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Episode 127 - Goose Island Prop Day 2023
140 Plays2 years ago
This week Brandon and Tony revisit their trip to one of Goose Island's biggest events: PROP DAY!
They sip on some of this years variants and rehash their day spent at Goose Island sampling all of this years Bourbon County Brand Stout variants and some other goodies along the way.
Theme music provided by Myke Kelli (@mykekelli)
Outro and break music provided by @FluidMinds
Check out all our episodes at www.themaltinghour.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Setup
00:00:00
Speaker
I hope that I get that rice pudding feeling. This week we're talking about Goose Island's Bourbon County Prop Day 2023. This is episode 127 of The Malting
00:00:17
Speaker
What's the haps on the hops? Guy, ease that speech. This the molten hour where we talk about our drink and tell you what we think every other week. And if we get drunk, well, we might slur our speech. Got the gift of ab, the friends who wish you had. Join us for a drink. Join us for a laugh. Time is never wasted. Wait, you're getting wasted. The molten hour here. People, people taking places. People, people taking places.
Hosts' Personal Updates
00:00:44
Speaker
Welcome to the Malting Hour. I am one of your hosts, Tony Golic, joined always with Brandon Winningjour. Hey, Brandon, how's it going, buddy? Good, man. How are you? How are you feeling? I'm feeling better than I was feeling yesterday. So thanks for wanting to record today. Nice. Yeah.
00:01:01
Speaker
It kind of worked out. I was I was going to put Benjamin to bed, but then he like begged Becca. He was like, Come on, Mom, please. This is how he sounds, brother. And then I was like, Oh, you're going to be in my head. I was like, She's going to be stuck here for a while. But like the last couple of nights, he's been passing out within like 10 minutes. Like nice. And we set up his new bed today. Oh, yeah. How's that? Awesome. He loves it. He was very excited about the mattress that Uncle Tony got him.
00:01:29
Speaker
That's a gift from Uncle Tony, even though it's not, but I'll take it. He's like, I was bringing it up the stairs and he's like, that's what Uncle Tony got me yesterday. And I'm like, Uncle Tony brought it in the house. Uncle Tony did not get you this match. No, man, that's my Christmas gift to him this year.
00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, so he's finally out of his, well, I mean, it wasn't set up as a crib anymore. It was set up as like, you know, a toddler bed. Well, yeah, but it's the actual, the original crib that he was in that he turns into the toddler bed.
00:02:01
Speaker
Yep. So now he's in a, uh, a twin size bed and he upgraded to, we got him the same phone mattress that we have on our bed that we've had for years. And we love, um, yeah, I mean the, the mattress is awesome. We've loved, we loved it. So I was like, you know what, let's just get him one of those. Cause you don't need a, a big, uh, box spring or anything. And it just, you know, lays right down. So, um, and it was on sale. It was like 200 bucks for the mattress. So I'm like, okay.
00:02:29
Speaker
It's the best mattress I've ever slept on, so. Well, speaking of sales, I mean, if you go on the Xbox Live Store, you can buy the original Contra for $2. Really? Yeah, how's that for sales? You spend $200, I'll spend $200.
00:02:41
Speaker
Great. I ended up buying Bluey last night too, the game. He was playing around with it and I'm like, this game's actually kind of fun. It was cute. He liked it. And then it was kind of funny because then he was started talking about Bluey again this morning. I'm like, oh, he's going to want to watch or want to play the game again. He goes, no, I don't need the game. I want to watch the show. I was like, OK. Nice. Nice. We watch some Bluey.
Goose Island Prop Day 2023 Experience
00:03:06
Speaker
I have to finish that Ice Age Christmas short that I saw when I came to meet you at your place when we were headed down before we were headed down to Goose Islands Prop Day 2023. And that's what this episode is all about, baby. We were fortunate enough to go this year.
00:03:31
Speaker
I'm so bad with names, man. You were on the emails more than I was. Who got us in there? I sent an initial email out. I don't recall who it was. I could go back and check. But then we were put in touch with Tom.
00:03:48
Speaker
Tom helped us out and kind of coordinated with us and got us hooked up then with Renee. And Renee kind of got us the info that we needed and we showed up and poor Renee was late, got stuck in traffic. Late only because of traffic.
