Goose Island Bourbon County Stout Lineup 2023, Ranked and Reviewed

November is here, and for many barrel-aged beer enthusiasts, that means one thing above all else: Goose Island Bourbon County season.

Goose Island, the Chicago brewery renowned for the much-anticipated barrel-aged stout lineup that launches each Black Friday, announced this year’s collection in August. Now less than a month out from the release date, we had a chance to sample the lineup, and we’re here to report back with our thoughts.

Goose Island Bourbon County Lineup 2023 Ranked and Reviewed

All of the Bourbon County variants are, objectively speaking, excellent stouts, so it’s worth noting that we’re ranking these from really damn good to excellent.

6. 2023 Bourbon County Backyard Stout

This is a spinoff on 2013’s highly popular and successful Bourbon County Backyard Rye release, which saw Goose Island Senior Innovation Manager Mike Siegel hand-pick mulberries in Chicago for use in the beer, inspired by the mulberry trees in the yard behind the house he grew up in — hence the name “Backyard.”

Ten years later, Siegel is using mulberries in a new Backyard stout. With a 12.9% ABV, this stout is aged in bourbon barrels for at least one year and finished and blended with mulberries; boysenberries, which are a cross between a raspberry and blackberry; and marionberries, a type of blackberry.

The mulberries in the Backyard stout are sourced from Turkey, the world’s leading producer of that type of berry.

The fruit influence is apparent in this pour before you even lift it to your nose. When you swirl Backyard around in your glass, you immediately notice its deep maroon hue, making it look almost like wine.

On the nose, the fruit is present but not overwhelming. The nose is the driest of the lineup, with notes of graham cracker, ginger, cocoa and a nice hit of fruit: blackberry and raspberry are present but subtle.

Subtle, that is, until the palate. This beer is wildly fruity in flavor, with notes of blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, grape, plum and cherry — and also I’m sure marionberry, which I haven’t had the pleasure of tasting before. There are a lot of really great things going on here, but there’s an acidity at work on the palate that takes away from the enjoyment of the fruity goodness.

The finish is crazy fruity again, with grape jam, blackberry and blueberry. Again, I haven’t tasted mulberries, but I have to imagine I’m tasting tons of that on the finish, as well. The finish is the highlight of the pour for me, since you get all the fun fruit notes, but the acidity is much less aggressive.

Overall, this is a total jam and fruit bomb. It’s very interesting, super out there and a fun experiment, but I have to say I think you lose the beer and bourbon for the fruit a little bit, and the acidity on the palate doesn’t totally work. Overall, this is still a very good beer, don’t get me wrong — but it has its flaws, too. With that said, if you like berries being front and center ahead of the beer and bourbon notes, you should seek this one out.

5. 2023 Bourbon County Original Stout

Aged for an average of 12 months in a mix of bourbon barrels from Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Four Roses and Wild Turkey, this year’s Original variant has two varieties, one containing 14.1% ABV and the other 14.6%.

On the nose, the 2023 Bourbon County Original Stout has tons of cocoa powder, along with licorice, caramel, espresso and a kiss of gingerbread. The mouthfeel is silky smooth. It isn’t syrupy but has a great viscosity to it. The palate delivers a good deal of semisweet chocolate and barrel char, plus a big raisin note and some lemon-lime citrus undertones.

This stout finishes chocolatey and with some fun spice. Each holiday season, my mom makes these delicious chocolate-chili cookies, and this finish is totally that, plus some oak, barrel char and cherries.

4. 2023 Bourbon County Bananas Foster Stout

First released in 2017 as a Proprietor’s Stout — the member of each year’s Goose Island Bourbon County lineup available exclusively in Chicago — Bananas Foster returns in 2023 as a nationwide release for the first time.

Made with banana, three types of almonds and cassia bark, this imperial stout contains 13.9% ABV.

True to its name, Bananas Foster Stout is pure banana bread and nuttiness with almonds and walnuts galore. It’s a touch one-note, but it’s difficult to hold that against it, since it’s absolutely delicious. On the palate, this is delicious again. It’s super creamy and has a really fun, thick viscosity to it — almost as if you’re sipping through mashed up banana. Banana abounds again on the palate, with notes of banana bread and banana puree joined by monkey bread, almonds, Kahlua and cinnamon. Notes of oak and barrel char creep in toward the back of the palate, adding a nice balance.

