Goose Island Bourbon County Barleywine

The picture you see up above is what I had on November 29, 2013, in celebration of my upcoming birthday.  It is Goose Island Bourbon County Barleywine. Every year since 1992, Goose Island has made a stout called Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS).  It is aged a few months to a year in bourbon barrels ranging in age from eight to sixteen years.  In 2010, they released a beer called BourbonCounty Rare: it was aged for two years in rare twenty-three year old bourbon barrels.  They liked the barrels so much they reused them to age a barleywine for a few months, which was released as King Henry in 2011. 

I do not expect to ever taste a beer, wine, whiskey, or any food (period) that tastes as good as King Henry did.  That beer was, is, and forever shall be legendary.  This particular beer is modeled after it: similar recipe, but aged in regular BCBS barrels.  So if you look at the ratings for King Henry, you can probably imagine the amount of hype this beer generated before release.  I am happy to say it exceeded my expectations even though it has not eclipsed King Henry (which is impossible). 

As you can see above, at first glance the appearance of Bourbon County Brand Barleywine (BCBB) is identical to that of a stout.  If you could reach into your computer screen, pull that glass out, and hold it up to the nearest light, you would see it is actually a little transparent.  Barely.  It is also moderately redder than that picture betrays.  It is decently carbonated like a fresh bottle of BCBS, but also like BCBS it is incapable of forming a coherent crown of foam for more than three seconds.  I don’t mind; a beer’s appearance is the least relevant part.

The aroma of BCBB suggests toffee dipped in chocolate, pecans dipped in chocolate (with more toffee), marshmallow, and molasses.  It’s all here.  Apart from the marshmallow, this doesn’t have that vanilla nose that King Henry had, but it is still recognizable as being cut from the same cloth.  Oak and whiskey are very, very subdued in the aroma; this smells like it absorbed more of the stout than King Henry did, hence the stronger chocolate aroma.  

I taste molasses, mild ethanol heat, whiskey and caramel up front.  The heat is more present than in King Henry, but in no way a distraction---it is far less obvious than it is in fresh BCBS.  The aftertaste of this beer is…not an aftertaste.  It’s an afterglow, the little bit of hazy color you see when you’ve been staring into a bright light for a few minutes and then turn it off.  Except instead of red and green and black dots in my eyes, it is flavors of toffee, vanilla, marshmallow, walnuts and milk chocolate.  All of those flavors mixed together make a great combination.  I would say milk chocolate slightly edges the others out, a result of the stout component, but it is distinct from a lot of other chocolate-like flavors found in stouts.  It resembles milk chocolate more than dark chocolate.

I could see this being almost too sweet after a year or two of cellaring, but this fresh the mild alcohol burn still keeps the sugar in check.  It also has enough carbonation to prevent the texture from being too thick.  Even without the carbonation, I don’t think this would ever be as thick as the stout is.  It lacks the oiliness of that beer.

This beer really is a treat everyone owes themselves a chance to try.  Given the crazy hype surrounding it I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s all sold out now since it has been out for the incredibly long period of…um, twelve days.  However, it was released in four-packs.  For Goose Island, that means they will make it again, probably every year.  Make sure to keep an eye out for it next November or December.

Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee 2013

Name:                 GooseIsland Bourbon County Coffee Stout (2013)

Style:                   Imperial stout

Twist:                  Aged in bourbon barrels, with a different coffee added every year

Strength:             13.4%

Well it’s been a few years since I’ve had this beer.  In fact, it’s been about three and a half years: I last had it the first year they released it, March 2010.  I thought it was…okay.  For a beer enthusiast, that pretty much makes me a heretic.  I just thought regular Bourbon County has enough roasted flavor plus whiskey heat on its own that adding another burnt ingredient (roasted coffee) just didn’t make any sense.  Since this year’s release is in a more manageable bottle format (12oz bottles instead of 22oz), I thought I would revisit it.  Also, this year it is made with a bourbon variety of coffee from El Salvador, which happens to be my favorite varietal (it has no relation to bourbon whiskey, FYI).

The appearance of Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout (hereafter BCBCS) is, like all the Bourbon County variants, oil black with almost no foam whatsoever.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: those pictures on Goose’s website of Bourbon County ____ with a huge three-finger head are completely, 100% Photoshop.  You will never get that much foam from anything Bourbon County, no matter how hard you pour it.  

