Bourbon County Brand Original Stout 2025
 

Review Date 12/15/2025 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Imperial Stout   Brewery: Goose Island   Country: USA   State: Illinois   $ Per OZ: $.90 (B)  

ABV: 14.8%

Here’s how this dance usually goes. I get up early on Back Friday, exhausted as I am from all the work done with the wife the day before getting Thanksgiving dinner on the table, then go out beer shopping. Black Friday, after all, is the day that Goose Island releases their Bourbon County Brand Stout, both in original form and in several variations.

Usually, I can find a few of the new releases, although with Georgia’s foolish cap on alcohol content in beer pegged at 14%, every year there are a few that cannot be sold here. This, of course, is beyond ridiculous, since I can walk into most liquor stores and buy Everclear at 95% alcohol by volume. You can literally run an engine on the stuff (see here.) Don’t try that at home, kids.

This year, though, something happened that has never happened before: I couldn’t find any Bourbon County Brand Stout at all. All the variations and the original versions are stronger than 14% ABV. I suppose I could have researched them before heading out on Black Friday, but as I said, this had never happened before, so I didn’t.

Next stop: Murphy, North Carolina. The beers are legal here, and as I was vacationing here for a few days, I searched local beer and liquor stores, only to come up dry again. However, I would not be defeated, and ordered a bottle of the Cherries Jubilee Stout, Chocolate Pecan Stout, and two bottles of the 2025 Bourbon County Brand Original Stout from Half Time Beverage.

Goose Island says:

2025 Bourbon County Brand Original Stout was aged in a blend of freshly emptied barrels from Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Four Roses, and Wild Turkey. With an average aging time of 14 months, this stout delivers deeply developed flavors of fudge, vanilla, and caramelized sugar—all wrapped in a rich, decadent mouthfeel.

My package arrived the following week, and the first thing I remarked upon were the smaller bottles. They looked, to me, like baby bottles (anybody got a nipple?). I knew when I bought them they were coming in 10-ounce bottles as opposed to the half-liter bottles from past years. But still.

Bourbon County Brand Original Stout 2025 has an alcohol content of 14.8% by volume and mine are marked BOTTLED ON: 16SEP25. I paid $8.99 each for my two bottles. You could buy a 4-pack for $33.99, which is only 49 cents cheaper per bottle. I stuck with two, one for now, and one to age. At 90 cents per ounce, this year’s release is actually cheaper than the $1.12 an ounce I have paid for the original BCBS in past years. It is much less than the $1.83 an ounce I paid for the two variants I bought this year. None of these are anywhere near what I paid for the most expensive beer I ever bought: Westvleteren 12 at $6.93 per ounce.

Bourbon County Brand Original Stout 2025 pours to a jet-black color with a thin film of tan foam and a nose of mostly dark fruity plum and prune, with of course some boozy bourbon notes. Taking a sip, the beer is full in body, luxurious as it flows over the tongue. Replete with caramel, raisin, figs, dark chocolate, toasted almond, vanilla beans, Toffifay candies and boozy bourbon especially in the finish, though I think less than in prior years. Do I get a touch of wood? I think so, especially as it warms.

I am on the fence about the smaller bottles. I was really enjoying this beer as I gently pulled on it, and when I had drunk the last, I wished I had more. Upon reflection, I think perhaps 10 ounces may be plenty of such a potent beer.

You can read my thoughts about earlier versions of this beer here: Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Barleywine Beer Review

 Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??