Bourbon County 2018

I'm honestly not sure who's clamoring for these beers. They seem like beers people who didn't get to try them back in the day wish they could try. Big John and Nightstalker were exceptional in the "early tens" but I'm not sure they would hold up as all that great now.

 

Exactly.

Yeah, maybe that's part of it.

That's certainly a good point, it just seems like there has to be as much of a market for them (just from BCBS nerds) as for the random afore-mentioned Cooper Project stuff (among others). And who knows, maybe the brewers just don't want to do those stouts anymore, but still a little surprised given that I never hear anyone expressing excitement for the newer stuff GI has churned out (and I don't mean any disrespect when I say that; as a GI fanboy it makes me a little sad).

 

I wonder if part of the issue is that they do brew BCBS 3 times a week and have to keep all the barrels full. So there just isn't room in the schedule for brewing another stout. As far as the newer stuff Foudre Red was one of the best beers I've had this year and I'm really enjoying Next Coast.

 

Believe it or not, people still do drink beer styles other than barrel aged maple peacan birthday cake mix stouts and orange juice IPAs,

 

I thought about brewing space, I just figured they'd have enough for both. But that makes sense.

I was curious about Next Coast, but have been burned before. Maybe I'll check it out.

 

jfc

 

Dunno about Big John but assuming the Night Stalker isn't too oxidized, whoever opens it is in for a treat.

 

I agree that was a good beer

 

IPA Next was also good. I've been pleasantly surprised by their recent IPAs and think they've hopefully turned a corner.

 

This years Prop is basically BA Big John, so I’m very excited for that.

I disagree completely. That’s like saying Expedition Stout and Founders Breakfast Stout were pretty good in 2010, but wouldn’t hold up now.

 

VinePair’s #1 in their sample

Goose Island Bourbon County Beers 2018, Ranked

• “Goose Island has never used full-on chocolate in a bottled beer before…The payoff is the aroma and flavor of decadent, delicious drinking chocolate in the body of a barrel-aged stout.”

 

Yeah, the way I read Prop this year is it's a chocolate bomb. Not necessarily a bad thing.

 

Bring back The Muddy, let it sit in some barrels, and see what happens - I'd definitely buy it.

 

Too much licorice for me in The Muddy.

 

Ooh I forgot about The Muddy, I really liked that one. They'd probably need to stiffen it up a bit (if I'm remembering correctly) if they wanted to age it for a while, but yeah that'd be good with me.

 

Speaking of old GI stouts, did they ever barrel aged their old oatmeal stout? I always thought that was a solid beer.

 

It’s on draft pretty regularly at Clybourn!

 

Cthulhu and the variants is the only BA oatmeal stout that comes to mind.

 

*gets misty-eyed thinking about Cthulhu*

 

FTFY