Endless IPA

Endless IPA is the newest release from Goose Island's Limited Release Series. Endless IPA is a light bodied session IPA coming in at 5% ABV and a relaxed 35 IBUs. Now you hop heads out there are going to argue that this barely counts as an IPA, and I'll give you that, but session beers are big right now. This one fits in with a more laid back hop profile than Stone's Go to IPA and Founder's All Day IPA (both session IPAs). The best part of this IPA is the hop choice that was made. Endless IPA is all Amarillo hops, and I love Amarillo hops. I fell in love with them when I first tried Amarillo Ninja by Pipeworks.

The hops were sourced form Elk Mountain Farms in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Goose Island is doing a lot to try and stress the farm to bottle relationship that the brewers have with the hop growers. Elk Mountain has only been growing hops for two years now, but for what it is, the flavor is there. I have a lot of hope that once they've been in operation a few more years they're going to have some wonderful hops. Bonners Ferry is located on the same latitude line as some of the best hop farms in the world. This means climate and temperatures are going to be on point, all they need is continued experience growing.

This beer pours out a goldenrod yellow with a nice thick fluffy white head. There's a spicy citrus aroma with a little bit of a bread crust on the finish. The flavor follows suit nicely. The citrus and grassy notes of Amarillo dominate everything. The bitterness is light and crisp, and really doesn't linger at all. The malts are a nice light sweetness that compliment the hops and bring out the fruit flavors. Like all the GI beers, this one is super clean in appearance and in flavor. Its executed flawlessly, and that's something I'm starting to expect from all their beers.

Keep in mind that this is a session beer. Its light. The mouthfeel is light. The malt character is light and the hops are pretty light. The beer has great flavor for such a laid back beer. It will be released here in Indiana in six packs and twelve packs, and I think I could smash a twelve pack by myself on a hot summer day. Its crisp and refreshing and probably easier to drink than it should be.

I love their hop choice, so I give it a 3.5

Brianna:  By now you all know that I'm not much of a hop-head and I usually don't go for IPAs as my first choice. I don't think this will be the IPA that changes things for me as far as that's concerned. Having said that, I really liked this one. Just about everything is light- the mouthfeel, the malt characteristics. The hops definitely come through, but they don't overwhelm the rest of the flavors. It's an easy drinking beer. I could definitely see myself sitting on the back porch enjoying this beer all summer long.

Goose Island: Ten Hills Pale Ale

We had the opportunity to try Goose Island's Ten Hills Pale Ale. It's the first of three in a series of limited releases, and arrived with just a little bit of pomp and circumstance. The two bottles we received were numbered- we had 72 and 73 of 100. The custom label on the bottle featured the signatures of three Goose Island's brewers; Brett Porter, Keith Gabbett, and Jared Jankoski. Small touches, but the kind that go a long way to making us feel like what we have is exclusive.

The ale features perle, cascade and saaz hops, all of which were grown exclusively for Goose Island in Idaho. (This was some of the information included in the letter that accompanied our bottles. More information was included in the bottle opener/USB drive that came with the bottles as well.) The three hops gave the beer a unique flavor, and balanced very well with each other and the malts.

It's got a creamier mouthfeel than you might expect for an American Pale Ale. There's a bready malt flavor that compliments the citrus flavors from the hops. The beer comes out of the bottle a rich golden color with a medium white head that lingered a bit with lacing on the sides of the glass.

I gave this beer a solid 3.5/5.

Thank you to Laura and the rest of the Goose Island team for putting together such a great package and for letting us sample the beer early!

The Big Guy: I was pretty pleased with this pale. Most of the time Goose Island doesn't get to intense with their hops, however this was a hop forward pale ale. There was some light carmel and toffee flavored malts with a great big citrus hop flavor upfront. It had a great bitterness on the back end and overall was a pretty impressive pale ale. I gave it a 3.5 as well

Professor Beer:  I was very impressed by the Ten Hills Pale Ale.  It had big hops, and a nice, lingering bitterness.