00:04:08
Speaker
Then we had the pleasure of meeting Kim from Goose Island. Tom and Renee, they work for, I think, the public relations agency. A lot of the media stuff. Then Kim is an actual goose employee. She's super awesome. Then I said the gate, got us everything that we needed, went way above and beyond, making sure that we had everything that we needed as we were coming in. It was wild.
00:04:36
Speaker
And it was nice because we got in a little bit early, a couple minutes early. She made sure it was okay before she gave us our first pores of Bourbon County, grabbed those for us, and then we just kind of wandered. And we're lucky enough to kind of find some of the vendors there that were happily just like...
00:04:58
Speaker
serving things up to the few people that were in there already. So pretty cool. Yeah, it was awesome. The whole experience was very cool. And I do feel incredibly lucky that we were able to get in there early because the lines that formed of the things that you and I got to try, even after we first got in there were insane. And these were just
00:05:21
Speaker
extra things that weren't even for Bourbon County. The actual Bourbon County variant lines formed later in the day. So it was kind of nice. So I do think I've learned something now from this Prop Day in particular is that if you want to get all the variants first, go and hit those first, go and do that first, go in and trial the Bourbon County as the day goes on.
00:05:48
Speaker
make your way to the other things that they have being offered there. One of the things that Brandon turned me on to, I already knew of the co-op hot sauce, but they were doing pozole and they also topped it with their co-op hot sauce. I don't know if it was the, I don't know if it was the actual Bourbon County collaboration. Do you know if it was?
00:06:11
Speaker
That was, man, that hit this. There you go. That's the other thing I yesterday. Yeah, they had that at the spot, man. That was like the weather was was great. If you were in the sun, it was.
00:06:23
Speaker
Fantastic. In the shade, it was a little cooler, but that's the expected this time of year here in Chicago.
Bourbon County Variants Tasting Discussion
00:06:30
Speaker
It wasn't terrible, though, no. No, no. It was much nicer from what we heard last year's was where we weren't at. Here we go, popping my bottle I'm going to drink from. Yeah, it was awesome. It really was. Brandon and I, I think, have always gone together. I don't think I've gone to a prop day without you, man. Except for the one you went to with Clark when you got invited
00:06:52
Speaker
for free. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. My man. Sorry, buddy. Cool. I've never forgotten it. But yeah, fuck you tone. No, it's it's every prop day has been been pretty remarkable. And this one didn't disappoint even if even if you and I did end up getting the fuck I was like,
00:07:18
Speaker
When? Then? Yeah. I don't know. It was very early on. I was out of town, though. I was out of town, though. I know that. And I know that Clark and I just started working at Inclusion Solutions, and he had never been to a prop day before. So that was kind of cool to like, hey, come and check this out. But this year, we got a chance to try one of the variants at PhoBab, which was the backyard. Correct.
00:07:44
Speaker
You have the variant list in front of you by any chance. If not, I'm going to pull it up right now. Well, I mean, I know what they are. I mean, I know what they are too, but I like to, you know, have the descriptors. Yeah. 2023 line up. Yeah. Backyard. We got to try that at FOBAB. So that one I wasn't like.
00:08:01
Speaker
That we saved for almost like one of our last pours or second to last pours, which is, I mean, I don't know if I said that. I mean, I know I've said it before about just fruited stouts in general. I don't like them. I don't like fruited stouts beers. And I will be honest, man,
00:08:20
Speaker
previous backyard or whatever, like super- Bramble. Yeah, Bramble. I did not like him. It was just too fruity, it was too jammy for me. But this year's was, you know, I'll save it till we get to that. Because the first beer that we did have when we got in there was a 2023 Bourbon County brand original stout availability, nationally in bottles and on draft.
00:08:47
Speaker
So I'm going to read this. I'm here on food and wine. I'm going to go off the food and wine stuff. Here we go. According to Goose Island, its flagship beer has notes. This is their flagship beer? Goose? No, it's not.
00:09:00
Speaker
County's not a fucking I mean it like honkers ales fucking flesh ship for Bourbon County. Yeah, like original but it's not their okay food and wine get it together as notes of vanilla cocoa cherry caramelized sugar and almond was aged an average of 12 months and freshly emptied barrels from distilleries including the likes of Buffalo Trace Heaven Hill for roses and wild turkey, which is pretty much
00:09:24
Speaker
Every year, I mean, that's that that goes without saying and I'm not trying to like poo poo it, but fucking Bergen County. I mean, it's that's what I expect every year did not disappoint. Nothing stood out. That was like this is.
