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Goose Island Bourbon County Stout Black Friday Release
Nov 28 @ 1:00 pm – 11:30 pm
We open early on Black Friday!
Join us on Black Friday, November 28th, starting at 1:00PM, for the annual release of Goose Island’s limited Bourbon County Stout (a once-a-year drop that disappears fast.)
Alongside the classic Original Stout, we’re tapping Cherries Jubilee, Chocolate Praline, and a Proprietor’s Stout inspired by baklava’s honeyed sweetness and pistachio.
We’ll also feature double-barrel Stouts twice-aged in exclusive Heaven Hill barrels, plus a showstopper brew that’s been aged a full 2 years in the coveted 17th-edition Parker’s Heritage 10-year rye whiskey barrels.
And for the collectors and connoisseurs, we’ll be selling heavily discounted bottles from previous years—so click the reserve button and come taste the new pours and snag the vintage gems before they’re gone!
Why start at 1:00PM?
Because the Bears will take on the Eagles at 2:00PM! And there’s nothing more Chicago than cracking a Goose Island Bourbon County Stout while watching the Bears.
Bourbon County Stout
Original
- Blend of barrels used for aging from Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Four Roses, Wild Turkey.
- Aged about 14 months on average.
- Taste:
- Deep fudge, vanilla, caramelized sugar, toasted almond
- Rich, heavy, silky mouthfeel.
- Not as carbonated (all of them.)
Cherries Jubilee
- Starts in fresh (wet) bourbon barrels, finished in cognac barrels.
- Then blended with Montmorency cherries, citrus, panela (a solid, unrefined sugar).
- Montmorency Cherry: Often used in preserves, pies, and soaked in kirsch for cocktails.
- Taste:
- Velvety, decadent.
- Candied dark cherry, softer vanilla, caramelized citrus.
Chocolate Praline
- Brewed to emphasize the flavors that are produced in original aging: toasted marzipan (almond cake) and dried fruit, chocolate.
- These are NOT added flavors, but the flavors that arise from the initial brew and the aging in bourbon casks.
- After aging, then they blend in cocoa nibs, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, dates.
- Taste:
- Toasted marzipan, roasted nuts, chocolate cookie.
- Meant to compliment initial aging flavors and push it towards Chocolate Praline.
Proprietor Stout (Baklava)
- Finished with walnuts, pistachios, honey, cassia bark, and Chinese cinnamon (the spicier cinnamon used in Indian dishes, rather than the sweeter cinnamon used in desserts.)
- Taste:
- Dessert-iest warmth of cinnamon, deeply roasted nuts, honey’d subtly sweet finish.
Double Barrel (Heaven Hill)
- Aged in 2 different freshly-emptied Heaven Hill barrels.
- Focusing on the whiskey notes found in the Bourbon County line.
- Taste:
- Leaning into the complexity that bourbon barrel aging adds to the stout.
- Layered flavors (cocoa, dried fruit, toasted nuts.)
Parker’s Heritage
- Aged for 2 full years.
- Taste:
- Concentrated flavors due to age.
- Coca, dried fruit, toasted oak.
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