Beer nerds finding these special stouts
Add three more beers to Goose Island’s 2020 Bourbon County lineup — let’s call them Bourbon County Easter Egg Stout.
Eggs, fortunately, are not involved.
However, the beers are the definition of what is known as an “Easter egg” in TV, music, film and especially video games
— a surprise meant to be uncovered by ardent fans in time and with close attention.
In this case, the Easter eggs were quietly planted in the form of what a Goose Island spokeswoman called “a few limitededition bottles” of Bourbon County Stout aged only in a single distillery’s barrels — Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill or Wild Tur
key.
The vast majority of Bourbon County Stout is a blend of beers aged in barrels from those three distilleries. But eagle-eyed beer nerds began noting the single-distillery versions — revealed in the fine print on the backs of some Bourbon County Stout labels with the initials “BT,” “HH” or “WT” — then shared their discoveries on social media and in beer forums.
The brewery never whispered a word of the initiative until the spokeswoman confirmed the speculation after questions from the Chicago Tribune.
The three beers are available in equal amounts, she said, and were dispersed randomly across the Chicago area. (A bottle of Bourbon County Stout that doesn’t include any of the three initials is the standard blended version, she said.)
The plot is a first for Goose Island — at least that we know of — and helps reinvigorate the core member of its Bourbon County portfolio. Bourbon County Stout was a revolutionary beer when introduced in the mid-1990s, but has met declining interest in recent years as beer fans gravitate to the Bourbon County variations Goose Island releases every year.
The 2020 lineup included beers made with coffee and maple syrup, tea and honey and versions aged in barrels from Weller and Old Forester.
Goose Island President Todd Ahsmann has acknowledged that declining interest in Bourbon County Stout was a problem to solve. One approach has been to make less Bourbon County Stout, and more of the variants. Now comes the Easter egg hunt, which has sent fans of bourbon barrel-aged beer scrambling for a taste of all three secret versions.
Ashmann said tasting the single-distillery expressions of Bourbon County Stout is usually reserved for brewers as they create the final blends.
“This year, our brewers and ops team decided to take on the big task of developing a limited batch of singular distillery variants as Easter eggs for our most die hard fans,” he said in a statement.
Goose Island brewmaster Keith Gabbett said, “We always like to keep our fans on their toes and this year we wanted to celebrate the great distillery partnerships we’ve formed over the years.”
“We can’t wait for you to taste the different flavor nuances and we know people will be excited but we encourage fans to follow social distancing guidelines at their local stores and be courteous to employees as we continue to try and keep things safe and fun for all,” Gabbett said.
And don’t forget your masks, beer nerds.