00:09:40
Speaker
different than years past. It's what I've come to expect, and I'm always very happy to have it every year. Yeah, it was, as always, really well done. A good mix between the beer and the barrel. And I think that's why I consistently like, you know, original. The variants are great too, but the reason I consistently like the original is it's just, it's a well done
00:10:06
Speaker
Well done beer, you know, it's it's hard to knock it, you know, you know, shit on goose all you want. But like, that's that's a solid beer. I gotta be honest, I think I feel like the days of shitting on Goose Island like, okay, we get it. But even when that all happened, I was never one who was like,
00:10:26
Speaker
It was always something where I was like, okay, well, we'll see what happens. And then look what happened. It's become, I mean, Bourbon County is available pretty much in every state. You know what I mean? Like that's pretty rad. And there's so much available here in Chicago. It's just, it's, it's so awesome. It's really nice to know that like the Kings of barrel aged beer are no pun intended.
00:10:57
Speaker
I did not mean that it's just read it like it's it's it's available on shelves and stuff when it gets released I really look forward to this time of year. It's really nice now, too You know, I know people like to bitch about you know, there's a nostalgia thing Waiting outside of binnies from 5 a.m. Oh, there's the five a.m Dude that would go in there like midnight on like that's what I turned into but it's like I
00:11:22
Speaker
Yes, I get it. It was probably great. It was a lot of fun. But again, it's that whole nostalgia thing of like, it was a great time. You had an experience. Now times have changed. It's okay. It's okay that it's readily available. Yeah, I prefer it that way. Because you know, it's nice. It's nice to be able to go into stores on Black Friday, the normal type. Yeah, well, I mean, and even that I still there's still that party like I gotta get Berlin go anyway, just because it's it's my tradition. That's my tradition of like,
00:11:53
Speaker
get up at like eight o'clock and head out to Jewel. Get up and then head out there and grab whatever I wanted to get or grab everything and weeks later,
00:12:12
Speaker
there's some of the variants still available. And in regular Bourbon County is readily available. And that's not a bad thing, guys. It's really not a bad thing to have good beer available all the time. Agreed. So with that being said, Brandon, what did you crack open, by the way? Because you and I both cracked open a Bourbon County from this year. I made broken to Goose Island, Bourbon County Brand Stout, 2023.
00:12:41
Speaker
beer that is of the variant of proprietors. Do you have the description of it or do you want me to read it? Proprietors. It's delicious. Well, on the, so on the, the, the bottle, it actually says a stout aged in bourbon barrels, uh, with raisins, uh, cassia bark, uh, brown sugar, toasted rice, rice and, and natural flavors.
00:13:09
Speaker
The intended effect of it is to invoke the taste of rich rice pudding. According to this food and wine article, I'm so interested. Yeah, that was towards the end. We finally tried prop. What do you think of this year's prop? I like this temperature. This is really good. I'm not drinking prop, I'm drinking something else, and I like it more at this temperature as well.
00:13:36
Speaker
Yeah, because I think we were getting yesterday at Prop Day, we're getting a lot of cinnamon. A lot of cinnamon. Cinnamon is very subdued. I'm getting a lot more raisin. That's what I wanted to hear. I was hoping that that was going to be more. Raisin and brown sugar are kind of the more prominent thing. Cinnamon is definitely still there because it's hard to hide cinnamon once you put it in something. But yeah, it is.
00:14:02
Speaker
much more pleasant at this temperature. And I've literally, excuse me, just had it sitting in the basement. Yeah, I, so the one I cracked open was, what do you think I cracked open, Brandon? Bananas Foster's. Of course. 2023, Bourbon County, Buran, Bananas Foster Stout, which was the first variant that actually was the, other than, you know, regular Bourbon County, that was the first one that we had. And a court, I'm going to read what Food and Wine says.
