New Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout 2018 Variants

15.2% bottled Sep 17, 2018 had no issues, either.

 

Someone suggested posting my review of Vanilla BCBS, so here is a link to it;

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-718.596048/page-5#post-6277774

 

Where in NC?

 

How is this possible since it's pasturized?

 

Thanks for the reviews and for ranking them as well. I really enjoy the base beer, but I have never had a chance to get any variants--from my experience, and from what I have heard around town, I would have to wait in line to get any, and I do not want to wait in line for those. Further, I have a hard time justifying the price difference. Perhaps, someday though ...

 

I didn't have to wait in any lines, and got 14 of the variants. I've gotten to know managers/owners at a few stores, and get on their lists - often without needing to ask. As far as cost, splurge on one or two and you have my permission to consider it a gift from yourself. Craft beer is <apparently> one of your hobbies. How much do you spend on your other hobbies?

 

In north-central Pennsylvania I'm seeing regular and orange at distributors (guessing 1 case each) and have seen one grocery store so far with 1 case of regular. $11.xx for regular and $22.xx for orange. (Doubt I'll be trying the orange...) My regular was delicious and definitely not infected. I don't have the bottle in front of me right now to check the date but the ABV was 15.4. I bought a second one for aging purposes at the same time. I guess if I decide to buy more I should try to get them from the same batch?

 

Orange is well worth it for at least one to try. Incredible, particularly when warmed.

 

Same ABV and bottling date as you, with a 14:14 timestamp, and it's the best OG BCBS I've had since 2012. Glad I have a case.

 

It's a great variant! Really thought the orange was going to be overpowering with all the comments on here and other forums, but they couldn't be more wrong. Glad I have a case.

 

I predict: GI will have a BCBMS next year. That's Bourbon County Brand Mint Stout.

 

Oh lawd, do not sleep on midnight orange. My first BCBS of any kind was a '17 regular last week and I was not that impressed. I've always passed on chasing it, but since this year it was so easy to find I caved and bought one variant. As someone who usually seems to be on the "adjunct was overwhelming" side of big stouts, I was pretty wary of my purchase given reviews of this year's vanilla. The midnight orange is so legit, no flavors are overpowering. Very well done and I might even see if I can pick up some more. Bonus points to GI for making a big BA stout that doesn't require you to age it yourself an additional x amount of years to really get the most out of it.

 

Got home a bit early tonight

Been really digging this.

Enjoy

 

This variant looks interesting

 

Ughhh.....wrong thread......

Enjoy

 

Will have to give the midnight orange a try. Not the biggest fan of heavily adjuncted stouts. Coffee or vanilla is usually fine for me. Too sweet and it makes my stomach churn (I'm sure I'm not the only one).

Anyone have bramble yet? What are ya'll rankings so far if you were able to try multiples already

 

Its always the people who complain about bourbon county pricing, abinbev and what not who seem to end up with “infected” bottles every year..
Funny how that works...

 

Thank you that info and for your inquiries. Actually, Wednesday I scored a 4-pack of Bell's BBA Expedition Stout by calling around at more than a few stores; I am grateful, as at many stores in town you could only purchase one bottle. I am sure that in some stores and certain regions of the country knowing the beer store managers/owners may get you top priority on hard to get items. I do have relationships with a few, and I do occasionally get a heads up about a particular release (I recently scored a single of a BBA Milk Stout that way), which I always appreciate. But it's often not as simple as all that.

The one beer store where I have the closest relationship with the manager has a beer rewards club; the problem is, because my budget is low (I choose to live a simple life) I don't spend as much as others do, so I rarely get an 'allocation'. And even then, most are beyond what I am willing to pay: I have a hard time justifying paying more than $15 for a large format beer (i.e. bomber or 750ml). That to say, believe me, I treat myself often enough--a bit more often than my budget allows.

I spend much more on this 'hobby' than any other one (i.e. I spend much less on loose-leaf tea).

This was much more than I was planning to write. Thanks for asking. I am actually very happy with my beer situation. I would much rather do a little scrounging for what I get, and appreciate it greatly, than go back to the work schedule I had and be free to buy, more or less, what I want. I consider myself a religious person, and yet whenever I score a good deal or get a hard to find beer, I joke that the 'Beer Gods are smiling'. And, by my standards, they smile much often more than I have ever asked them to.

That's what I mean by, perhaps someday I will get to try a variant (I know if I wanted to I could show up at one of the many beer clubs around town and eventually I'm sure I would get to try one). Whatever happens, it's all good.

 

Same, unless you consider the extremely charred wood flavor an issue. I think it's the most char I've tasted in fresh BCBS since 2008. The contrast between fresh and aged will be much more obvious.

 

I agree with you, sort of. I didn’t get a particularly noticeable wood flavor, but we are talking about the same thing. I noted it was dry, bitter coffee forward, roasty and smokey, more so than I’ve experienced.

It is also why I think the Vanilla and Midnight Orange worked so well. These flavors were still there, but nicely complemented by the sweetness from the additional ingredients.

I did not get any of these flavors in Bramble, probably because the fruit juice cut it out completely.