Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout was brewed and bottled once in 2010, it is Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS) brewed with fresh vanilla beans. I have been wanting to try this for about as long as I’ve know about the Goose Island Bourbon County beers. This is very hard to trade for, and Lee managed to do just that. Endless thanks to him for sharing this!

I am flat out stunned by the smell of this beer. How on earth has all that vanilla lasted the past four years!?! It smells like a combo of classic BCBS, and vanilla marshmallows. PHENOMENAL. Oh my lord, this beer is so rich and decadent. Any of the “harsher” notes of BCBS at this point have muted and are blending amazingly into this near perfect stout. Obviously there is a ton of vanilla in the taste. Still present is a good bit of dark chocolate, caramel/toffee and molasses. The notes of roasted malts, bourbon, oak and licorice are much more subdued. I’m also getting some rum like alcohol taste as well. So good, just so incredibly good.

I can see how beers like this drive people to become obsessed with trading for them. I really hope I get a chance to experience this again, but if not my memory of it will be a great one!