00:14:25
Speaker
first released in 2017 as that year's proprietor. This beer with notes of ripe bananas, toasted almond brown sugar, and cinnamon is finally making its national debut. To achieve a profile befitting of its dessert's namesake, the beer is brewed with real bananas, three different kinds of almonds, cassia bark, and other natural flavors. I'd also like to point out that Goose Island, especially with the Bourbon County beers, have really
00:14:48
Speaker
leaned into CassiaBark for a lot of their variants. I was just thinking the same thing. Not mad about it at all. I love it. I think we've talked numerous times about the 27 prop on here and just us hanging out and talking. I know it's
00:15:04
Speaker
One of Clark's favorites, if not his favorite, it's my favorite. And I think I've tried remaking this as well with an overripe banana. It's tough to get a French press, but we should definitely give it a try. I will say same thing. I popped it, the beers have been sitting out since yesterday and I threw it in the fridge for like 45 minutes and it got just cool enough.
00:15:31
Speaker
cool enough to make it like cooler than room temperature. And I'm getting way more banana and then lovely cinnamon. Lovely. Even the smell on it, man, it's just like ripe bananas. It's so good. It's one of the best
00:15:51
Speaker
one of the best barrel aged beers and variants that have ever happened. And it now spoiler alert out of everything that I tried this year, it was silent. This is number one on my list.
00:16:04
Speaker
Yeah, I think I probably agree with that. Do you need to try prop a little bit warmer? So yeah, I don't know. No, I don't think it would. It's still really good. It's still really good. But like just the bananas fostered the way it was served yesterday was fantastic. So even even being cold, it was was still very much what I expected and what I had hoped for.
00:16:29
Speaker
Do you know is Clark?
Bourbon Comparisons and Tasting Notes
00:16:32
Speaker
Did Clark win any allotments or everybody? Everybody won allotments. I think that we know. I think it's been. I think it's binnies, but I think I'm not sure what his plan is. I do know that he's already planning. He told me.
00:16:45
Speaker
when he goes out on Black Friday, I almost said good Friday, when he goes on Black Friday, he's going to grab like three of these. And I like, and I text him yesterday, I go stick with your plan. It's a good idea. Yeah, I think this is the old, but Amex Foster is the only one I'm really going to go out and try to find. Because like, and I told you, like, I
00:17:05
Speaker
100% want to make ice cream with it. Absolutely. I mean, I'm probably going to grab. We'll get into that when we get to the other ones. But yeah, this one I'm definitely looking forward to having more of. I feel a sneeze coming out. And that's why we have meat on the mic.
00:17:26
Speaker
Way to go. Thanks. Right after that. So yeah, so Bananas Foster, fantastic. Right after that, though, we headed down. We passed where the cigars were. We did get to try some bourbon sauce, so we kind of left that out. We did get to try. You had an Angel Envy cocktail, a warm cocktail. I did. Do you remember what was in it? Yep. I actually took a picture of the recipe card.
00:17:54
Speaker
Way to go, man. Way to be smart. It was called a fireside brew. So an ounce of Angel's Envy, three quarters of an ounce of apple cider, half ounce of fresh lemon juice, half ounce of maple syrup, and one sprig of rosemary. And they also put in a dehydrated orange. Yeah, like a dehydrated candied orange. As well as they smoked a cinnamon stick and then dropped that in there.
00:18:23
Speaker
It was pretty tasty. It was so much to the fact that I'm strongly considering making this for Christmas Eve. Cool, I will come by. You should. I'll stop by for a cocktail before I do the rest of the Christmas Eve stuff I do.
00:18:41
Speaker
It's actually not a bad idea. We should do that. Goodbye. Maybe you'll see Santa. You never know. What? Santa? Are you there? You bringing us more Bourbon County? You bring Brandon a bottle of Angel's End? Oh, motherfuckers. Hey, leave out some Krampus. Leave out a Krampus candy and make a cocktail with an Angel's End before him. I think Santa would be real happy if he got that. Santa might not wake up early, though.
00:19:11
Speaker
Uh, and then I just had their, um, their rye, a neat rye of theirs, I think is what it was. And it was very taste. That was, that was fantastic. And then we also got to try, I always forget their name. I forgot all day yesterday. Do you remember the other bourbon land? Oh, Bardstown. We had their collaboration with, uh, Goose Island, which was very good. And then their other one, um, which I also forgot the name of.
