Yeah, we tasted Bourbon County Stout. It was pretty good. I haven't tasted Bourbon County Stout in a couple of years. And I stopped buying Bourbon County Stout a couple of years ago just because I was like, I'm spending a lot of money on this and I'm not drinking it soon enough, and I'll taste it on tap somewhere, blah, blah, blah. And then I never go anywhere and taste it on tap. But these were damn good. You were excited. I really liked these, and I didn't think I was going to like them as much. I'm glad that they've kind of, you know, they used to be the guys like, oh, look at the crazy adjuncts in this. And now it's like, oh, you didn't dry hop it with Golden Grahams? Like, that's not an adjunct stout, you know? Well, because it has fruit and maple syrup in it. We'll get to it. They know how to run the gamut from, like adjunct for the serious intellectual beer drinker. And then also, I mean, they're trying not to be pastry boys, but there's a little bit of pastry in there. I think in general, it's adjuncts done right. Sometimes they're probably, you know, flavor blasting it a little more than they need to, but we'll get to those when we discuss them. But I'm always pretty darn happy with the Goose Island releases. What I enjoy most is that they still do barrel-centric releases, things that are all about highlighting the type of whiskey barrels that were used to age the beer. It sounds like that's a direction they're really keen to take moving forward as well, which is great news. Co-brand of Palooza. All right. Do we need to... Yeah, it's a bonus episode. Hey, everybody. You're probably wondering why we're jumping in to your feed on an odd day. This is a Barrel to Bottle bonus episode. We just got a chance to taste the Bourbon County Stout 2020 lineup. We want to tell you about it. We want to make sure that you get in on the drawing while you still can, and we're going to go through our notes. Compare. Good beers. Yeah. Thanks for listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg. I do communications at Binny's. I'm Pat. I do spirits at Binny's. I'm Roger. I'm here to talk beer. Okay. So, and fruit. Is pistachio a fruit? Yeah, it is actually, I think, right? No, that's a cashew. Cashews are fruit. Okay. Guys, stick around for the end, because we're actually going to talk about Bourbon County Brand Stout original at the end, but first, we're going to go through the rest of the line up. Lots of limited things. So they have seven unique offerings this year, right? And you have a chance to enter into a drawing to then purchase allocations at binnys.com currently. That's right. So let's start with the two really rare ones, get them out of the way first here, and that's in the anniversary allocation on our website. And these are the two barrel variants of traditional Bourbon County. One was Bourbon County brand Stout, aged in old Forrester birthday Bourbon barrels, and the other was Bourbon County Stout, aged for an extra year. So it's two years in Weller 12 year Bourbon barrels. And those are going to be pretty damn limited. And the only way to get those is through the anniversary allocation, right? Yep. All right. So- Hey, I get to do the thing. All right, do the thing. So this was easily my favorite of the traditional Bourbon County stouts of the day. I thought it was just round and caramelized and showed a ton of layers of fruit. Old Forest is a very fruity bourbon. I thought this was just fantastic. And that's going to be the one I'm going to be looking for. That's your favorite of the regulars? Of the original and its brethren and then of the three branded ones? Of the three branded ones, I think this was my favorite. Roger, you like this one? I find it inherently more interesting when you can taste different flavors in a beer and you know that that came from either maltops, yeast, or in the case of barrel-age beers, the barrel themselves. So- It hides kaboot, Roger. If I was going to write a description of this, the descriptors that, and I don't mean subtle, in your face, there's pineapple, strawberry, vanilla, like a whipped cream note to this. I mean, it literally, it did taste pastry-esque, like a whipped cream cake with those fruits on it. You got more fruit cake than whipped cream cake. There's a fluffy sweetness to this that I wouldn't attribute to a fruit cake, but I've actually thought the last couple of years of birthday bourbon have been surprisingly fruity, like very light and fruit-forward, especially 2018. Well, that's Old Forester's calling card, is that free? Yeah. Yeah, bananas and strawberries. Now, I want to say we opened an Old Forester. We had a hype-worthy bourbon episode maybe a couple of years ago where we tasted some super hype bourbons. Did we taste birthday bourbon that time? I think so. I think so. I don't know. We also had Jackie's icon on. Oh, yeah. We tried them. I mean, I like Old Forester birthday. It is, in my opinion, not worth the price of admission anymore now that it's like $150. And not to mention the elbowing out of other whiskey nerds to try to get some. Yeah, exactly. It's not worth it for me, especially now that it's like a 10-year-old bourbon. There's a lot of good 10 and 12-year-old bourbons available that cost a hell of a lot. Less than $150. But that being said, it is a very good bourbon. Very good