Tribune beer writer Josh Noel reviews the 2022 Bourbon County Barrel Stout lineup from Goose Island, available on Black Friday, Nov. 25.
Daryl Hoedtke, senior brewmaster at Goose Island Beer Company, is seen at the Goose Island taproom on Fulton Street in Chicago on Nov. 4, 2022.
The 30th Anniversary Reserve Stout highlights an exceptionally strong Bourbon County lineup for Goose Island this fall. For all the lore and interest Bourbon County generates every November, the beers have been uneven in recent years. There has been excellence, there have been interesting experiments, there have been head-scratching attempts and there have been outright duds.
This will be a polarizing beer. Plenty of people will disagree with me about its merits. But I think it is brilliantly executed. Enjoying the flavor of anise and, to a lesser extent, almond, is a must to appreciate this beer. If you do, it’s a fascinating mingling of aroma and flavor.Bourbon County Two-Year Barleywine Reserve
Many of the best barrel-aged barleywines boast a complex web of flavors: toffee, vanilla, butterscotch and crème brûlée among them. This is not that. Two-Year Barleywine Reserve is an oaky, boozy behemoth with earthy, fruity accents — I get notes of cigar tobacco and plum. And that’s about it.This is a deep, rich beast of a sipper with miles upon miles of character extracted from the bourbon barrels in which the beer was aged.
I enjoy this beer most years, but this year’s is especially tasty. Compared to the rest of the lineup, it’s also an excellent value. It’s a bit one dimensional, albeit a tasty dimension for coffee lovers. I’d like the base beer to shine through a bit more and would be curious to try this again after the coffee character has mellowed a bit. I wonder if there will be a sweet spot for this beer in the coming weeks or months.
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