O-Dawg:  Mild hop floral nose, notes of honeysuckle.  Medium body that reminded me of Bells: Hop Slam.  I was expecting a lighter body for a pale.  Lots of malt, notes of carmel and toffee.  Finishes with a very mild hop bitter finish.  Leaves the mouth coated in honey.  I would take this any day over any year round Goose Island beer!  Very impressed and hopeful for the next two releases.  Better than avg, not yet a "track this down" 3.5

Goose Island's Evolution of a Stout

You don't just start out with a great barrel aged stout. Truly great stouts have layers, like onions...and Shrek. They're recipes that are built on one component at a time. Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout (BCBS) series is a shinning example of this.

The Barons just sat down at the Goose Island Migration party hosted by Twenty Tap. Goose Island brought four different stouts to the event, but after talking with their people we realized the stouts really weren't very different at all.

Goose Island brought Night Stalker, Big John, Coffee BCBS, and Cherry Rye BCBS.

To make these big impressively tasty stouts, the brewery has to start with a solid base. For Goose Island, Night Stalker is the base for these beers. Big John is just Night Stalker with cocoa nibs added to the recipe. Then we take Big John and Barrel age it to get normal Bourbon County Brand Stout. In 2012 they aged their BCBS with coffee as well creating the Coffee BCBS. They went one step further and aged the Rye Cherry BCBS in rye whiskey barrels on top of fresh Michigan cherries. You may notice that all these beers have different ABV, but that's because most barrel aged brews actually start to gain  more alcohol as the water content of the beer evaporates from the barrel. In the whiskey world they call the lose the "angels' share".

There is one more even bigger and badder stout and that's the Rare BCBS. This was a bad motha' in all the right ways. Its the same brew but it has an additional 2 years aging in Pappy Van Winkle bourbon barrels. If you've never had the pleasure of drinking Pappy Van Winkle, you are missing out. Its outstanding bourbon. Unfortunately we only got a couple ounces. It was an amazing beer, but I really didn't have enough to give it a huge review. If you ever see it... buy it and send it to me. Seriously.

Because these beers all start from the same place, it is next to impossible to tell them apart by sight (top right is the Coffee BCBS and the bottom left is the Rye Cherry BCBS). There was a bit of confusion around the table as we were all passing the beers around, but each one had its own unique aroma. Just by smell you could tell which one had coffee, which had cocoa and which had the cherries.

Of all of these wonderfully big boozy stouts my favorite was the Rye Cherry version. The Rye Cherry Bourbon County Brand Stout is a huge dark stout with great spicy rye whiskey character and some awesome bitter cherries. It comes in at 13.7% abv. It smelled like whiskey, chocolate and booze but most of all you smelt cherries. When it came to the table the head had dissipated a bit but it was oily black with just a slight ring of tan head running around the glass. My first sip was big rich almost decadent chocolate flavors mixed with very tart cherries and then melded together with the nice spicy oak flavor of a rye whiskey. Rye whiskey was a great choice because I feel like the the spiciness and the oak really helped to temper some of the overall sweetness of the beer. The cherries were probably my favorite addition because they were so tart and dark that they mixed perfectly with the dark fruit flavors from the original stout and gave the beer a bit of acidity to brighten it all up. Really I could have drank this all night. I would have been hammered drunk and probably had a belly ache for days but it would have been worth it. This beer was incredibly good and the only beer I had twice. Now I need to get a bomber to sit on and cellar, if you have one to spare let me know!

I give Rye Cherry BCBS a 5 (wish I could give it a six)

I give Nightstalker a 3.5

(Too sweet to be a 5 for El Duque)

I give Big John a solid 4

 I give Coffee BCBS a 5

#MigrationWeek Goose Island Twenty Tap Takeover

I think the picture sums up the article nicely!  The Baron's headed out to Twenty Tap this past Wednesday Sept. 4th @ 4pm, or 3:30 for those who were on time... :-) to try out one of the most coveted/bottle traded brands in #craftbeer.   

 

I got there early enough to watch them put the
 taps on and waited on the lines to be flushed.

Sarah Rohner with Goose Island contacted us in the weeks previous to invite us out.  I am glad that she did, otherwise I would have still been under the impression that all Goose Island beer is sub par.  I blame the Budweiser buy out for that prevalent stigma in the beer community.  I am happy to report that out of the beers that were on tap, all were top notch!  Thank our beer drinking stars that Anheuser-Busch InBev has not tried to mess with Goose Islands production Chi.  Note: 312 was not on tap for updated comparison from previous articles observations.

