Our 2024 Bourbon County Stout Reviews & Rankings

It’s a Rare year. Does that mean it’s immediately our #1?

Happy Rare Day to all who are celebrating this afternoon! A couple of weeks ago, Team GDB returned to the Bourbon County Stout 2024 media scrum.

Unlike past events, this time there were two of us on hand, and we were able to participate on separate nights – one in person, the other via Zoom. Eric attended the Salt Shed gathering while Karl logged on remotely, and both of us were guided through the full lineup of barrel-aged beverages and their variants by Goose Island staff.

This year is pretty equally distributed: One OG, two barrel-focused variant stouts (Rare and Bardstown Cask Finish), two adjunct variant stouts (Macaroon and Vanilla Rye) and one barleywine (Proprietor’s Mexican Spoon Candy).

What did we think? How would we each rank these? What kind of beer disagreements are in front of us? Read on to find out: 

Click here for all of our Bourbon County Stout content throughout the years.

Night 1: Eric Krol, Live at the Salt Shed

Eric: The 2024 Bourbon County Stout lineup is a return to form for Goose Island, featuring the Chicago brewery’s best offerings since 2020 (the year of those excellent Birthday Bourbon and Weller variants).

The throughline of this year’s lineup is the power of rye. Three of the six beers feature rye barrels or a rye stout recipe, and they’re the three best.

Goose ended the evening with an announcement that will have BCS fans excited: Single-barrel versions of the OG stout will be released throughout 2025. This goes far beyond the Easter egg hunts of the OG BCS core four barrels of a couple years ago, with supplies of each version naturally limited by the single-barrel nature.

Eric’s rankings:

#6: Proprietor’s

At the Salt Shed tasting, they saved the most polarizing beer for last … which is where I also have it in the rankings. Most of this year’s lineup hits center of the fairway, so that buys Goose some goodwill to take a big swing. Brewer Colby Magratten did so with his take on tamarind spoon candy. This beer is likely to get the same reaction as the divisive Prop 2016 (the one aged in maple bourbon barrels with chipotle peppers and cocoa nibs) , due to the strong presence of Guajillo chiles.

There’s some lime and sweetness on the front end, and definite heat on the back end. This is the first time Prop is a barleywine. “It’s definitely different. It’s keeping the spirit of doing new things alive,” said Mike Siegel, Goose’s head of innovation and barrels.

#5: Macaroon

This one was the brainchild of sales team member Paul Spiller, who you might know better as “the guy who walks around at Prop Day in scuba gear.” They’re going for the BA stout version of the cookie, and we got chocolate and a little ginger … but no coconut.

It reminded me of the 2018 version of Proprietor’s; the one that was like a liquid chocolate bar, or even the 2018 Midnight Orange after the orange fell off and just chocolate remained. Not going to be any little coconut floaties in this one, at least. It’s good, but the competition in this year’s lineup is stiff. 

#4: The OG

There’s that familiar nose. The base stout spent 16 months in bourbon casks this year, the now-standard blend of Wild Turkey, Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill and Four Roses barrels. I got a little less of what former Tribune beer writer Josh Noel would have called  the “leather” note this time out.

The OG BCS remains solid and dependable, and you’ll never be disappointed, knowing exactly what you’re getting. And in the Chicago area, when the price per bottle drops after the New Year (I’ve seen it for under $10!), it’s one of the best values in barrel-aged beer when it comes to quality vs. cost.

#3: Bardstown Cask Finish

It’s much smoother than the OG BCS, with some rye spice. It’s aged in Bardstown straight rye whiskey barrels, then went into barrels with cherry wood staves bookended with oak staves. It’s worth seeking out.

#2: Vanilla Rye

We’ve got this at #2 on our list. It’s not going to beat your memories of the 2014 release, but it’s miles ahead of the non-rye 2018 variant. It’s an  imperial rye stout aged in rye whiskey barrels with Madagascar vanilla beans, so you probably already have an idea in your head of what it will taste like. The rye spiciness plays well with the vanilla. It’s very good. BRB, going to pre-order this one.