bourbon. And I think the character of that bourbon really comes through in this. I think it's cool that they're doing this co-branded business with these bourbon brands. Kind of cool. So anyway, in my opinion, that's one of the regular non-flavor blasted ones to look out for. I guess it's also worth pointing out that this one came in, literally the most elaborate packaging I've ever seen of Bourbon County South Company. Yeah, it's awesome. The box has this tack strip you pull, kind of that reminded me very much of the big fat tack strip over the fat cork on an old Forrester birthday bourbon bottle. Yeah. I love the fact that it rips the box in half and self-destructs the box and it opens up and butterflies out. I think a lot of people are going to think it's really cool, but some of you beer nerds out there, one of myself used to be included in this. You want a box, you can keep your pogs in, right? Yeah, exactly. Well, this box, oh, this fancy bottle, this memorable bottle was in this memorable box. I'm going to keep the box forever here behind the bar, and the thing is literally shorn in two because you open it. I loved it because of that. It's like a flower that blooms like a moonflower or something, and blooms and dies. Boom, it has this crazy opens up and it's destroyed then. Yep, it's cool. They did a great job on that packaging. Yeah, totally agree with Pat. Unfortunately, birthday bourbon is probably priced at what it should be now, now that the bourbon market's exploded, but it is a great bourbon and it made a great beer. Cool. Ready? Yep. Anniversary. I actually disagree with you guys. I like this one a little more. This one was very good. This celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the Black Friday Bourbon County release. 10 years of lining up outside of Binny's. Outside of Binny's, Lincoln Park, yeah. So it started in 2010 with the OG Vanilla, the OG Bourbon County Rare. Rare. Those were all 2010. So celebrating 10 years of that, we have a two-year in-barrel age bourbon county stout. This aged in Weller 12-year-old bourbon barrels. Weller, of course, the weeded bourbon from Buffalo Trace. 12-year Weller, very hard to come by as a bourbon. Very soft, fruity, caramelized, like really soft, sweet caramel. Bourbon. Bourbon. But I do think that kind of showed through on here. This definitely, two years in wood, this gets notably woodier to me. I thought it got kind of that musty, like that kind of musty oak I get out of an old Rick House kind of, with a bit of that oxidized dried fruit character. I think you can tell that the beer spent two years in the barrel, but not in a distracting, not some kind of like weird English ale way, like there's just a little bit of like rum raisin character in here. I also got that. What's with the weird English ale? All right. You know one of those beers only Roger drinks. I agree with Pat when it comes to, I got a lot of dried fruit like raisins and plums, but I think in contrast to the typical weeded bourbon characteristic you would associate, I thought that this was more lean, more angular, more structured. I like that. That's not to say that it's not fat and sweet, it is. I also think that it's like 15.6 percent or something like that. Yeah, it was stronger. That extra alcohol gave it a little more frame and a little more roundness on my palate. I thought it leaned it out a bit, if anything. We're saying the same things, only I like it and I don't think you liked it so much. Yeah. Listen, if I was handed this beer, I would drink the hell out of this beer. But if I had my choice between this and the birthday, I'd probably take the birthday. Reggie, you like this one not as much as the birthday? It's close, but I still think this is a perfect example of how everybody's a little in love with weeded bourbons. I think in general, that especially appeals to people who are newer to the bourbon game and haven't quite developed their bourbon palate yet. So weeded bourbons are definitely gentler and softer because they lack that spiciness. So for the same reason, I don't know that weeded bourbon barrel-aged beers bring as much pop or complexity as some of the other ones. I think you're splitting hairs. I think you're talking about wood with some... I've talked to a lot of brewers when we're trying to do collabs with our empty barrels and stuff, and by far more brewers than not are looking for rye-heavy bourbons than weeded bourbons. Dang it, it's beer in it. All right. But the fans want weed, they love seeing that weller name and everything. And this is a very good beer, but it's on the sweeter side. It's lacking, just like how some people don't like weeded bourbon because it's lacking that rye spice. I feel like this is lacking that punch that like the reserve that was aged for two years in a Knob Creek barrel. I much prefer that to this. That might be my favorite bourbon county of the last, like, let's say 10 years. You know, I held this to a high standard. I think this is going to be the most talked about release this year, and it's good, but I don't think it's the best at all. It would be lower on my list. All right. All right. So don't feel too bent out of shape if you don't get a chance to buy this. It's not the end of the world. And next is Caramella. Which one was this? This is the wheat wine flavored with, I