The finish is dry with more banana bread and cinnamon, joined by a healthy dose of char.

Overall, the Bananas Foster Stout is a total banana bomb, which is what Goose Island was going for, and it works tremendously well. Very tasty!

3. 2023 Bourbon County Eagle Rare 2-Year Reserve Stout

This stout is heaviest on the bourbon influence of the bunch, with a two-year maturation period spent inside barrels that once held 10-year-old Eagle Rare, the wildly popular Buffalo Trace bourbon.

Dark and rich on the nose, the Reserve Stout is packed with dark chocolate and coffee, joined by undercurrents of almond, cherries and figs.

Remarkably rich, syrupy and viscous, the palate is big and bold with a major cherry cordial notes, joined by dark chocolate, barrel char, vanilla and salted caramel.

The finish is rich and mocha-heavy. It leaves you yearning for another sip with some nuttiness and a ton of barrel char.

This is truly the quintessential barrel-aged stout.

2. 2023 Bourbon County Proprietor’s Stout

You’ll need to journey to Chicago to find the Proprietor’s Stout, but it might just be worth the trek this year. This year’s Prop Stout is inspired by rice pudding, and it works really well. The 14.3%-ABV stout is made with cassia bark, brown sugar, raisins and toasted rice, marking the first time Goose Island has used rice as an ingredient in a stout.

Gentle aromas of dark chocolate, raisin, fig and brown sugar waft up from the stout, and the palate introduces you to that unmistakable rice pudding goodness.

A lovely, creamy viscosity coats your tongue, seeping in with rice pudding and a massive rich custard note. Custard tends to be one of my favorite tasting notes in whiskey, so I’m right at home here. The custard on this dessert-forward stout’s palate is joined by creme brûlée, cinnamon, butterscotch, almond butter, hazelnut and banana bread batter. The stout exits cleanly, leaving behind notes of barrel char and cinnamon.

Overall, this delectable, desserty stout has a great texture and is a delight from first sniff to finish.

1. 2023 Bourbon County Angel’s Envy 2-Year Cask Finish Stout

The king of this year’s Bourbon County lineup, this is Goose Island’s first “Cask Finish” release. For this stout, Goose Island aged its beer in freshly emptied barrels that previously held Angel’s Envy’s flagship Port-finished bourbon. Not satisfied with the level of Port influence after the initial maturation of a one-year process, Goose Island moved a portion of the stout into freshly emptied Ruby Port wine barrels from Portugal, where it rested for an additional year.

One hundred percent of the final product has been aged in Angel’s Envy barrels, while about 60% of it spent time in the Port casks. The other 40% of spent its full two years in the Angel’s Envy barrels.

With an ABV of 15.5%, this is the most potent of the 2023 Goose Island Bourbon County lineup.

When you swirl this beer around your glass, the color really jumps out at you. It’s incredibly deep and dark — almost midnight black — with a red tinge. The port shows itself here.

On the nose, this stout is deep, dark, complex and subtle. There’s huge smoky and fruity Port character here, joined by oak, maple, cherry and licorice. I’ve never experienced this much dessert wine character on a stout, and I’m very much here for it.

On the palate, this is crazy viscous — the most of any Bourbon County this year. It’s fun, fruity, complex and dry. It delivers plenty of typical Bourbon County goodness, with dark chocolate and char, but there’s also plenty of Port sweetness and jammy character, with cherries, plums, grapes and some baking spice notes. This pour also delivers a great amount of oak and tannin, which really helps to balance out the sweetness.

The finish goes on for ages and is Port-heavy again, with barrel char and tons of spiced-fruit notes — cherries, plums, blueberries.

The Goose Island team is particularly fond of this beer. I asked Senior Brewmaster Daryl Hoedtke and Siegel which member of this year’s lineup they were most proud of, and both responded that the Cask Finish Stout was their pick.

“With the cask finishing, this was a huge wild card,” Hoedtke said. “And bringing in barrels from outside the U.S. that traveled a long way. We were working with a new broker. We didn’t know all the details of what we were going to get. There was a huge leap of faith that we were comfortable with but knew there was a lot of risk there.

“I’m very proud of all of these — I think we all are. I’m delighted with how the Cask Finish turned out in that it is both a new avenue for Bourbon County Stout and we took a bit of a risk, at least as far as on the operational side, and I think it all worked out,” Hoedtke concluded.

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