Goose Island Bourbon County 2019

oh. and i'd tack on to my above rant... GI pretending to be shocked more beer was going bad while never having solved the original mystery... was pure comedy!

 

Yes, those signs taken in isolation do point that way, but let's not forget that in previous years they had dumped one or more variants that has shown infection during final testing while releasing the regular and some of the other variants with out needing a recall, etc. (BTW this has also happened to other barrel aging programs as well when they have had to dump as much as 10-40% of a single beer prior to the release of the rest.) Thus it is not uncommon in barrel aging programs to release some of the beer when some part rest is known to be bad.) In other words I don't think we can completely discount the idea that something novel and unexpected happened.

 

I'll at least try whatever variants I can get my hands and lips on. I'm not excited about Oyster and Dry Hopped - if those are real - so I'd only get one of each of those. Last year I wish I had bought more Vanilla, Orange and Wheatwine, and less/no Bramble. Unfortunately, I bought most of them untried. I did have a Wheatwine on tap half-way through the day, so did pick up three bottles, and a growler a week later.

 

Which "original mystery?" The early reports of infection? Lets keep in mind that many of those early reports originated over the internet and started off in areas where the beer had apparently been inappropriately stored warm. Thus they get a report, over the internet, they send someone to test the stock they keep in reserve for a variety of purposes, and that has been stored properly. No sign of infection there. Combine the source of information (a complaint about your beer on the internet) with the fact that a check of in house stock shows no sign of infection. What would be surprising is if they had panicked when those earliest reports of a problem came in.

 

BEER ADVOCATE 1 [clutches pearls]: GI totally sucks. They are the Man! The infection, and everything. You know? I mean, you know - right? Their barrel program is shameful. You know, with the pricing and barrels?

[others mumble in agreement]

BEER ADVOCATE 1: Shameful.

BEER ADVOCATE 2: Totally, wtf. Why do people still like them? God.

[others mumble in agreement]

 

but you have followed this topic closely over the years & continue to make allowances as if you never registered specific data-points that supersede your argument.

do you have a different explanation why the amount of 2015 Coffee released was so low? GI's reps, 2 of which i talked to in person at 2 different events (1) Black Friday, the other at an event for SF Beer Week (roughly 3 months apart) both indicated in person the reason the coffee release was so limited was because GI had to discard more than half of the beer before Black Friday. other BA members scattered across the country reported the exact same information at various other release events.

let me ask you to re-review this. it's a separate account that coincidentally jibes with what some of us were told by GI employees. try to factor what he says with what GI's employees indicated. link provided & screen shot as well:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...ing-out-beer-me-anything.583180/#post-6123400



the lab work, the unidentified bacteria etc may all be true, but is irrelevant in the sense that GI may not have known exactly what was wrong but they knew in advance something wasn't right. the figure i was given was that they threw out roughly 65% of the anticipated coffee variant beforehand. one of the "Best programs", in my view, wouldn't release any subsequent beer without determining exactly why so much tasted so bad they had to discard it. wouldn't you agree?

 

I think some people here don't understand how difficult it is to pinpoint exact genus and species of product samples without extremely expensive equipment/time dedicated to the process. There are so many factors to consider and critical control points along the process that can slip through the cracks.

Technicians in the lab can scan samples for weeks under the microscope to find something suspicious and never see it for it. Especially if it's an organism that requires time in package to grow and show symptoms.

It's very difficult, basically.

 

Why do we keep talking about it though? This was 4 years ago. Nothing has happened since.

 

Maybe because it also went up on price, changed to a larger format. And the varients each year suck more and more what's not to love? Not to mention the og bcbs doesn't taste like it used to.. kumbyah

 

mostly because year after year people insinuate there was zero chance to avoid what happened & that GI didn't paint themselves poorly in their response/reaction & if GI had reacted accordingly (over reacted some would say) they would have looked silly & that it wasn't a joke that GI seemed surprised the public's beer went bad when the same thing had already happened to a bunch of the beer that GI possessed & tossed beforehand.

it's rough to read that over & over again but remain silent while knowing otherwise.

 

Why is it always people from IL or FL who whiteknight GI? Serious question, it ALWAYS is people from IL or FL, historically, and in this thread right here.

 

Them making good beers, and them not being "the BEST at barrel aging", are not mutually exclusive.

They do make many fine beers, like I said ISLAY rocked my world and I wish I had bought a lot more, that was an innovative, ballsy beer that I did not see coming from them. But if you got fucked when they sold and then didn't refund the beers they admitted were infected, because you didn't jump through the right hoops... clearly there are plenty of people who feel like they don't deserve the title "the best at barrel aging." Then you've got your IL/FIB and FL people who will ridicule people who don't say GI is teh best, because they don't want the trade value of Prop/ the variants that seem to only end up in IL/FL to fall in value. Round and round we go.


The dry hopped one sounds dope, I hope they make that one and people melt down to the core about it. BA Nightstalker? ... Yum!

 

Funny, because, to me, BCBS, tastes exactly the same year after year. The nostalgia rush is real every November. . Different tastes, I suppose.

 

The first few years I drank it was just a face melting barrel bomb. Then it went to a sweet fruity mess. Although I never considered it that good and called it overrated even when I thought it was better.

 

Considering how available it is to major markets and for the price, i'd consider "over-rated" a tough pill to swallow, given how much I've enjoyed it over the years. But it is what it is!

 

Haha agree with every single thought and observation you make.

Still can't get over the fact I had to publicly apologize to ABI on this forum some years ago after they successfully kept their promise to put enough BCBS on shelf here to last the whole year.

Man, oh man, it is good to be able to just walk into a store anytime and get a bottle of Vanilla

 

Just a note to everyone who hasn't tried an oyster stout, they are awesome. If it is real it would be a variant I would be highly interested in

 

Infected BCBS should no longer reach the public due to pasteurization, unless individual containers are contaminated. That said, pasteurization may stop infection but it won't reverse the effects - such as bad flavor, so you also need to test for infection and dispose of infected beer.

 

Unless you don't like oysters.

 

or are allergic to shellfish/ mollusks