Goose Island Beer Co. Announces 2022 Bourbon County Stout Variants

In 1992, former Goose Island brewmaster Gregory Hall wanted to brew something for the brewpub’s 1,000th batch, he just needed some inspiration. Then an encounter between Greg and Jim Beam’s Booker Noe led to Goose Island acquiring the barrels for what was to become the world’s first bourbon barrel-aged beer, Bourbon County Stout. 

This year, Goose Island commemorates the 30th Anniversary of the Bourbon County Stout history, releasing seven variants: 

• Goose Island Bourbon County Stout - Every year since its inception in1992, Goose Island strives to honor the original Bourbon County Stout recipe. This year, their Imperial Stout is aged and blended from freshly emptied bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, and Buffalo Trace distilleries. Expect flavors of vanilla, dark chocolate, toffee, molasses, almond, and dried fruit.

• Goose Island Bourbon County Two-Year Barleywine Reserve - For this Reserve, Goose Island worked with Old Fitzgerald to obtain three sets of barrels of varying ages from the distillery's Old Fitzgerald’s Bottled-In-Bond Decanter Series. This Reserve offers them an opportunity to highlight the distinct characteristics of Goose Island's rich Barleywine aged in 14-year, 16-year and 17-year-old barrels of a bourbon pedigree. Their Two-Year Barleywine Reserve evokes the rich intricacies from that of Old Fitzgerald’s Bottled-In-Bond Series for a velvety taste of rich malt, entwined with notes of toffee, cherry, vanilla, fig, and almond.

• Goose Island Bourbon County 30th Anniversary Reserve Stout - Goose Island created a special 30th Anniversary Stout to pay homage to the serendipitous union between Gregory Hall and Booker Noe that then led to subsequent years, variants, and traditions - from Black Friday lines to bottle shares and more. Going back to the inception of Bourbon County Stout, the 30th Anniversary Stout is aged from a blend of Jim Beam barrels from their Small Batch Bourbon Collection barrels. Each of the bourbon barrels offer characteristics unique to each bourbon's distinct nuances. They are then blended together for a complex and balanced expression that celebrates the heritage and legacy of both brands. And, as history would have it, Jim Beam launched their first-ever Small Batch Bourbon Collection 30 years ago. This 30th Anniversary Reserve Stout is a culmination signifying the historical shifts in both the bourbon and beer industries from two visionaries all those years ago. Expect notes of dark chocolate, vanilla, cherry, and almond.

• Goose Island Bourbon County Biscotti Stout - Inspired by the Italian desserts of her childhood, Jill Cerone, People Manager at Goose Island, dreamed up this variant after grabbing a box of chocolate-dipped biscotti from her cabinet. Working with the brewing team, Jill brought the flavor to life with notes of anise, marzipan, cocoa, and buttered toffee. The biscotti enhances flavors already found in the Bourbon County Stout and adds strong notes of nostalgia from your Italian grandma’s kitchen. One sip and you’ll be reminded of pizzelle cookies, Easter Pane di Pasqua and, of course, almond biscotti.

• Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee Stout - For the first time since 2017, Goose Island brought back a coffee variant this year in partnership with Intelligentsia Coffee. Intelligentsia relies on Burundi for some of the cleanest, sweetest coffees in the world that complement the tasting notes of Bourbon County Stout. The specific coffee blend combined with the Imperial Stout is called Turihamwe, which means “together”, and is a tribute to all the hands that go into making it – from the female coffee farmers in Burundi that produced the blend, to Intelligentsia, the first brand they worked with on a variant back in 2010. The result of this “togetherness” is another coffee variant featuring rich chocolate, coffee, and caramel flavors that will appeal to coffee drinkers and beer lovers alike.

• Goose Island Bourbon County Sir Isaac’s Stout - For years, brewers at Goose Island have brainstormed ways to incorporate figs in Bourbon County Stout, but faced a daunting task due to their subtle flavor. After fresh thinking from members of the Goose Island E-commerce team, Melissa Alleguez and Ryan Hubona crafted a recipe inspired by Melissa’s childhood memories of stealing fig cookies out of her grandma’s cookie jar during her summers on Lake Michigan. And thus, the fig cookie and graham cracker-inspired Sir Isaac’s Stout was created. Highlighting the dried fried profiles extracted from the bourbon in the barrels, the brewers used Black Mission figs (10,000 pounds of them, to be specific) to create this variant resulting in characteristics of dried fruit, honey, molasses, and citrus, all reminiscent of the classic fig cookie sold on shelves today.

• Goose Island Bourbon County Proprietor’s Stout - The 2022 Proprietor’s Bourbon County Brand Stout is inspired by a love for cocktails. This recipe was dreamed up after two of their brewers, Jason Krasowski and Paul Cade, spent a night out on the town trying some of the best cocktails the city has to offer. The result is a brewer’s take on a jungle bird cocktail that combines banana, coconut, lime, and a new ingredient for the Bourbon County Stout family – pineapple. The flavors share common expressions found in both bourbon and the Original Bourbon County Stout but bring out flavors unlike any other Proprietor's before. Proprietor’s Stout will bring Chicagoans down to the tropics this Bourbon County Stout season.