What Goose Island wants you to believe every Bourbon County looks like, with sexy crown of foam.

What every Bourbon County actually looks like, with sad, depressing foam.

Despite the identical appearance, BCBCS’ aroma is markedly different from the standard Bourbon County.  It is also different from the fresh bottle I had back in 2010.  Either they added more coffee this year or this is just a really strong bourbon cultivar, because every whiff screams C-O-F-F-E-E at my nostrils.  There is a faint hint of molasses in the background and almost no whiskey, which greatly surprises me.  Regular Bourbon County practically oozes whiskey flavor when fresh.

The flavor has more of the typical Bourbon County characteristics that have made it so popular….with a giant scoop of coffee blended in.  Seriously, the coffee flavor really pops this year.  It overpowers the underlying base beer’s flavors of molasses and chocolate, which have almost no room here.  I can appreciate some oaky vanilla flavor but not much whiskey.  This beer tastes like marshmallow-flavored coffee.  It’s yummy, but a bit much.  In fact, it is so strongly redolent of coffee that I will not be surprised if I have trouble sleeping tonight.

The texture is classic Bourbon County: thick, somewhat oily and not particularly carbonated.  No surprises here.  The alcohol heat keeps the sweetness in check a bit, as it does with fresh standard Bourbon County.

Feel free to call me a heretic again, but while this year’s is good, I would still pick a smoother batch of the regular fresh; or any batch of the regular with age.  If you like coffee and stouts though, you owe it to yourself to seek this out.

This was written as it was consumed on December 10, 2013.

Victory Oak Horizontal

Several years ago, Victory Brewing Company made a barleywine called Old Horizontal.  It was a moderately hoppy barleywine that was available during the winter in six-packs, a rarity for the style.  They put it on hold for a few years because they didn't have the space to brew it while they were expanding (they wanted to focus on their better-selling beers to finance the expansion).  They are bringing it back this year, but in between the early retirement and later this winter, they decided to do a special release: Old Horizontal aged in bourbon barrels.  This is called Oak Horizontal.

Obviously, it's been years since I had the original, so my memory is a bit fuzzy about how the beer looked.  I do remember it having a surprisingly ample carbonation for a barleywine, something this version retains; having a mild nose with little hop notes; and for having a more hoppy but still restrained bitterness in the flavor.  Also, I liked it.

The aroma of this particular iteration reminds me a little bit of Founders Backwoods Bastard, chiefly in the way the combination of bourbon and malt evokes cherries and vanilla.  There is a hint of toffee as well which distinguishes this from Old Horizontal, and I'm not sure if that's from the bourbon or mild oxidation.  The overall sensation is sweet, but not cloying.  Like Old Horizontal but unlike most American barleywines, the smell of hops is not detectable.

Also like Old Horizontal, the hops I couldn't smell are more than apparent once I actually taste the beer.  Unlike the base beer, however, the hops in Oak Horizontal do not add a pleasant bitterness for balance.  Instead, they clash with the barrel.  There's a reason most barrel-aged barleywines in this country are typically English (minimum hopping) in nature, and that is because hops and whiskey normally don't mesh well.  Here, the hops are actually stronger than the bourbon notes, overwhelming the burnt sugar from the whiskey as well as the vanilla from the wood.  The wood, regrettably, takes on a more astringent tannic character here.  Astringency and bitterness never work well together.  On the plus side, the cherry and toffee flavors are still prominent, and the beer's alcohol rarely shows itself.


Barrel aging beer is tricky.  Beyond the technical, time, storage space and potential bacterial concerns, beer requires a certain profile to do well in a barrel.  There's a reason many breweries don't release barrel-free versions of some of their beer, and it's probably because they're a mess without the time in the wood.  The corollary to that is beers which taste great without barrel aging won't always improve when brewers try to barrel age them, because they weren't designed with barrels in mind.  That seems to be what happened here.  The base beer is/was great without the bourbon barrel, and the hoppy aspect makes it unsuitable for barrel treatment.  It isn't bad, just worse than regular Old Horizontal.  Victory can't bring that beer back soon enough.

