(Chicago, IL) – Thanks to some nice sleuthing done by BenC on Beer Advocate, I have not one but two posts on Goose Island Beer Co.. They are both a bit lengthy so I am breaking them up. Part I deals with stouts to come in 2010.
BenC spotted some interesting things added to Goose Island’s 2010 schedule on their website. Among them are four different versions of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout:
Bourbon County Brand Stout (aka the original) – November through April in 22 oz., 4×12 pks, 1/6 bbl
Bourbon County Coffee Stout – March in limited 22’s
Bourbon County Vanilla Stout – October in limited 22’s
Rare Bourbon County Stout – November in limited 22’s
and…
Night Stalker Imperial Stout – March in limited 22’s (note: the Bierkraft store in NYC already reported having this in stock for counter-pressure filled 64 oz. growlers and 22 oz. bottles)
Here is the info pertaining to those Bourbon County Stouts via Brewmaster, Greg Hall, posted on Beer Advocate:
“All BCS is now aged in Heaven Hill, barrels range from 8 (a few) to 12, 16 and 18 years old.
BCS Coffee is 2008 brewed, aged in HH bbls for about 15 months, then infused with Intelligentsia Black Cat espresso
BCS Vanilla bean is one of many variations we’ve played with, based on the great comments we heard from FOBAB, we decided to bottle it.
BCS rare, I’m excited. Brewed in 2008, aged for 24 months in 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle Barrels. These are the very best smelling barrels I’ve come across in 18 years of barrel aging beer. Barrels were originally filled with spirit in 1985. We have 50 bourbon barrels aging, it will be a one time bottling, it will not be repeated.
Possibly more variations in 2011.”
Greg added in another thread, “We were the first brewer to produce a bourbon barrel aged stout.” The earliest TTB label approval I found for BCS dated back to April, 1997, though that is hardly a scientific indication of what year they started using the barrels . . .
Here is an informative chart from Matt Granstrom. Thanks, Matt!
BA member, Ice Age, says:
“1992 – 2005: Jim Beam BBLs
2006: Switched to 12 – 16 year Heaven Hill
2007: Used 12 – 16 yr Heaven Hill & 21 yr Pappy Van Winkle BBLs”
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I drank a bottle of BCS last night. It was bottled on 01/05/05 which I believe was the first bottling. My wife and I were at the Clybourn pub for the very first tapping of BCS. I can’t remember exactly when it was but early 90’s sounds about right. We saw Greg Hall talking to some people at the bar and went over to congratulate him on the beer and tell him how much we enjoyed it, waiting for a break in his conversation. He seemed totally annoyed that we would even speak to him and brushed us off. Still a great beer though.
Thanks for the info. Too bad on your encounter. Hopefully I get the opportunity to meet him and the other folks at the brewery.
This might be a silly question but were can you buy the GI Rare Bourbon County Stout? Do you have to go through GI website or can I pre-order through Binny’s or something.
I haven’t been following it very closely since my last post but here’s the latest: it hasn’t been released yet. http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/3058581