Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout

If you're a beer geek, you've probably had or at least heard of Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout. This is one of the quintessential barrel aged beers, with strong vanilla and oak flavors permeating the beer. For the purposes of this review, I'll skip a lot of the similarities and focus on the differences. I'm tasting them side by side for reference. To be fair to the coffee variant, it is a bit older at this point, so I expect that the coffee flavors and smells have gone down a bit.

The beers seem identical in appearance, both black with no head. The coffee variant has a sharper, more pungent aroma. The smell at this point doesn't really seem like coffee, but just a heavier smell overall. If I really concentrate I can tell that it's coffee, but it's a weak scent at best.

The taste is a bit more distinct. While the standard version is dominated by warmth and vanilla, the coffee has more of a black chocolate and well, coffee flavor. It's not as sweet, which makes it slightly better balanced to my palate. The vanilla still comes through, but it's more muted and smoother. The heat of the beer doesn't stand out as much either.

The beers are about identical in the mouth. Other than the warmth in the standard version that doesn't show up in the coffee variant, they are the same. Both are full bodied, have light carbonation, and leave a smooth coating in the mouth.

As a whole, I definitely prefer the coffee version. It makes me wonder if the vanilla version could be as good as even the standard version as well, since I feel like the sweetness would be even more pronounced. It may unbalance the beer even more. In any case, the coffee version was well worth picking up (or in my case trading for), and I'll be sure to get it again if they do continue making it.

- Adam