De Molen Bommen & Granaten

Now it’s time to review one of my favorite styles: barleywines.  I actually had a couple of these over the summer when I went back home, particularly ones that I had bought at home but didn’t get to in time before I moved out here.  With barleywines, this usually isn’t an issue; most barleywines won’t change much even with a whole year on them.  Many people like to keep them around for years (me included).

I had only had this particular beer for a few months, but the bottle was actually about two years old when I had it in July (it was bottled in August 2011).  The beer is Bommen & Granaten by De Molen from the Netherlands.

I’ll keep this short, as I’ve never had this fresh; I can’t say how it has changed.  It doesn’t taste like a beer that has fallen apart with age though.  The aroma is appetizing but one dimensional.  It smells like caramel-covered raisins, a pretty good sign the beer is starting to pleasantly oxidate.  The flavor is definitely better, though I would not say outstanding.  Alcohol flavors are mild when compared to the actual strength of the beer, which is around 15.2%.  In addition to the caramel and raisins I smelled I also get notes of honey, cherries and a strange note of leather.  If this sounds sweet, that’s because it is.  The one fruit fly in my house managed to smell the beer and I spent the next hour swatting him away from my glass (he was persistent, but unsuccessful).   It’s predictably thick for such a strong and sweet beer, though I expected that.

I think that was my shortest review ever.  It’s not an amazing or particularly unique beer, but Bommen & Granaten is a solid representation of an English barleywine.  I am curious what it tasted like when it was younger.

Allagash Odyssey 2011

This is one I've been holding onto for a while. Brewed once a year, Allagash Odyssey was just a bit too odd and harsh-tasting when I had a fresh bottle in February 2011.  Not long afterwards it went on sale, so I bought one to age.  In the beer world, it's a bit of an oddity.  It's what a hybrid between a Belgian abbey quad, a stout, and a wheatwine might taste like; ingredients include Belgian yeast, wheat, and roasted barley.  It is partially aged in oak barrels as well.

I deliberately chose the fanciest glass I own just because, and split the bottle with two others.  Head formation and retention were excellent.

The primary aromas consist of plums, a hint of fig, a hint of coco and something similar to caramel.  The smell vaguely reminds me of Ovila Quad with plums, except this is brewed with roasted barley, so the hint of chocolate is actually expected. 

I think "balance" is probably the most all-encompassing word to sum up the flavor profile.  Initially there is a strong first impression of plums, but as the beer warms up (I took my time with this one) most of the flavors equalize so that no one item overpowers the rest.  Plums, dates, Belgian invert sugar, maybe some caramel and vanilla.  The barrel-aging is much more subtle now than when it was fresh.  I don't have my notes from 2011 on hand, but I distinctly recall the fresh bottle being fairly harsh---unpleasantly oaky and a bit too alcoholic.  None of that here.  Very smooth.

Balance carries over into the texture as well.  So this errs on the side of dryness, it isn't super dry or super sweet.  A nice balance.  I have a feeling the wheat and large carbonation contribute a lot to the sweetness.


As with most beers from Allagash, the price on this one varies considerably depending on where you get it.  Regardless of what you end up paying for it, sitting on it for two or more years is definitely worth the wait.

Drie Fonteinen Zwet.Be

Drie Fonteinen (usually abbreviated 3F) is a company normally associated with lambics, and in particular gueuze lambic.  They have a stellar reputation.  Unfortunately, when I can find their stuff in stores, it is usually prohibitively expensive (this particular beer is a whopping $2 per ounce). 

 

On the other hand, Zwet.Be is not a lambic and (unsurprisingly) is much cheaper.  It is a porter/stout brewed with a culture of wild airborne yeast from the grounds around the 3F brewery.  That makes it funky without being sour.  The bottle doesn't contain any legible date, but being wild this shouldn't be an issue.

Unsurprisingly for a porter, it is pitch black.  The head formation and retention is spectacular---that two fingers of foam you see below stayed for 10 minutes without dissipating.  It also left excellent lacing afterwards.  Needless to say, this is well-carbonated.

If you have ever wondered what I use to write my notes on, that's it....I keep it old school and tablet-free.

Yup---stayed like that for ten minutes.  Nothing receded.

