Thoughts on Goose Island's 2022 Bourbon County (BCBS) Lineup?

My guy received no four-packs. If available, I might have picked up one or two.

 

The 4 packs will either be the same as the 16.9oz bottles, or single barrel variations. For example: one 4pack will have 4 bottles only aged in Heaven Hills barrels, another pack will have only Wild Turkey barrels, and others will be the blend of all 4 barrels, which the larger format is

 

You made mention of Heaven Hills and Wild Turkey barrels. What are the two other barrel types that were used?

Cheers!

 

Willet and Buffalo Trace, although I though Four Roses was in the blend. I don’t know much about bourbon so maybe someone can clarify

 

There has been some discussion about whether the blend that is in 4 packs (which is listed as simple “GI on the back label, whereas Heaven Hill is HH, wild Turkey is WT, and willet is WILT) is the same as the blend that is in the 16.9 oz bottles. We don’t actually know. So, 4-roses certainly could be included in one but not the other. If I had to guess, I’d assume that if 4R was used for the blend, it would be for the 4-packs, since there is less, and WT and Willet are used less in the blend (historically) than other distillery barrels (eg, beam of all varieties). For example, I’d never seen any indication that they ever used ANY Willet barrels until this year. HH is always sprinkled in, and of course Rare15 was in 35yr HH barrels.

 

My whole brain went that way so no battle in my head. Granted, I've never had the other variants I bought, but they are new so haven't been in my radar for years.

 

Did OG last night. It’s good but seemed thin. 2020 is the GOAT for me. Opening one of my Coffees tonight. Barleywine or 30th for Christmas for sure

 

Really liking the coffee variant. Not sure I'd pay $25 for another bottle though. I thought the standard was pretty good, not the best I've ever had (that might be 2020). Overall I'm satisfied but I don't think I'll be buying two bottles at once again. Will just stick to the variants if there is one that sounds appealing or go with the OG.

 

Drinking the coffee variant now while hanging Christmas lights. 4.75 out of 5.

 

What’s the bottling date on your bottle? Doing comparisons because some people are saying the coffee variant is a big let down and others are saying it’s fantastic

 

My 12ers had "WLLT", so I assume the Willet (plus HH?). Pretty sure this isn't comparable to the Lagunitas Willit...

 

It looks like Goose Island still uses Intelligentsia coffee, which has always been pricey per ounce compared with comparable roasters (i.e. Onyx, Oddly Correct, Rochester, Messenger, etc..)

Never understood their price point, especially considering how much more they charged per bag than competitors several years ago. But even their price point doesn't justify the upswing in cost of BCBS Coffee.

All of this complaining and I'm still seeing people post huge hauls of BCBS on the local social media beer group, so I guess $25 is still reasonable to some.

 

Was going to pass on the non-variant & coffee for now but I came across it at my local Costco and decided to bite. $10.99 & $19.99 respectively, $33 out the door no limit. I know that these get around at Costco's but was surprised to see them locally, our liquor stores are usually mediocre.

 

This year has been great in CT. I heard a lot of barleywine around but it’s mostly gone. Trying to find more for reasonable prices

 

There were some flavor variants along with coffee and regular BCBS at the store but I didn't pick any up. I would have picked up a barleywine but there weren't any for sale.

After the 2021 release I picked up some bottles a bit later when they made it to the discount shelf after they sat for a while. I might do the same this year and save a few bucks. I usually cellar the regular BCBS anyway so it's a win/win.

 

Been debating over the last few months with whether to buy the variants available along with original BCBS, which is still world class IMHO. However, after having my second bottles of the Classic Cola and Cherry Wood variants within the last month i found they were very good beers but not worth the $10 premium although i would have bought a Coffee Variant if it was convenient.
My local grocer had regular BCBS available and figured this would be as good as the price gets so i bought four this morning.
Cheers!
Tom

 

I will take a 4PK of Cafe Deth @$32 every time over BCBCS and its format of 500ml.

 

I would too... If it was distributed here.

 

Was able to snag the barleywine & the 30th anni Friday morning at Worldwide in Southington. They just kept pulling out more and more of the barleywine as people grabbed it. Otherwise, I haven’t really seen many people able to snag it in other states.