The long wait for stout lovers has finally come to an end. Esteemed Chicago-based brewery Goose Island has finally broken its silence with the annoucement of its 2024 Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS) lineup.

For the uninitiated, the brewery has brewed its famous barrel-aged stout since 1992, traditionally releasing each batch on Black Friday.

Goose Island is doing a few things differently with this lineup, however. For starters, while previous iterations have presented up to eight different experiences, this year's roster hits a low with only five. 

But the main thing everyone's looking out for is the return of this years version of the Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Rye Stout. It is a successor to the highly-sought-after 2014 Vanilla Rye release that had BCBS fans swarming to get their hands on.

The other bottle making people look is this year's Proprietor's Stout. Since 2013, The Proprietor's Stout has been a constant in the BCBS lineup, and is a bottle only available in the Chicago area. 

For the first time, this year's 2024 Bourbon County Brand Proprietor’s Ale is made with Barleywine.

It's inspiration reportedly came from brewer Colby Magratten’s affinity for Mexican spoon candy, leading to a mix of bourbon barrel-aged barleywine made with tamarind, lime, whole Guajillo chiles and piloncillo (unrefined whole cane sugar).

The blend is said to have subtle dried fruit notes, lime zest and a warming finish.

That being said, the other three offerings this year are not to be overshadowed!

Their flagship stout, the 2024 Bourbon County Brand Original Stout is aged in a mix of freshly emptied bourbon barrels from Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Four Roses and Wild Turkey distilleries.

Barrel-aged for an average of 16 months, it ends up at a hefty 14.7% ABV, and has notes of vanilla, cherry, cocoa, toasted almond & caramelized sugar.

Next on the list is the 2024 Bourbon County Brand Bardstown Cask Finish Stout. The stout parallels the aging process of Bardstown's Origin Series Rye. 

The stout starts its aging journey in freshly emptied rye whiskey barrels from the distillery. After that's done, it’s moved into “hybrid” oak and cherry wood barrels that were used to finish Bardstown Bourbon Co.’s rye whiskey.

Tasting notes reportedly have vibrant cherry, toasted oak and a lingering herbal finish.

This offering has a bit of a sweet story behind it. According to the brewery, this stout was inspired by Goose Island employee Paul Spiller’s memories of late nights in the kitchen with his mother.

The 2024 Bourbon County Brand Macaroon Stout is an imperial stout aged for a full year in bourbon barrels before adding cocoa nibs, sweet candied ginger and toasted coconut. 

All five Bourbon County Brand Stouts will be available for purchase on Black Friday (November 29, 2024) in 16.9-ounce bottles, although we suspect they'll be gone in a jiffy.

Lok Bing Hong   A budding journalist that loves experiencing new things and telling people's stories. I have 30 seconds of coherence a day. I do not decide when they come. They are not consecutive.