Goose Island Bourbon County Barleywine Review

Name: Goose Island Bourbon County Barleywine
Style: Barleywine
ABV: 12.3%

Every year at the beginning of December, Goose Island Brewing releases their Bourbon County series in limited quantities. Last year I reviewed their Bourbon County Stout and found it to be quite good.

Now originally I was going to review their Barleywine but I mistakenly gave it to a friend of mine and was unable to give it a proper review. To make matters worse, the poor guy wasn't used to the barleywine style, let alone a beer that is high in alcohol content. Well now the time has come where I can give this a proper review.

Pours a black color with some mild visible carbonation. The head pours a creamy khaki-colored head and the lacing is very sparse.

In the aroma, I'm picking up on some strong vanilla bourbon notes with some strong oakiness. There is some strong caramel maltiness along with some prominent bitter hoppiness.

In the front, the vanilla bourbon and caramel maltiness are very prominent. The bitter hoppiness and oakiness show themselves in the second half of the taste. The aftertaste is primarily oak and caramel malts.

This is no doubt an extremely good bourbon barrel aged barleywine but it isn't quite my favorite bourbon barrel aged barleywine, which so happens to be from Central Waters The asking price is also a bit steep but if you can afford it, then you are in good company.

Goose Island Bourbon County Barleywine - 9/10

Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Barleywine Review

Name: Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Barleywine
Style: Barleywine
ABV: 11.2%

Originally I was planning on doing a review of Rugbrød from The Bruery to commemorate my 100th Post.....that is until I came across one of the beers I had on my bucket list from earlier this summer. That's right, it's Central Waters very own Bourbon Barrel Barleywine Ale!

Part of their Brewers Reserve Series, this is a is a Barleywine which is aged in a bourbon barrel for a year before being bottled and released for purchase. One of my favorite styles of beer combined with bourbon barrel aged goodness makes me all the more grateful that I got my hands on this beer and I'm quite excited to finally try this out. I'm not sure if it varies from year to year, but the ABV in this year's edition is 11.5%.

It pours a dark hazy brown color with an off-white head that is thin but with good retention. There isn't too much going on in terms of carbonation.

Before even checking out the nose, I'm already getting a whiff of Vanilla and Oak as the glass sits a couple feet away from me. Upon closer inspection, I'm treated to an aroma of vanilla, oak, caramel, bourbon, caramel, hops and whiskey. It smells alot like Bourbon!

As for the flavor, I'm getting very strong & vibrant vanilla, oak, caramel, bourbon, hops, malts and whiskey. Pardon the redundancy but this....tastes like bourbon. It still tastes very much like a barleywine but if you handed this to me and didn't tell me what it was, I'd mistake it for bourbon at first! A very slight boozy flavor is present but it blends in so well that you can hardly notice it's there. The body is quite heavy but the carbonation is rather mild; Still take your time drinking this because it's a doozy!

I'm not declaring this to be the Magnum Opus of the barleywine style, but this may be one of the best Barleywines that I have ever had. It's rich and robust with flavors that are both common & rare in barleywine style ales and it blends together very nicely.

Slight booziness aside (which I feel will subside once allowed to age), I really can't find anything wrong with this beer.  If you love barleywines and you so happen to see this on the shelf, grab it before someone else does because it's that delicious!


Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Barrel Barleywine - 9.75/10