Bourbon County 2017

According to Mark McDermott, the brewer told him the taste profiles between the third use barrels were not consistent. http://www.chicagonow.com/the-beero...7-goose-island-bourbon-county-stouts/#image/1

Shouldn't one expect they have some barrels that are good they could keg for local release?

 

Maybe it was just falling apart in tiny little soggy black splinters. I have had one or two long-aged BA stouts in the past that had some obvious charred wood sediment at the bottom of the glass. I assumed it's moistness would help any pieces I swallowed not do too much damage to my stomach, but otherwise didn't care lol.

 

For those of you attending FOBAB, I pulled the below exert from a recent tribune article....

"Double Barrel Bourbon County Brand Stout is the “original” version of Bourbon County Brand Stout (released widely in bottles on Black Friday) then aged longer in fresh bourbon barrels. It clocks in at a whopping 17 percent alcohol, and will debut at Chicago’s Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer on Nov. 10 and 11"

I assume it will make an appearance at the Clybourn re-opening as well.

 

That would easily be centrifuged out so i don't think that was the issue.

 

Did GI ever actually confirm infection on the Reserve BW? I find it odd this article seems to be stating it as fact, when couldn't that get them in trouble if it was not?

 

I have not seen it declared officially. I have however read the other articles posted in this thread stating that via interviews with the brewer, the issue was not infection. (Just a statement of fact - not voicing any opinion on this matter and whether anything is double speak or truth.)

 

The ability the GI brewers to blend barrels is what makes BCS special. They have thousand of barrels with different characteristics, and to blend them together and give us the world class beer we love is really quite the art form when you think about the work that goes into it.

It’s very possible a number of the barrels for the reserve were just not up to snuff. We’re talking about 3rd use barrels that were initially sitting for
35 years in Kentucky.

Some may have very well been fine and great, but once the blending process started, they discovered that they didn’t have near the quality of beer they had counted on.

 

This is most likley exactly what happend. The some of the parts was not better than individual contributers.

 

On that note, we got lucky enough to have 6 single barrels of '16 BCBS here in Ohio for a tasting recently and it was amazing to taste just how different each barrel was from another. It really is insane.

 

So the question becomes, did they ruin their entire collection of Reserve BW by already blending it all, or are they all still in their individual barrels?

Who's up for single barrel BW, that apparently tasted incredible on its own?

 

Gotta admit, if for some reason they sent some to Lizardville, like the BCBS... I'd probably be first in line to try some haha

 

Hell yeah, plant the seed

 

I don't think any brewery just blends all the barrels before testing them with smaller oz "test" blends first. At least that's what makes sense to me and what I've been told by the few brewers I spoken to about blending.

 

I personally don't see why so many are making such a big deal out of this. If they would put out a beer that was not up to OUR standards, everyone here would bitch. If they decide not to because it wasn't up to THEIR standards, people bitch. There are still 6 other versions being released for us to complain about.

 

I agree that not selling BW Reserve is the right thing to do if it's not up to par. However, Goose Island is now getting a reputation for announcing beer then it not being "ready".This doesn't bode well with consumers.

 

I haven't read the full thread but speaking for myself I'm not mad at GI or anything, just disappointed as I was really hoping for something at the level of King Henry.

 

Don't think they would admit to it being "infected"

 

And we see how well people deal with FFF not announcing the variants until the week of DLD. Again, they are damned if they do, damned of they don't.

 

How many other times has it happened? I recall last year one of the variants that WE expected didn't end up making it, but I didn't think Goose actually announced that beer - it was just a label approval. Have there been other instances?

I think that saying this "doesn't bode well with consumers" gets back to the point...why shouldn't it bode well (i.e. why should we bitch about it)? They have plans to release a beer, then decide they shouldn't. Seems like the right call. If it had to do with infection, that's where I think it would be really bad, considering the 2015 BCBS debacle.

 

I'm not sure if they announced the beer last year, but there were Maple Rye and Scotch barrel labels circulating. With Prop being mediocre (at best) the last couple years and several batches not being released, it gives me the impression they are not on top of their game. I'm not bitching to them. Rather, my perception of Goose being the holy grail of stout makers has shifted.