mean, it's basically caramel apple, but flavored with caramel flavoring and apple juice concentrate, which so they don't proof it down. And cinnamon. Cassia bark. I loved this one. It smells like a baked apple crisp. It tastes like a baked apple crisp. It is the classic baked orchard fruit with cinnamon and nutmeg and clove, and a little bit of caramel. It's got like a toasty granola thing going on. It's almost like apple pie. It's amazing. I thought this one was absolutely amazing. And I'm describing very sweet things. It is not a very sweet beer. Not at all. I thought the caramel gave a little bit of sweetness to round out the cinnamon. Otherwise, the cinnamon is going to be pretty sharp. And speaking of, cinnamon tends to dominate when it's in beers. We've had other bourbon counties in the past that had cinnamon in them. That is true, yeah. That had cinnamon in them. And after a year, it was just a cinnamon bomb. Yeah, they kept this one in check. I would buy this one. This is the perfect beer to have as dessert after your Christmas dinner. Buy it and drink it a month later. Drink it right away. Yeah, for sure, drink this one right away. One thing, if people haven't noticed on the little Necker flags, they've started writing when you should enjoy the Bourbon County by. And most of the adjuncted ones, they're saying, please enjoy this within two years. It's not going to go bad after two years, but it's definitely not going to improve. And this one says five years, which I think was a mistake. I think it should be two years. The ideology behind it was that cassiar cinnamon bark is indestructible. So it lasts in beers forever. Like it just does not fade. But the apple that they use in this is an apple concentrate that I feel, one, it doesn't really capture baked apples or apple crisper pie to me. It captures apple juice. So it's too bright. It's too punchy. It is more like a caramel apple, like that sour apple base of a caramel apple. And I don't think that's going to hold up. So I think that's going to start to fade and might even get weird. That's always the double edged sword that is adjuncts, is they can end up fading but also just completely changing. So there's nothing wrong with getting weird. I disagree, man. I think the addition of the kasha bark turns that juicy apple character into a baked note. Yeah, it helps, but... I absolutely loved this one. Look, I took extensive notes on all of these, but on this one, I wrote what it is because it's apple, it's caramel apple. It's caramel apple pie. And I think Roger would agree with me here. I wish they had a wheat wine that didn't have an adjunct on top of it because I want to try the skeleton here. I want to try the beer beer. They did three years ago and nobody bought it. It sat around for a while. Yeah, this is essentially their wheat wine. But yeah, they adjuncted it up for all the adjunct nerds out there that want everything to be flavor blasted. So this is definitely a flavor blasted, but in a pretty good way. Not my favorite and the old man beer fan and me would rather just drink wheat wine. My thoughts initially on this was this is going to just taste like some fake candy, fake flavor. I don't think it tastes artificial. I think it has a pretty natural taste to it, which was surprising to me. It does. I was worried it was going to be like Green Apple Jolly Rancher, and it's not, which is good. It tastes real and it tastes authentic. Kentucky. No, that was no good. Kentucky Fog. Okay, so this is Brewed with Earl Grey Tea, Black Tea, and Honey, and it is definitely as advertised. I found it to be pretty one-dimensional. You guys, this is so good. It was Greg's favorite. It's so good. For any of the Starbucks fans out there, this is modeled after a London Fog Latte, which is essentially an Earl Grey Tea Latte with some vanilla character. So, as a riff off of that, for people who aren't familiar with tea, Greg and I both enjoy drinking tea. It's true. Earl Grey is the distinctive flavor in that is from oil of bergamot, which is from bergamot oranges, which are like a sour orange. So, the aromatics on this are going to be very orange forward. It nails the tea right on the nose. Like, it smells like Earl Grey Tea. It does. But again, this one I respect a lot because this could have clearly been a failure. Like, anyone who's brewed black tea, if you brew black tea too long, you extract too many tannins and it tastes terrible. And then if they were just using like oil of bergamot, it would probably be fakey and obnoxious. Like, I've had terrible Earl Grey Tea before. Oh, it's terrible tea. It's a terrible tea. This was from the sister company to Intelligencia, is their tea company, which is Kilogram Tea. So this really did a nice job of having the nuances of the Earl Grey, and then the black tea was smart too, because it's not over-the-top orangey then, but still has some normal tea character. My only complaint is that I don't think the honey needed to be in there. I was about to say, you haven't talked about the honey yet, and I love the honey. I think the honey is the only saving grace for this beer. Okay, look, the thing that I really love about it is the tannin from the tea is real and present and it grips your palate. And as a wine drinker, like this is the Bourbon County that isn't just a sweet ball of beer. This actually has this tannin and then at the very end, when it could become austere and drying, this honey supports it. And you get this lingering honey combined with tea, tannin, and I just love it. I just love it. It's delightful on the nose. It's great on entry. And then the finish, it actually is like one of the most Venice Bourbon County stouts I've had ever, ever. I'd agree with that. But I think that paints it in a pleasant light of complexity, where again, I found it to just be pretty one-dimensional. Tea. I mean, it's tea forward. I think there is a bit of a floral aspect that you get from the honey as well. Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, it's clover honey. I was waiting for Roger to be like, clover honey. Yes. The most basic of the honeys. Dude, they had to put in 500 gallons of honey into this batch of beer. Next time, use eucalyptus. It would have been $50 a bottle if they bought real honey. Use some eucalyptus or something that I can get excited about next time. That would add such bad notes to this beer. All right. We got to move on because next up is Proprietors. The dessert, Bourbon County this year. This is modeled after Spumoni ice cream. That's pistachios, cherry, and chocolate. Is Spumoni an ice cream or is that like a- It's an ice cream. It's an ice cream? All right. Yeah, pistachios, cherry, chocolate. I don't know. Yeah. You can have gelato or Spumoni. Well, I have a soft spot in my heart for this flavor. I like this. I thought the cherries tasted real and they use some branded cocktail cherry in it. Amarena. Those are the super famous Italian cherry. What else? Real pistachios, which I think they were said like- Roasted, but not salted. Roasted, but not salted pistachios. I think they said they used 14 pounds a barrel. A ludicrous amount of pistachios. And then cocoa, right? Yeah. Cocoa and vanilla. Yeah. And vanilla. It sounds like it's going to be like this sloppy, gooey mess, but it was actually really nicely layered. It's a sloppy, gooey mess. No, it's not that bad. Your complaint about the tea one is my complaint about this one. It nails spumoni ice cream, which I do have a soft spot in my heart for, but that's literally it. And it's just like the dessert one. I think it still showed a little bit of roast malt. I think a lot of people out there are probably wondering, what the hell is spumoni? I've never eaten spumoni. What? It's an old man ice cream. Roger, you know everything about everything that's esoteric. Spumoni is like the fancy ice cream that they serve at nice Italian restaurants in the 60s. Again, I've eaten spumoni, but I would wager to believe that most young people have no idea what spumoni is. You've probably had a cannoli before, and cannoli is- I don't know what kind of cannoli has cherry in it. No, yeah, no cannoli has cherry. You're totally wrong on this. Dude, they have cherry on top of them all the time, like as a decoration. I've never seen that. What, like a cherry on top? Yeah. You know what? Roger's got a cannoli guy. I mean, if I know anyone with a cannoli guy. It's a Lombard cannoli guy. Don't get hung up. Like, look, some cannolis have chocolate chips on one side and then they have pistachios on the other. So again, I'm not saying it's super common to have a cherry either diced up or on top, but don't get hung up on the cherry part. All the other stuff's there. The filling has a vanilla flavor in it, the pistachio, the chocolate. Roger, I guarantee if you go into your cannoli guy and ask for that one, he's like, oh, a Spumoni cannoli? A Spun-ever. Spun-o-li? Anyway, okay, fine. So if you enjoy cannoli, you will also enjoy this. I didn't particularly think this was that great. Again, it's flavor blasted. It's all right. I would much rather drink a different variant. It's good. It was no wheat wine though. The wheat wine was better. Drink it literally the night that you get it. It's never going to be better than the day that you get it. I have suspicions that weird stuff is going to happen with this. It's not going to stay the same over time. I don't think it's going to work. I think it's going to turn into chocolate cherry, and I think the vanilla and the pistachio are going to fade. because the pistachio is actually pretty delicate. The pistachio has a mustiness to it that I don't care for. It's like an earthy white peppery character that is not really going to work. I would say I got that. Agreed. But again, I think this one is best now. All right. Special number four. I like this one quite a bit. This was my second favorite or possibly my favorite favorite. Yeah, this was really, really good actually. Now that I'm thinking about it, I might take over the Caramella for me. This is really good. It's the return of coffee, except they started with an oat mash, so it already has more breadth than coffee has in the past. And then they added barrel-aged maple syrup, so there's sweetness and breadth underneath the coffee, so it's not going to become that peppery, weird. They use this Ethiopian coffee that has a natural hint of blueberry to it. Yeah. There's no blueberries at all, but it is there and it is distinctive. Super expressive. It is just such an awesome blueberry pancake with a cup of coffee stout. It's unbelievable. This is the return of coffee for these guys in a big