#1: Rare

The hype is real. You don’t want to miss this double barrel rye stout aged for two years in two sets of old King of Kentucky barrels. Those barrels are definitely the star. It’s got some nice rye spiciness as you’d expect. The stout is not the OG recipe, and it’s a little sweeter than OG BCS. It’s fantastic. Somehow, the 18% ABV doesn’t burn.

I asked whether this would be available at retail. “Our retail,” they replied, meaning Goose Fulton and Goose Salt Shed, as well as on Rare Day, with a MSRP of $50. It’s unclear whether Rare will be sold separately; Goose was only selling Rare as part of a full lineup package for Black Friday. How many bottles of Rare did they produce? “Not a lot,” said Todd Ahsmann, Goose Island president.

Other notes:

After tasting the six beers in this year’s lineup, Goose brought out some food and a special beer with an announcement: For the first time ever, Goose will be releasing single-barrel BCS variants. 

The front label will have a code date. Retailers across Illinois will be able to showcase their picks, which will be released throughout the year. We tasted a Four Roses 6-year aged for 20 months, which was very good. The Goose team said the idea started eight years ago but they shelved it until they could do it the way they wanted. Pro tip: look for a single-barrel release at Fulton and Salt Shed on Black Friday.

As for the food, the pork rinds were super tasty, which is a sentence we didn’t think we’d be typing in 2024. The BCS lamb burger was featured as a pop-up item; we highly recommend it be an addition to the Salt Shed menu.

A shout out to Adan, our bartender at the Salt Shed tasting. He’s been slinging beers with Goose for 29 years.

2024 Bourbon County Stout Night 2: Karl Logs On, Drinks Strong

Karl: Because my timing is impeccable, I had agreed to join the 2024 Bourbon County Stout tasting on a night where I thought my plans were open – but it turns out I had forgotten that my parents were coming to town that night in advance of the next day’s Halloween extravaganza. (Kids go crazy for trick or treating up here. You should see it.)

As such, my tasting experience found me sitting in a spare bedroom on my laptop cracking open bottle after bottle of sought-after BA stout and cramming them all onto a small desktop while my folks hung out in my living room watching Youtube. Slightly awkward, but we got through it. 

Did that have any effect on how I experienced these beers? I don’t think so, but I offer you that context in case any potential distraction may matter to you. And for some additional context, even though I haven’t had the chance to sample all the BCBS variants over the past couple of years, I have had a few from ‘23 and ‘22 … and I have to say that those were a bit of a letdown, honestly. (Especially last year’s Bananas Foster. That was a real bummer.)

So imagine my happy surprise when I found myself pretty excited at the end of this year’s tastings. Only one of these six beers was a bit of a letdown and the rest all punched well above their weight for different reasons. Let’s get into ‘em. 

#6: Macaroon

For me, this is an easy pick. Coconut is a fine flavor for a stout, and adding ginger to the mix had me interested, but sadly the combination was far less than the sum of its parts. I barely got either flavor, to be perfectly honest – I was expecting light wafting toasty coconut sweetness counterpunching against spicy, sharp bright ginger rawness … and just found my palate hunting for notes of either. Nothing wrong here, but a clear choice for my bottom ranking.

#5: Vanilla Rye

I have this at #5 whereas Eric has it at #2? Astonishing, right? I totally agree with Eric’s assessment that 2024 is The Year Of The Rye but this one hit me with a sledgehammer of cake-batter flavor that I didn’t exactly adore. This one suffers from the same overdose of vanilla that dominated the similar yet rye-less 2018 variant, though I imagine a year of age would put this into a very sweet spot. 

If it sounds like I’m down on this beer, I’m not, really – I found it significantly more complex than what I remember of the ‘18, with delicious sweetness following the aroma of raw vanilla extract that popped off the neck of the bottle. Good, yes. Great? Not quite, but it’s a strong year. 

#4: Proprietor’s Barleywine

After decades of making the OG BCBS, I love that Goose is still willing to get way out there with their flagship beer brand. And make no mistake, this beer is unique. I’m guessing most people won’t find it to be to their taste, but that’s fine – that leaves more for those of us that like playful flavors and pieces of new culture coming into beer like this.