That tight, persistent cap of foam makes smelling this a bit of a challenge; most of the aroma is kept underneath it.  Having accidentally let my nose stray too close on a few too many occasions, I firmly believe beer is best ingested through the mouth, not the lungs.  The aromas are easier to discern straight out of the bottle.  Deep, earthy chocolate notes rule the day, a combination of the malt (chocolate) and yeast (earth).  I've never experienced a 3F lambic, so I can't say for sure whether this smells like their usual yeast, but the sweaty-gym-sock smell many lambics have is not here.

Zwet.Be tastes more elaborate than it smells.  A definite layer of chocolate and coco powder from the barley malt gives way to the somewhat subtle but unmistakable funktang of wild yeast.  I don't remember where I heard that word, but I like it.  I also think the phrase "sweaty apples" (my own invention) is a decent way to describe it, mixed with lemon peel and topped off with more tangy flavors. A rustic, mildly smoky flavor is there from something (probably the malt), which is odd for a second before you get used to it.  Vague hints of dark fruit round out the profile and remind the drinker that yes, this is a porter.  Sort of.

As I expected, Zwet.Be is funky but not sour.  It is creamy and utterly smooth, yet finishes semi-dry.  I have no way of knowing how fresh this is, but I would expect it to get drier with age.

This didn't last long once I finished writing my notes.  Unusual and not for everybody, but well-done.

Dogfish Head Immort Ale

I wanted to like this beer a whole lot more than I did.  While I am a little iffy on the idea of a beer brewed with juniper berries (the one juniper beer I’ve tried was ghastly), the thought of a smoky oak-aged barleywine brewed with maple syrup, vanilla beans, and Belgian yeast sounds delicious.  There aren’t enough beers brewed with either vanilla or maple syrup.  I tend to like oak-aged beer, overall.  I enjoy smoked beers, particularly the campfire-and-bacon sort, but I am not opposed to peat-smoked beers either (I enjoy Scotch every now and then).  I never imagined it would be the smoke that would bug me.

The beer doesn’t look super intimidating.  It has a reddish-amber hue, more or less transparent.  The foam on top never gets beyond a film, though it does stay around for a decent time.  It also leaves some lacing, though not much.  I would like to take this time to pimp what is easily the best beer glass around.  Anyone who doubts that laser-etched nucleation points help with carbonation need only watch this:

Nice steady stream of bubbles.

Where this beer starts to go wrong is when I smell it.  I took one whiff and knew this was going to be an unfortunate experience.  Two words: BAND AIDS.  I have had many peat-smoked beverages.  A lot of Scotch whiskey is brewed with peat-smoked barley, imparting flavors as wide-ranging as ash and moss and medicine (like chewing on a tablet).  I generally like it, and the first Scotch I ever bought was this smoky beast.  But I have never, ever tasted Band Aid flavors in Scotch, or peat-smoked beer, despite both containing phenolic compounds commonly said to taste like band aids..  I thought it was a bad joke some brewers liked to tell; after all, who has actually tasted a Band Aid before?  I am sorry I ever doubted them.  This smells the way a Band Aid smells, and there is no other association I can think of.  It’s the only one that makes sense.

As the beer warms up, I can also faintly make out some vanilla scents.  But nothing strong enough to suggest this was brewed with vanilla beans, or for that matter aged in oak barrels, fermented with maple syrup and brewed with juniper berries.

The flavor is a little better, but not amazing by any stretch.  There is indeed some smoky Scotch-like flavor now, a hint of peat moss in there.  Also like Scotch---and not welcome in beer, as far as I’m concerned---is the prominent role the alcohol has in the flavor profile.  Somewhat pleasantly spicy but unpleasantly warming, it ends up going to war with the insurgent Band Aid flavor and I the drinker am collateral damage.  The combination feels like a continuous, unending M.O.A.B. strike on my tongue.  What little vanilla flavor here could have come from the vanillin naturally present in oak wood, they should have used more vanilla beans to make it distinct.  Also, they should have used less peat-smoked barley, or perhaps a different brand or grade of it.  There is still not a single note of maple syrup or juniper berries, and the beer finishes with a long-lasting aftertaste of heat, smoke, and Band Aids.

The texture isn’t doing this beer any favors either.  For an 11% barleywine, it has a drying quality to it that is almost parching.  The smoke and dryness coat the mouth for much longer than they are welcome.

The label tells me that I might feel immortal after having a bottle of this.  HAH---if only.  I feel like my palate has been fatally wounded.  Dogfish Head makes much better beer; this is one to avoid.