Goose Island Announced Details of its 2025 Bourbon County Stouts
Fall still feels a long way off, but there are more than a few people who are already starting to think about Black Friday. For some, that November day means a hellish visit to a big box store to get a new flat screen TV; for others, it’s the day that Goose Island releases its Bourbon County lineup, a series of stouts that are uniquely flavored and aged in premium Kentucky bourbon barrels. This year’s lineup follows the same pattern, and we have the details about how it differs from previous releases.
Bourbon County Stout was first released in 1992, but the collection of different variants didn’t arrive until 2010. Cask selection is key to the Goose Island brewers—according to senior innovation manager Mike Siegel, they look at barrels as an ingredient of the beer instead of just a vessel. “We seek out the best and prioritize relationships with the distilleries that craft them,” he said in a statement. “Heaven Hill produces world-class whiskey across a range of brands, including several we’ve partnered with for Bourbon County over the years, such as Elijah Craig, Old Fitzgerald, Larceny, and Rittenhouse Rye. This year, we’re releasing two new beers aged in their barrels—one highlighting the distillery itself with Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond, and another aged in barrels from the Parker’s Heritage Collection 10-year 17th Edition Rye Whiskey—one of their most prized annual releases, and a barrel we’ve long hoped to work with for Bourbon County.”
The beers have changed a lot over the years with new variants and flavor profiles, but the one that remains mostly the same (although the barrels used for maturation change) is the Original Stout. This year’s beer was aged for an average of 12 months in barrels previously used to mature bourbon from the big names in Kentucky: Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Four Roses, and Wild Turkey. Tasting notes include fudge, vanilla, and caramelized sugar on the palate.
There are five other beers in this year’s lineup. Cherries Jubilee Stout was inspired by the namesake dessert, and was aged in bourbon barrels and then finished in Cognac casks before being blended with Montmorency cherries, citrus, and panela to give it dark cherry and vanilla notes on the palate and a caramelized citrus finish. Next up is Chocolate Praline Stout, another dessert-themed beer. It was aged in bourbon barrels and then flavored with cocoa nibs, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, and dates. The third beer is Proprietor’s Stout, which was inspired by Goose Island brewer Colby Magratten’s memories of homemade baklava. After aging in bourbon barrels, walnuts, pistachios, cassia bark, and honey were added (this one is only available in Chicago, though).
Next is Double Barrel Stout, which was aged in two sets of barrels used to mature Heaven Hill’s classic Bottled-In-Bond Bourbon, a 7-year-old whiskey that is a core expression in the distillery’s lineup. Lastly, there is the Reserve Stout, aged for total of two years in Parker’s Heritage Collection barrels. That lineup is one of the most coveted from Heaven Hill and includes excellent whiskeys like last year’s malt whiskey finished in Cognac barrels, but this beer was specifically aged in barrels used for the 2023 release, a cask-strength rye whiskey, giving it notes of spice and oak to balance the sweetness.
As mentioned before, the 2025 Goose Island Bourbon County lineup will be available on Black Friday (November 28). If you want to try some of the previous releases, those are available as well at websites like Total Wine now.
