Goose Island Bourbon County - 2024 (Chicagoland)

Agreed, if Goose is going to keep releasing 5-6 variants, then maybe release OG, Prop and one of the higher end variants on BF. Then release some variants every 3-4 months and that would definitely keep fans interested throughout the year versus everything at once on BF.

For me the hype kind of dies down a month or two after the BF release, especially when it gets warmer. I'm one of those people who doesn't even look at BA Stouts once we get into Spring.

 

Has anyone been to the taproom at the salt shed on a concert night? Wondering how crowded it gets.

 

It's more of a Mexican Kitchen Sink Barleywine
or... El Baño Sucio Barleywine

 

I always think there’s a chance that, despite the mess of ingredients, they will somehow hit by some dumb luck.

The last many years suggest no. Bummed to see these, especially the barleywine.

 

Man, I know it sounds a little different but if the peppermint beer is anything like candy cane nuthulu - that would be awesome. Always a favorite for me and never bottled that I’m aware of. I would definitely be seeking that out.

 

When Goose Island was independent, and shortly after the sale, Black Friday was about maxing profits and exposure for BCBS beers. After the jump, it became a reward program for retailers to incentivize GI year round sales, and worked for a long time.

The brewery charges the same 1/3ish of retail price regardless of any markdowns (distributors then retails add from there), so the distributors and retailers take any cuts, but both still make bank with the large percentage of sales at full retail through New Years.

Hope they continue down this route, as now I wait until bottles are $60 for a box of twelve before buying (Two variant boxes in 2019 and one OG 2023 box this Winter).

It's still a great beer, so is Parabola. I never see the markdowns on that far more limited beer, but they are higher per ounce ($10/12, $11-13/16.9).

Still think Revolution's four annual releases are the best value, but their 50-100% higher priced variants are mostly good, but not worth the premium over their standard releases. Find that across most breweries "variants". YMMV.

 

In general, I agree. I am willing to pay a markup for specialty beers if I expect them to be of a certain quality, since they are very early made. They are often interesting and exciting, and I am glad I tried it, but often times I don’t want more than 1, or max 2 (ever). That is true for basically every brewery I have ever tried. It doesn’t really apply to SP, since they don’t have a core lineup.

For BC, I mostly want one of each. Beers like Fourteen or Vanilla, I’ll take a case. Beers like cherrywood were good, and I’d gladly take a few, but too expensive for the payoff. Same with any brewery.

 

This sums up how I've felt about bourbon county since 2015 and the subsequent pasteurization. Perfectly stated.

 

It kills me that they stopped brewing Cthulhu in any form; that's a beer that I'd run to Salt Shed for in any previous incarnation, and the candy cane beers (most recent years were just BCBS with candy canes, I think?) were a great reason to end a day of holiday shopping at the brewpub.

 

Your right it was Cthulhu that got the candy cane treatment wasn’t it. Those brewpub releases were mostly great. Nuthulu had the hazelnut and vanilla treatment. That was a FOBAB shocker that got everyone’s attention. Would love a remake of that beer.

That Candy Cane was a great holiday treat tho!!!

 

I miss the Clybourn one off bottle releases.

 

I think I still have two of those hanging out because of how harsh they were at first

 

it's funny that it feels like GI and 3F have switched strategies. Bourbon County has too many extraneous variants that no one really wants and Dark Lord is mostly sticking to fan favorites with one or two experiments a year

 

Cracked open my 2023 "Reserve" and "Cask Finish" BCS' tonight and these beers are incredible. The Reserve has an old school BCS complexity. Which I think shines through in these 2 year aged Bourbon County variants.

But this Angel's Envy thing is something else. Its fluffy, stains the glass, and has that great red fruit jammy flavor that the red wine aged stouts that Goose made 10 or so years ago had.

Totally blown away.

 

Ugh, not a fan of peppermint brews. Hop Butcher releases that chocolate Frango brew Minted in the Fall and I'm not a fan. But hey, that's me.

 

The Angel's Envy Cask Finish was one of the best beers I have ever had. It almost single handedly restored my faith that Goose Island can still make a truly top tier Bourbon County beer.

 

So on the flip side of last weekend's glowing reviews I opened my Backyard Stout and I was not a fan. It's so strangely tannic and bitter. What a mess.

 

My closest comparison to it was my infected 2023 FFF 2023 Rrhari Crochet.

 

Was just there on Saturday, June 8th for the Khruangbin show. We went after the show around 9:45pm to wait for the Uber crowd to die down and there was plenty of space available for a party of 4. Smash burgers and curds were great; beverage highlights were fresh Honkers Ale, two styles of a raspberry sour, and the Bourbon County milkshake.

Main takeaway, however, is that the taproom is not considered "on the grounds" of the Salt Shed, so you either have to go before or after a show since there is no re-entry once you leave the concert grounds. Our plan was to go there before the show, but we scanned in with our tickets and then found out the hard way that the taproom is a separate facility even though it literally overlaps into the Salt Shed. Something GI and/or SS marketing people should call out sooner than later, if they haven't already...hope this helps!

 

This is specifically addressed in the brewpub website FAQs, but I agree the Salt Shed should make their re-entry policies (or lack thereof) more clear.