The Constant That’s Never the Same.
Every Bourbon County release begins with the same question: What did time do this year?
A hushed reverence settled over the Goose Island Salt Shed Brewpub—the kind usually reserved for museums or concert halls. But for the few dozen people admiring the bar filled with stemless teku sensory glasses, this was a pilgrimage site. This was Bourbon County Stout. The greatest American stout of all time.
“Who’s here for the first time?” Goose President Todd Ashmann called out. A handful of hands rose. Most of the room, though, had the familiar posture of returning devotees. “Good,” Todd said, grinning. “Because even if you’ve been here before, all six beers tonight are new.”
This year’s theme, they explained, was time—how it shapes beer, how it reveals character, and how it continues to expand what Bourbon County can be. And as the glasses arrived in neat grids, Goose Island’s brewers took center stage, ready to walk attendees through not just a tasting, but a journey.
The Constant That’s Never the Same
Every Bourbon County release begins with the same question: What did time do this year?
Despite being built from a single base stout—the infamous Bourbon County Brand Stout Original—each vintage evolves differently. Climate variations, fermentation nuance, and, especially, barrel character all imprint subtle differences. As one brewer put it, “We call it a vintage character. It’s the same beer, but every year it’s a little different, and that’s the beauty.”
2025 OG
Midnight black with a halo of brown foam.
Nose: chocolate, molasses, dried cherry, and warm whiskey spice. On the
Palate: liquid dessert—vanilla, caramel, coconut, and a whisper of smoky phenolic warmth from the barrel char.
This year’s batch rested around 14 months, long enough to mellow the boozy edges without losing structure. “We designed this beer for aging,” the team said. “It’s not brewed to be released fresh. It’s brewed to become this.”
That distinction matters. Bourbon County Original is the anchor—and everything else in the lineup begins by reacting to it.
The Barrels: Goose Island’s Silent Partners
If the Original is the anchor, the barrels are the secret chorus. Goose Island’s barrel relationships—Four Roses, Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Wild Turkey—have become legendary. But hearing brewers talk about them reveals how precise and interpersonal the craft has become.
“These aren’t paid partnerships,” Senior Brand Manager, John Zadlo emphasized. “This is trust. This is earned.”
Barrels arrive within a week of dumping. Two to five gallons of full-proof whiskey often linger inside the wood, soaked deep into the oak grain. “That’s flavor—we want that,” the barrel team said. “Vanillin, coconut, caramelized sugars, cinnamon phenols. The barrel is an ingredient.”
Temperature swings matter, too. Chicago’s —hot summers, bitter winters—push liquid in and out of oak pores, extracting depth and maturity. Honestly,, Chicago might be the best place in the world for barrel aging.
Reserve: Telling the Story of Time
The first two beers after Original were all about the clock.
Bourbon County Reserve
(Parker’s Heritage 10-Year Rye)
Showcases the intensity of long-aged rye whiskey barrels—herbal, spicy, wintergreen-leaning, with tannic grip and stunning depth. Rye’s natural vibrancy overlays the stout with a structural backbone, letting cherry, vanilla, and baking spice shine.
“This is a celebration of a single distillery,” Senior Manager of Innovation, Mike Siegel said. “The personality of the barrel is the entire point.”
Double Barrel Bourbon County Stout
Aged first in seven-year Heaven Hill barrels and then transferred into fresh seven-year barrels for a second year of maturation. The result? A 17.4% stunner—one of the highest ABVs in BCS history—but shockingly balanced.
“Alcohol has inherent sweetness,” Brewmaster, Daryl Hoedtke is explained. “It affects mouthfeel, too. So when people say double barrel tastes thicker, they’re not wrong.”
The glass offered a symphony: cherry cordial, brûléed sugar, tobacco leaf, deep oak, and warm spirit heat that lingered like a slow fade-out.
The Variants: Stories Through Ingredients
Goose Island’s adjunct program is its own universe—full of trial, error, and obsessive sourcing. “There’s no recipe,” “It’s result-driven in reverse. We start by asking: What do we want this to taste like? And then we work backward.”
Their ingredient library is enormous. They buy thirty kinds of hazelnuts. Whole, crushed, diced, powdered—whatever it takes.
This year’s variants show that level of precision.
Chocolate Praline Stout
Built from mountains of roasted nuts—11,500 pounds worth—plus cocoa and dates, this variant is decadent yet balanced. Think turtle candy meets dark chocolate fudge, wrapped in velvety stout. The dates give caramelized sweetness, but it’s restrained. Never cloying.
Cherry Jubilee Stout
The lineup’s most playful variant began with the barrel itself: a blend of Bourbon County Stout finished in French cognac casks. The base beer already had brown sugar, stone fruit, and gentle vanilla notes, so the team leaned into it—adding Montmorency cherry purée and juice concentrate plus panela sugar.
The result channels the flambéed dessert: cherries, orange zest, cinnamon, brûlée, and a whisper of cognac warmth.
Go drink some cognac and then drink this, You’ll see exactly where those flavors come from.
Proprietor’s 2025 (Chicago Only)
This year’s Prop—dreamed up and refined through Goose Island’s internal crowdsourcing program—is a baklava-inspired stout that stitches together honeyed nuttiness, warming spice, and pastry richness. It’s Chicago-only, as always, meant as a love letter to the city’s immigrant foodways, from Greek bakeries to Middle Eastern grocers.
“We don’t care whether other people put ketchup on hot dogs,” one brewer joked. “Proprietor’s is for Chicago.”
The Surprise Pour: King Henry Returns
Just as the evening seemed ready to wind down, the brewer grabbed the mic:
“We have one more beer.”
The room froze.
“It’s King Henry.”
Gasps—literal gasps—followed. For many, King Henry is the white whale of U.S. craft beer: released once in 2011, born from rare Pappy Van Winkle barrels, beloved ever since.
The 2025 edition—reborn through BCS Rare barrels and built on an English barleywine base made from Thomas Fawcett & Sons Specialty Malts—was rich, deep, and elegant. Buttercream, fig cake, brandied fruit, toffee, dark bread crust. Its texture was unreal: plush, rounded, almost demasié with decadence.
Only about 500 bottles exist..It sold out online in seven seconds.
A Legacy Still Writing Itself
As the night wound down and trays of Flintstone-scale ribs passed among brewers and guests, a truth lingered: after 32 years, Goose Island could have coasted. Bourbon County could have become predictable. Instead, its stewards remain restless, curious, obsessed.
“We always think we’re out of ideas,” one brewer said. “And then somehow, every year, something new just clicks.”
This year, the click was time.
Time in barrels.
Time in concepts.
Time in relationships built over decades.
Time in the glass, warming from 42° to 65°, opening like a book.
And time spent in a Chicago warehouse, tasting with the people who keep this tradition alive.
Bourbon County Brand Stout isn’t just a beer.
It’s a story—one Chicago keeps telling, one year at a time.
—Nkosi
