For fans of American craft beer, few bottles garner as much excitement and anticipation as Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Stouts. Discover what Elijah Craig Bourbon barrels do for beer.

For fans of American craft beer, few bottles garner as much excitement and anticipation as Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Stouts. Released each year on the Friday after Thanksgiving, these special barrel-aged brews are some of the world’s most highly sought-after dark ales, often inspiring beer enthusiasts to line up the night before for a chance to discover the Greatness Within

Bourbon County Stout is a big, bold American imperial stout aged for 12 months in Bourbon barrels: a process that pulls vanilla, smoke, leather, tobacco, oak, and other flavor nuances out of the charred barrel staves. But while Goose Island has been procuring barrels to produce these stouts since 1992, it wasn’t until recently that they began to craft even more coveted releases. For these variants, Goose Island wanted to obtain special barrels to age beers that would highlight the very best distilleries and Bourbons in the world.