Top Tastings 2008. A shorter version first appeared on facebook January 2009.
ABV: 13%
Origin: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Website: http://www.gooseisland.com
Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
Originally brewed to celebrate this outstanding brewery’s 1000th batch of beer in 1992, this became the USA’s first cask matured beer and started a cult phenomenon among enthusiasts. The first batches were matured in ex-Jim Bean casks, but the batch I sampled, at a beer dinner hosted by the brewery at the White Horse, Parsons Green, London (one of the beer events of the year) had enjoyed 100 days in Hampden Hill/Buffalo Trace casks before being bottle conditioned. It’s made using a single hop, Willamette, to an IBU of 60, and a complex grist that includes two row pale, Munich, Chocolate, Caramel and debittered Black malts and roasted barley.
The result was black with a sparse pinky brown head, a malty smoky vanilla, mint, chocolate and raisin aroma with some heady whisky cask fumes. A minty gravy malt palate was syrupy but very drinkable, recalling the old Courage Imperial Russian Stout, but with clear bourbon notes, salty sharpness and stinging hops penetrating the malt. The beer finished creamy and meaty with notes of Belgian chocolate couverture. A truly astonishing brew.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/goose-island-bourbon-county-stout/8909/
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