Review: Goose Island’s 2022 Bourbon County lineup is strong, with at least one unlikely highlight
CHICAGO — OK, for the last time: it’s almost certainly not the 30th anniversary of Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout.
As we first reported in 2016, the groundbreaking beer aged in bourbon barrels was likely first released in 1995 — not 1992, as the brewery continues to insist.
But Goose Island should have more questionable anniversaries, because its Bourbon County 30th Anniversary Reserve Stout, to be released the day after Thanksgiving among its family of seven barrel-aged Bourbon County beers, is elegance defined.
“Smooth” is a word people often use to describe beer when it’s easy to drink. It’s far from an ideal descriptor, though; sanded wood is smooth. Beer is not. But my instinctive thought upon first sipping 30th Anniversary Reserve Stout?
Smooth!
What that really means is that despite its 14.4% alcohol, it is an exceptionally approachable beer. It is not stoutrife with creamy notes of dark chocolate, oak, vanilla and caramel. There’s only the faintest wisp of boozy burn. It’s just a wonderfully threaded beer — whether celebrating a 27th anniversary or a 30th.
