Goose Island Bourbon County Stout - Coffee and Cherry Rye '12

Not sure if there is individual keg variation on this or what, but the Bell's BA Cherry Stout that I had at FOBAB was awful, borderline drain pour.

 

I felt the exact same when I had it at the Eccentric Cafe a few months ago, especially when next to BA 9,000.

 

It's gone.

 

Agreed. I dumped the last ounce or two of mine to save my ABV intake for beers that tasted good. BA Batch 9000 is awesome though.

 

I wasn't able to score a Cherry Rye. Any suggestions for the NW burbs by O'Hare?

 

Aside from seeking out on-premise options (Hopleaf is out; they got six bottles and sold out within an hour once they were available; they were $42/bottle), I can only suggest trading. However, what you would have to give up in trades would, most likely and in my opinion, not be worth it.

 

Also in the NW burbs...resigned to not getting any and not willing to pay $40 at a bar

 

Now that the hunt for Cherry is winding down in Chicago, you can start looking for bars that have Baudoinia on tap.

 

I managed to score a Cherry Rye today at lunch at the place on the SE corner of Damen and Lawerence. They had them under the counter. Limit one per person. $24.99. Slightly marked up but worth it at this point I think. They also had Coffee. Not sure how many of either are left.

 

I finally got to try the Cherry Rye last night at Paddy Long's and I was a little bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a delicious beer, but my expectations were probably built up too high based on how hard it has been to chase down in Chicago combined with the fact that I love Bramble and expected Cherry to compete with or possibly even surpass Bramble. For my enjoyment, I think Cherry is equivalent to the much easier to obtain Coffee and totally not worth the effort to hunt down or the ridiculous asking price people are demanding in trades.

My ranking would be Bramble>Vanilla>Cherry=Coffee>Regular

Disclaimer: I have not had Rare.

 

Wow, you really like Bramble, eh?

I agree though, glad I got to try Cherry at GI Black Friday. It was very good, but not worth the insanity its caused around here. I'm perfectly happy with a bottle of Coffee and being able to find regular on the shelf just about anywhere I look.

 

Yes, I'm a huge fan of fruited BA stouts.
Bramble is the best example I have had, IMO.

 

I've had all of the varients within the past few weeks, some multiple times. My personal opinion is as follows:

Vanilla>Bramble>Rare>Cherry>2012 Coffee>2011 Coffee>Regular>2010 Coffee

 

I'll throw my hat into the "bramble beats cherry" ring, based on the Black Friday event. The raspberry tartness really adds another dimension to Bramble that's missing from Cherry. However, seeing several untappd checkins for Cherry that claim "on tap is sooo much better than the bottle!" now I have to track it down on tap which might be a tall order. edit: can anyone confirm that the pours at the black friday event were all from bottles?

 

I have only had Cherry on tap, it was lacking the tartness I expected.
I agree the tartness of Bramble is what really puts it above Cherry for my tastes.

 

Haven't had Bramble but had Cherry on tap at Paddy's...I had 6 oz pours of vanilla, cherry, and coffee in front of me and had to taste the cherry several times before I believed it was, in fact, cherry. It was way more subtle than I thought it would be...I wanted the tartness to be much more pronounced. It came out more when it warmed up but it was still a little disappointing.

 

Yes, the pours were from bottles.

 

Berkots in new lenox has some coffee...and kenwood in homer glen has a few cases of plain BCBS.

 

I just saw bought a few coffees from a new shipment in the north burbs. Unfortunately, no cherry...

 

Are you sure it was Cherry Rye and not the BCBS Cherry? I tried the BCBS Cherry in Madison at the Great Taste this summer and felt the exact same way.

Cherry - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1549/69240

Cherry Rye - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1549/87402