“This is kinda wild,” my notes read as I was whalloped with earthy guajillo chili flavor followed by waves of lime, sugar and tamarind. Two different kinds of tamarind puree went into the flavor profile, plus unrefined piloncillo sugar cane, all of which adds up to almost a riot of enthusiastic sweet-sour-acid-spice flavor that bounces around the palate from note to note to note. 

I’m putting this at #4 because of the way it made my brain work hard to figure out what’s going on, and the way it built and intensified with every spicy sip. Divisive? Certainly. Fun? Absolutely. YMMV.

#3: The OG. 

I knew we were in for a good lineup the second I took my first sip of this year’s Original. Even though this stout is different from the rye stouts that make the basis of a few other beers, the fact that I have the OG at #3 should tell you that it is delicious this year. Deeply fudgy, chocolatey but not bitter, with vanilla and plenty of raisin on the nose. As it warms, the oak really emerges along with some slightly astringent tannins at the finish. 

Apparently this year’s edition spent about 16 months in barrels, which is a little longer than usual, and it seems to have benefitted. The body is thicker than in past years, too, hefty and creamy in that way that is so satisfying in big stouts. Goose President Todd Ahsmann said this year’s reminded him of 2019’s OG, “and 2019 was one of my favorites,” he added. 

#2: Rare

It’s a great year for the barrel variants, with Rare sitting juuuuuuuust behind my #1 pick. As ever, Rare is named not just for the quantity produced but also the access to the barrels used. This year’s Rare spent two years in two different sets of 15-year-old single-barrel King of Kentucky casks, and the double-barrel approach to this means an explosive amount of bourbon flavor sitting on top of the rye stout used for this edition.

A massive nose of grain alcohol is followed up by gargantuan caramel and toffee flavors plus the booziest version of vanilla custard you’ve ever tasted. The spice from the rye amps it all up and leaves you with one of the longest tails I can ever remember on a BCS. As Ahsmann put it, “Just because we get some rare barrels and some rare bourbon, doesn’t mean the beer is going to turn out worthy of the name.” This one clearly did. 

#1: Bardstown Cask Finish

Where Rare blew me away with its monster bourbon character, Bardstown Cask Finish impressed me a little bit more, and still managed to retain a sense of balance, which is why I’ve popped it to the top of my rankings this year. The OG stout started in Bardstown rye whiskey barrels and then was transitioned to some very special “zebra barrels” exclusive to Bardstown, where cherrywood staves are bookended by oak and toasted with infrared heat to soften the normal char flavors. 

This beer required a bit of patience but it rewards it: The flavor delivers deep cola, almost Dr. Pepper-esque complexity on top of the richly chocolatey stout, and then lands with a punch of black pepper on the finish. It’s surprisingly dry, light-drinking and overall “bright” in a way that surprised me. I loved it, and because Rare is probably going to get the lion’s share of the attention this year, I think it’s likely that some of this version might be more attainable than usual, which would be awesome. 

Other Notes: 

Goose president Todd Ahsmann was asked about a potential return of the Vertical Collection, which was released a few years ago and packaged three years worth of BCBS OG into a mini-vertical. Drinkers were encouraged to see how the beer changed through the years, and while it was a worthwhile experiment, “I don’t know if people really got it,” Ahsmann said. I agree with that, and I also agree with his other statement on the matter: “It’s such a wonderful story to tell.”

I asked a couple questions of the panel – one of which was met with equivocation and the other a more firm answer.

First, I asked if there were any barrels out there that the team really wanted to get access to but hadn’t yet. Their dream barrels, if you will. No one was willing to give me an outright answer (probably to avoid setting expectations or disappointing current partners; I get it.).

When I asked if there was any 2015 Rare waiting in the wings that might make a return appearance at Fulton alongside the new Rare, that answer was clearer: There’s almost none left at the brewery. (“Slim pickins” was how it was described, which isn’t a hard “no” but I get the feeling that it’s not likely to emerge this year.) 

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