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

Is it made with real ingredients or natural flavors?

 

Read bbtkd’s description again of Biscotti

 

I did the first time and that’s why I’m asking.

 

gotcha, hopefully neither, lol

 

If it’s anything like the Bottle Logic biscotti stout that came out a year or two ago, it’s a hard pass. Those flavors are so hard to impart on a beer without a big addition of “natural/artificial flavors”. The Bottle Logic one tasted like a solid barrel aged stout, nothing more. That isn’t really a bad thing because it tasted good, but not worthy of the price markup of something “special”

 

I know that we are beer nerds and we are the exception not the rule, but I'm shocked the number of people that clearly work as beer specialists that I spoke with today that clearly indicated by how and what they said that they knew nothing more than "this is what the paper says". Most everyone had no idea what the 4-packs even were. I'm just surprised as hell about that.

 

Both...

"Stout aged in bourbon barrels with cocoa nibs, toasted almonds, anise seed and natural flavor"

Natural flavor, I assume is "almond" extract which is going to overpower the rest. Easy pass for me! At least it doesn't sound nearly as bad as this year's Proprietor's

 

You missed a joke.

@bbtkd Listed the ingredients as including anus. Surely his phone autocorrected from anise, but the fact that he types anus that much raises even more questions. I feel like we're about to head back down the analingus rabbithole that BA goes through every few months.

 

TWENTY FIVE for coffee?

Just so we’re on the same page here this is the same beer that 7-8 years ago you could get 12oz bottles of for $6.

So the size of the bottle increases 25% and the price increases 400%?

Eat my whole fucking ass Goose Island. What a goddamn trash company.

 

Wait for it...

Clearly I am clairvoyant.

 

That coffee they add is worth more than the already relatively pricey base beer. My question is where can I get this apparently amaze-balls coffee?

 

I heard the high abv of the 4 pack is 14.2 and low abv is 13.8. Maybe 14 abv is the cut off in some states? Also still not 100% sure if 4 packs are from same distiller or 1 bottle of each 4 (4 roses, HH, WT, and BT), maybe Chicagoland and limited national distribution will be the same or varied.

 

Travel to the landlocked historic kingdom of Burundi in the deep interior of the African continent and search out an all female coffee plantation where the beans are grown in the deforested soil and the blood of colonial sins… Or try one of the many Intelligentsia coffee shops.

 

$25 has been the standard “low end variant” price for a few years now. I think the only exception was Cola last year ($18.99?), and I have a feeling it was because there was so much backlash about it as soon as it was announced.

It sucks because you get a total disaster like Kentucky Fog that costs $25 and now a hopefully really good variant in Coffee for the same price

 

It was Cherry Wood that was cheaper. And it should have been for what it was - very “light” on being a variant. In comparison - like it or hate it - a lot went into cola, and it is deserving of the “normal” variant pricing scheme.

 

They should both be maybe 9.99 now, since they're both still available at my Total Wine.

 

^ This guy gets it

 

What shop is this?

 

Which fine, but I don’t — and I’m sure I’m not alone here — consider coffee or the barleywine a ‘low-end variant’ because they used to sell them both for the exact same price as the OG at $6/12oz bottle or $24-25 a 4-pack and it’s even more galling to think of it in terms of the latter. They are now selling one 16oz bottle for the same price that they used to sell 48oz worth of the same beer.

It’s bad enough that they sell some of these variants for like $65 (also before anyone tries to be like ‘well Toppling Goliath sells KBBS for..’ they can fuck off too) but what they’re doing with coffee/barleywine is straight-up extortionate.

I will instead be buying Framinghammer variants for $12 and hoping Goose Island goes bankrupt.

 

Barleywine and coffee, in that order. I hope we see BW here. Otherwise, I’m trading… of course, I’m always open to those pesky 2017 BWs nobody wants.

 

NY. Higher prices. Always.

 

$42 for the barleywine? Fuuuuuuuuuuck meeeeee.

 

Glug glug glug glug. Fall down.

 

I think of Evil Twin’s biscotti break that was so difficult to discern the flavors.

 

Isn’t there still some union busting hate for GI? Maybe we can score some BW after all.

 

It was straight up anise and licorice. Very few at Prop day actually said they liked it. The coffee variant was a surprise hit, but it's not a $30 bottle...Not even close.

 

✅

 

https://www.porchdrinking.com/artic...bon-county-stout-review-the-30th-anniversary/

This article says the barleywine is 60% double barrel aged, saw that mentioned one other place. Can anyone confirm?

 

The biggest offender as far as pricing is concerned is the Anniversary bottle, as far as I am concerned. I haven't tried it, but it doesn't seem like there's anything particularly special about those barrels. Even I feel like that's a money-grabbing farce.

 

It's mentioned on the box. Yup.

 

Is double barrel even a selling point in this case if it is 1) only 60% of the barrels, 2) you are already doing a blend of 3 different barrels, and 3) it’s staying in some kind of barrel for 2 years regardless.

 

It's all Old Fitz BIB, and all barrels are that were first wracked are from one of the most lauded Old Fitz BIB releases in at least the past decade. A blend? Feels like an overuse of the word for how most would use the word blend here. It's the exact same whiskey, same type of release, etc. Not just the same distillery or even the same mash. This is likely way closer to being "not a blend" than something like the first Reserve release where Goose used ECBP barrels, which for sure must have included multiple batches.

 

Nope, just reread the box and no mention of double barreling. SN doesn't mention double barreled on its E.H. Taylor Bigfoot packaging either. Strange.

I think so, 2 years finishing in a barrel is going to be very different then one year spent in each of two different barrels and 60% is a big number

 

I thought this was a J. Peterman bit until I scanned through the Porch Drinking article.

Would be interesting to know the breakdown of who got what % (Burundi Coffee Coop, shippers, commodity brokers, distributors, Intelligentsia, Goose Island) out of the $10-$13 per bottle markup between the OG BCBS price and the BCBS Coffee price.

In terms of trying two of the three I cared about this season (didn't get a crack at the third, Anniversary), I did enjoy the Coffee much more than the BW, the latter of which I found too sweet for my taste. I only had 2-3 ounce samples, so I didn't perform a formal review, and may have different takes if I had a say a half to full bottle of each and had time for both to warm further. I liked the fact the coffee was present, really enjoyed it, but it was not too strong which you get many times in a BA Coffee stout.

 

• Bourbon County Proprietor’s Stout (jungle bird cocktail - banana, coconut, lime, pineapple)

Well that sounds disgusting...but I'm definitely down for trying it!

 

Burlington Wine and Spirits.

 

@DIM I will have to go back through the other BC thread to find the links. One included a tasting by reviewers/“influencers” at the barrel house, and I thought they were reading off the box at the time, but it sounds like I am misremembering. There was at least one other place where we saw the DB comment.