Bourbon County Cherry Rye

Bourbon County Coffee 

Madame Rose

Big John

Night Stalker

Matilda Lambicus

Pere Jacques

Pepe Nero

Sofie

Oktoberfest

**Rare Bourbon County 

**King Henry

**Limited small shot servings throughout the night

Twenty Tap was rocking till the wee hours with all these great beers on tap.  As you can see from the picture to the right it was packed!  

All in all a great night for everyone involved!  The only observation out of it all would have been a little more structure in the beginning and a word from the head brewer floating in the sea of humanity around the bar on the beers offered every so often.

  

O-Dawg's Top 3 MUST Haves:

1) Rare Bourbon County Stout

2) Bourbon County Coffee Stout

3) Madame Rose

Stay Tuned for weigh-in's on specific Goose Island beers at #MigrationWeek Twenty Tap Takeover...

Goose Island Tap Takeover

I love Bourbon County Brand Stout. Hell, I love just about every RIS, but Goose Island does an outstanding job with theirs. I also love Twenty Tap, I mean who doesn't.

Come join the Barons and Goose Island for the Goose Island Migration Week tap takeover VIP event at Twenty Tap (5406 North College Ave Indianapolis, IN 46220) on Wednesday, Sept. 4, from 4 p. m. – 8 p.m. The brewers will be there to let us know whats going on with Goose Island and give us a sneak peak at what they having coming out.

I know there has been some hate thrown their way after they were purchased by one of the big boys, but Goose Island has always put together an incredible brew. They are in the midst of a national launch, bringing one of the Windy City’s most acclaimed brews to beer geeks across the country. Come see how much heart they still put into their craft.

So, come chat it up with us and Goose Island brewer Mark Weiner, and get to know what Goose Island Migration Week is all about.

Drum roll please. And now for what you really care about... below are the beers that will be on tap:

• Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Coffee Stout
• Cherry Rye Bourbon County (I can't wait to try this one!)
• Big John
• Madame Rose
• Night Stalker (tasty big imperial stout)
• 312
• Matilda (wonderful Belgian pale)
• Sofie (an outstanding Saison)
• Pere Jacques
• Pepe Nero (new brew I am totally pumped about)

Goose Island was good enough to provide us pictures of some of the awesome brews that will be at the event. Please try not to drool all over your keyboard or smart device. 

Cheers!

Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout

I love stouts. I LOVE high alcohol stouts. I have never had a stout this high in abv. Bourbon County Brand Stouts were put together by Goose Island brewery in Chicago, IL. This is their coffee release. It has 14.3% abv and 60 IBUs. It pours out a dark black beer with a tan to brownish head that stands about a finger tall and disappears to nothing but wisps and lacing after a few minutes.

The smell is big on the bourbon followed up by coffee. I think I had an uncle whos mug always smelled that way... hmmmm...

The flavor was big. The malts were heavy up front with hints of chocolate, toffee and obviously the coffee. These flavors mixed beautifully with the vanilla oakiness from the bourbon barrel aging. There was a slight toastiness to the malts that added another nice layer to the flavor profile. I was shocked at how well the bourbon flavor covered up the flavor of such a high abv beer. The oak flavors of the barrel also helped to mellow out the sweetness from the big malts.

The flavor got bolder as it heated up in my tulip glass. Malts came through a little bit stronger and the barrel flavor fell away a little bit. The coffee flavor also became richer, moving on to an almost espresso like quality. I served this straight out of the fridge at 40 degrees. Next time, I will probably let it warm up before I start drinking it.

It had a big syrupy mouth feel that coated every edge of your tongue, but not in a bad way. It didn't linger too long or have that oily consistency that we've seen before.

A lot of people were concerned about the quality of the beers at Goose Island after they were purchased by InBev. It was unsure if they were going to be able to produce unique beers that were true to the craft movement. This beer has put my worrying to an end. It is cool to see a large company still do it right on a smaller scale.

This is one of the best beers I've had in a long long time and I still have one more bottle aging. This is a limited release so go get it if you can. The next version of this they are releasing sounds like it will be vanilla.

I give it a 5.