way. Raj, you like it? Yeah. This is a good, again, I think it does say blueberry on the necker on the back, and again, just to reiterate, it's a tasting note. Yeah. It's a tasting note, so don't get hung up if you don't think it has enough blueberry. Again, they're just describing what the coffee imparts. This is coffee first, maple syrup second, which is great. I'm sure a lot of you who are in the Barrel Age Beers have had some maple syrup beers that can get disgustingly sweet. So I'm sure that will be a lot of people's question with this is, okay, what's the maple level of flavor and is it real sweet? It's there as a background component, and it does not make it too sweet. Yeah. When we were talking to them just before we started recording this, they even mentioned that in the last time they did one with maple syrup. They may have been kind of heavy handed with the maple syrup, and it got pretty sweet and pretty maple heavy, and they were very much looking for the maple to play a supporting role, I think this year, not a starring role. And it does. And it's there in a very complimentary fashion. It's the bed that the coffee sits on top of. Totally. It's so good. So good. Also, as we've said before, we really try to drive home to everybody that, I know it's a tradition with a lot of these beers because they are special. They're expensive that you want to save them for a special occasion. Or, you know, you just kind of end up cellaring them either intentionally or sometimes unintentionally, especially with these coffee ones. Just drink this right away. I mean, drink this in the prop at the same time. Drink this beer. It's a it's dessert ice cream along with your dessert coffee. I mean, this is not going to get better. It's it tastes great now. Just drink it now. It really is just perfect right now. It's hard to imagine this is going to improve drastically, if at all. Yep. If you miss Bourbon County coffee, you're going to like this. Don't get scared by the maple syrup or that it's a slightly tweaked mash bill. Totally. Yeah, it's really good. Actually, the oats are awesome. They should do that all the time. Yeah, I was thinking that too. It's so good. All right. Goose Island, Bourbon County brand stout. The OG. Okay, the OG. I really like the OG this year. I think it's very, very good. We should cap this thing by pointing out that Bourbon County stout, OG, is awesome. It's just an amazing beer. It's so good. And I guarantee you, we will have some of this a couple of weeks after Thanksgiving. For sure. So come in and get some. Get some more. This is a beer that's produced to be drank and priced to be drank. Like this beer is around and it's good and it should be drank. This is a good beer to share with some friends and family during the holiday season. Obviously stash a couple if you're into stashing beer, but this beer is awesome right now and it's such a good beer to share with people. Agreed. What I picked up in the original is that it was very cola root beer-esque to me, which was interesting. With some, with cocoa and raisin and plum and a breath in the buttery, butterscotch breath. The OG always impresses. They've always said that they are so proud of being innovators when it comes to the idea of putting a stout in a bourbon barrel. And this is where they actually kind of back up that claim. They are really doing a lot of barrel-centric releases. And I don't know, maybe it's a combination of being both a beer lover and a bourbon or whiskey lover in general. I get more excited about that than I do about, you know, the adjunct combo contest. Well, that said, this year's lineup has something for everyone. It has the very serious adjunct stout drinkers, tea flavor and coffee flavor. It has the ice cream flavor. It has the wheat wine that tastes like apple pie. And then there's two different official barrel expressions, plus this original amazing bourbon county stout. It's literally something for everyone in this line. Yes. All right. Hey guys, it's only a bonus episode. We got a scram. This has been awesome. We are very lucky to get an opportunity to preview these. Thanks for sticking with us on the podcast, and I hope you got something out of this. I hope you're excited. We're dropping this episode on Saturday, October 24th, and that means there's about a week, a week and a couple of days to enter for the drawing, to purchase these. Go to binnys.com and check out the details. We've been trying to answer people's questions on the blog as well. There's links on the Bourbon County info page, so check it out. Don't miss out. because of COVID, we've instituted this drawing, but we will still have the original Bourbon County available to buy outside of that. But the variance, the only way to get the variance are the two different allocations, which you have to enter the drawing for. I think as we've driven home here, we love the regular one. There is going to be regular available to purchase, but if you want all the variance, please. But holy ****, they did some awesome variance this year. Okay. All right. Hey, thanks for sticking with us on this bonus episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. We will be back in your feed pretty soon. Yeah, a few days. With something fun. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Pat. And I'm Roger. Keep tasting.