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| Our friend, Janelle, with an aged bottle of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout - an amazing craft beer. |
This #TastingTuesday, Christian shares a really, really special beer.
A few weeks ago, I got together with my friends, Brad, Kristy & their daughter, Janelle who had been saving me a bottle of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, which had been aging since November.
Friends, I have to admit something. For once, the beer geeks are right.
The thing with Bourbon County Stout (BCS) is that it goes on sale one day a year - on Black Friday. People wait in lines for hours. In Chicago (Goose Island's home), lines would be shorter for tickets to see the Bears win the Superbowl followed by a double-header of the Bulls winning the NBA finals after Jordan stepped out of a time machine sent from 1992.
It's all a bit ridiculous. Yet here I am, in July, being handed a bottle opener and a bottle of BCS. And I feel like Ditka holding the Lombardi trophy in 1986.
It's the stuff of legend, and the truth is that it really does deserve that praise.
Being a stout, BCS naturally has a heavier body to it. It actually has nice carbonation, too. But what really makes this special is the aging in bourbon barrels, which Goose Island is well known for.
It may have been the aging, but the bourbon flavor was actually pretty mild. You get a lot of vanilla, chocolate, some coffee, and even a little bit if root beer. The taste is incredibly complex, with a myriad of flavors that keep showing up while you drink it. If it wasn't for a slight alcohol burn, you'd almost forget that it's 13.8% ABV.
Suddenly, I'm trying to justify camping outside a liquor store for this.
The truth is, I was incredibly lucky to have friends share a bottle with me. But I'd recommend this to any beer fan - if nothing else, see what it's like to taste one of the most complex beers you'll ever come across. It's all about the experience.
Who else has had it? We'd love to know what you thought.
