they don’t get rid of barleywine tho...

 

Wow this sounds cool. Eager for the next release to try this out.

 

Nice. I tend to enjoy Wheatwines more than Barleywines, so excited for this

 

Just keep in mind that there's nothing (yet) stating that they are the same beers except for the substitution of wheat. They could be two completely different beers in ingredients, process, etc. (Not that you are stating anything differently though)

 

Seeing "English style" on the labels strikes me as the dumbest thing I've seen on a label in a while. An "English style" Wheatwine? Really?

 

For the same reason there's an "English Barleywine" and an "American Barleywine?" I.e., to indicate to the consumer the type of hops being used?

 

While may be stupid, it does give me the indication that the wheatwine won't be hopped to death, and that alcohol will be the main thing balancing malt sweetness.

 

As far as I know, there's no English "wheatwine" tradition. Wheatwines are an American concept. Of course I could be wrong and will look foolish if so. I can make guesses as to why they'd label it as such, but it's ultimately just a foolish designation to me. There are better ways to inform the consumer. If I put Fuggles in a Rauchbier, I'm still not going to call it an English style Rauchbier. That's just me. BTW, Goose calls their Bourbon County barley wine "English style" even though the hops are an American variety.

I get it, I just don't like it. There's no precedent that there are American wheatwines that are hopped to death and English ones that aren't. Brewer's using the term "English-style" to indicate that any beer isn't very hoppy is a bad move in my opinion.

 

Be calm Amigo, I was suggesting a possible reason not a justification.

(Also, as we have both pointed out in the past, one of the problems with the current style categorizations is that "they just growed" and were not created on a rational, principled basis. )

 

Yeah - I know. My post was and not , but the internet happens. Cheers.

 

Gotcha.

BTW, as for foolish designations, how about those German brewers back in the day who started making a beer they called a "Pilsener" even though it was not being brewed in Pilsen (and may not have even been using the identical hops bill)...

 

Hopefully besides some great variants they can also make enough to get it distributed everywhere regular BCBS is.

 

Seeing as how "Pilsner" is a German word, was first brewed by a Bavarian, and predates Czechoslovakia... things clearly get very complicated. I just hope they didn't call it English-style Pilsner.

 

Yup, all that. Now add in that in German the world Pilsener means "from Pilsen."

Edit: Hmmm, if those Germans back in the day could have a German-style Pilsener, why couldn't/shouldn't the English have an English-style Pilsener.... Or the French a French-style Pilsener.... Or the South Africans a South African-style Pilsener... etc.

 

Rather than bog down the thread further, I'll just say that English brewers brew barley wine in the English tradition, wheat beers in the German tradition, wheat beers in the Belgian tradition... but don't make English-style wheatwines. I know of no such thing.

 

Only tangentially related but have any other states started seeing another round of Bourbon County coming through? BCBS vintages, coffee, barleywine amd Northwoods have been popping up all over Georgia, both bottles and draft. Not sure if it's part of some promotion or just clearing out unsold inventory.