New Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout 2018 Variants

For everyone saying an orange stout would be gross...you must not have tried this (I know this is a porter but still)

Funky Buddha BA Imperial Chocwork Orange
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31805/227667/

 

Having had beers like Black Magick from Voodoo that have been aged in barrels from various different distillers, I will say that each iteration has been noticeably different.

 

Would try it, but the couple of orange stouts I've had didn't do it. That said, don't take the "Porter" moniker too seriously, at 11%, that's a silly joke.

 

Over-rated (clap, clap... clap clap clap), Over-rated

 

For some of them, yes. As I just posted above that I did just that. But northwoods wasn't as desirable of a variant (I haven't had it since prop day but will drink one soonish). Vanilla and Bramble won't go $4$ unless you find someone generous. I would imagine only regular, barleywine, and possibly orange will.

But there is a reason why I have a witches hat membership....

 

No but I've tried this and it was gross.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3818/150203/

 

I wasn't really referring to regular, given the post that I was referring to. Regular is amazing. I understand not wanting to stand in line, but organizing a trade for regular is absolutely worth it. If (the royal) you are only interested in variants, I understand that's frustrating, but that's a different discussion altogether in terms of ability to get variants.

 

Just asking, have you ever had orange in a stout? Tangerine peel in FFF Lounge Against the Macromachine and orange peel in 4 Candles from SP, I thought both of those stouts were fantastic.

 

I've had the above mentioned Southern Tier, as well as Black Butte XXVIII, and both were pretty bad. Lounge and 4 Candles are from breweries of a different pedigree, IMO, so maybe the GI will be a middle ground?

BTW congrats on the Lounge, you have to be one of like 10 people have have actually drank that so far.

 

Yeah, I've actually had the ones Sabtos mentioned and he makes a good point about the breweries, themselves. I suppose it could end up turning out ok. I'll certainly try it should I get the chance.

And, Lounge is the exception, not the rule. That beer could have easily been a disaster

 

All these varieties and maybe three look good, two of which (Bramble and Vanilla) they've made before. Though to be fair, I guess they technically haven't made Vanilla since 2010, unless you count Vanilla Rye.

Meanwhile they still haven't remedied their gravest sin of ruining the barrel recipe for Bourbon County Barleywine.

 

agree more with this at the current moment in time. but there are some glaring historical examples that don't agree & suggest branding (may) matter. they might be outliers or exceptions but they exist for sure.

1. some of us are well aware Goose tried to release what they described as a "wheat" BCBS variant (2011/12). as the release was maturing to GI's dissatisfaction it became known the "brand" of whiskey the barrels represented was Rebel Yell. the release failed & was ultimately discarded.

2. thanks to Goose Island's warehouse, we know that Heaven Hill almost certainly was using Brown Forman produced bourbon to supplement Elijah Craig brand. all those 12+ year old Heaven Hill barrels with "DSP-354" stenciled in their barrel heads were produced at Early Times distillery. the DSP 31 barrels were Heaven Hill's distillate. to everybody above that suggested the barrels & spirit are the same & just differentiated at the bottling point, this specific example defies that as it's not possible "all" the barrels were the same since we have evidence/proof the production sources were varied.

2a: while it's not scientific proof, it supports the conclusion or is 1 helluva' coincidence. it appears shortly after the Brown Forman/ Early Times shadow distilling contract with Heaven Hill ended, Elijah Craig brand took a major hit. the brand's standards started running into age statement problems that persist & have forced them to small, limited, seasonal releases. these results certainly support a conclusion that the #354 bourbon was likely being bottled for Elijah Craig "brand".

 

Sure, and as a point of clarification for those who may not be aware the contract distilling was due to the disastrous fire suffered by Heaven Hill. During a storm a bolt of lightning hit a hilltop warehouse igniting it which started a chain reaction to other warehouses located further downhill. In all 7 warehouses, 140,000 barrels consisting of approximately 7,420,000 gallons of whisky, sent a river of fire down hill which engulfed and completely destroyed Heaven Hill's distillery.

To their credit the Shapira family, owners of Heaven Hill, called in the employees and Max Shapira basically said, "nobody's losing their job and we're going forward". Another family owned outfit, Brown-Forman, stepped in and agreed to continue distilling whisky for HH using HH recipes, HH supplied yeast strains, HH specification (char level) barrels and the hands on assistance of HH Master Distiller Parker Beam. The Distilled Spirits Plant number (DSP) for Heaven Hill was 31 and Brown-Forman is DSP 354. Kentucky law requires each barrel of Bourbon be identified by stenciling on it the DSP of the plant that actually produced it. So for years Heaven Hill Bourbons continued to be marketed from both DSP 31 and DSP 354 giving rise to lively conversations on the Bourbon Forums discussing the relative merits of each but that's not beer talk so I'll skip forward.

Goose Island could well have used Heaven Hill supplied barrels stenciled DSP 354 as the timing seems about right. My position that all aging barrels of Bourbon become depleted of their natural wood sugars, vanillins and other trace flavoring elements by about 8 years is a view shared by every Bourbon Master Distiller who has been interviewed on the subject. Hence my comment that the age of the barrel in use is more important than the brand of Bourbon it contained.

I submit that Goose Island's problems were of their own making and would have occurred irrespective of their barrel source.

 

BCBS Vanilla was unretired because the new one releasing this year will basically be rated under this same entry, yeah?

With the changes to the Top Beers calculations, I'd been looking over the list and realized that it was now on there, although I didn't remember it being there before.

It didn't occur to me until just now that it likely would have been retired previously.

 

This would be a good question to ask someone like @John_M . Nice catch @Sabtos. I feel like there should be a change made - where the old is listed as "BCBVS 2010" and the new as "BCBVS 2018".

 

Thanks, but I'm actually not a fan of Untappdifying Beer Advocate, and prefer keeping our distance from creating separate entries for vintages of beers that are made using the same processes and ingredients over time.

Are these beers made to be drastically different, either via process or ingredients?

 

While the intention is for the beers to be the same, the beers were brewed/bottled 8 years apart (in both cases). While I respect that a beer like BCBS (reg), darklord etc. shouldn't be stratisfied, I feel like this distinction should be made between original and the new version. It's not the same brewer, same barrels, etc. To me, these are 2 completely different beers even if they taste similar.

One question should be - well, if the ratings are drastically different, would that justify splitting them apart? Clearly they would be different beers if the average rating for the new is 3.8 but the old was 4.6. If so, I feel like that's reason enough to preemptively take this step

Ultimately, this isn't something I'd really want to fight over (not that I'm saying you are), just my 2cp. Ultimately, it's up to the mods.

 

I understand where you're coming from, and if there's a consensus as to creating two entries I'd concede to it.

But honestly, if it remained one entry, I'd enjoy watching to see how far it falls once the new version gets into people's hands, if it falls at all.

 

I'm curious for sure.

BCBVS and VR are two different beers. Having had neither, I suspect VR comes off slightly more balanced, as I'd expect the spice from the rye barrel to balance some of the sweetness that is associated with Vanilla. Even if there's "more vanilla" flavor in VR. That said, the vanilla beans that were used in those 2 are also different, and as such gave two different flavors as well.

This, coupled with craft being way more popular in 2014 than 2010 makes me feel like 2014 is rated higher not necessarily because it's a better beer, but due to beer geek perception and trends.

That's all to say, I'm very curious to see what people have to say about this years version. Curious if it will go up or down.

 

is this releasing on black friday again this year?