00:19:37
Speaker
Help me out here, Brandon. It's the series. I can't remember. It starts with a D. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Deliverance, divine, something. Duty, delicious is what that should be called, because that's what it was. It really was good. Super smooth, very delicious. Oh, discovery. It was a discovery series. Damn it, yes. I can't believe we keep. How do I keep forgetting that? Yes, the discovery number eight is what we tried.
00:20:02
Speaker
I might make it my goal to go out and find that and maybe get you and I some bottles of that. Maybe that'll be a Christmas gift for you, buddy. Yeah, so they had a terrible gift, right? Yeah, so one of the things that they told us was that they were showing us the mash bill. The bottles have the mash bill of the original beers that they blended.
00:20:28
Speaker
Um, so discovery number eight is 66% um, not the years. So the first one we did try was actually a bourbon that they did that they age and use bourbon County barrels. So that's kind of cool. Um,
00:20:45
Speaker
But yeah, so 66% of it was a bourbon from Kentucky that was aged 12 years. 17% was one from Indiana, aged seven years. 11% was one from Ontario, aged 12 years. And that was 100% corn.
00:21:02
Speaker
That's so insane. And then 6% is one from Indiana, and that was a six year. And that one, wasn't there a weeded one in there or he was talking about a weeded bourbon at some point. It was another year, not another year, but not the one that we had.
00:21:20
Speaker
And one of the cool things about it was, or not cool things about it, but one of the things that Tony and I both noticed was like that one was a lot smoother than the Bourbon County one. We're not knocking it, like the Bourbon County one was good, but it had more of the heated burn.
00:21:39
Speaker
And the the blend of the discovery blend had more of the heat and less of the bird yeah and it was super smooth like the bourbon county one and i agreed with uh the gentleman we were talking to and i forgot his name so sorry he's very nice the bourbon county one was a like he was saying you know that's the one
00:21:58
Speaker
you know it's a sunday afternoon fall day like you know the day it was you put your feet up you pour that you're sitting on that for a while you know i mean like and that's that i felt like that was a great.
00:22:11
Speaker
description of how to enjoy that. Whereas the discovery one could be almost an everyday type, you know, I'm gonna have a glass and call today and that's it, you know, or yeah, you can almost you can make cocktails with it as well. It was very tasty. Very good. Agreed. So from there,
00:22:31
Speaker
So we did that first, then we had Bananas Foster. Moving on from Bananas Foster, walking past where the cigars were, we ended up over at the far end of Fulton Avenue, where they had the Bourbon County Eagle Rare Two-Year Reserve Stent.
00:22:49
Speaker
It says, according to Food and Wine, age for two years in barrels, specifically from Buffalo Trace's 10-year-old Eagle Rare Bourbon. This entry is described as having notes of robust oak, toasted almond, and warming vanilla. This one, to me in particular, is the most barrel-forward
00:23:11
Speaker
Bourbon County, I think I've ever had. And it was, it's tasty. I like it. It is, if you know somebody, and again, this was surf called, so I'd like to see maybe how it, I'd like to see having that a little bit closer to room temperature, how that would taste. I'm, I'm hoping, because my, my, my only thought about that one was that I felt the barrel was so much there, which is great. And you're doing a barely aged beer.
00:23:39
Speaker
it almost overtook the base beer of Bourbon County. Like I lost what I wanted some of those notes of Bourbon County, but that could be because of how cold it was. So again, that's what I'm looking forward to having again, a little closer to like, you know, 50 degrees and see if that barrel is blended more with the Bourbon County because I feel like if it is, that one might stand out as a top one for me. This is still very tasty.
00:24:04
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I was I was surprised how much barrel actually came through on that. I wasn't disappointed. I liked it for what it was, but kind of in the same camp of wishing there was a little bit less of the barrel, a little bit more of the beer.
00:24:22
Speaker
Because again, you don't want a barrel aged beer where the beer gets lost. Because if you want to just taste barrel, go get the bourbon. Right. And that's how I felt. I felt like Bourbon County kind of got lost in that. It's a cheaper version of drinking Eagle Rare. You should know you have a bottle. I do? Yeah, dude. Look behind you.
00:24:44
Speaker
What we need to do is do it side by side. No, if we procure, if any of us, I'll tell you this. As much as I said what I'm going to do, I will probably end up buying everything. Are you going to, tomorrow's your last day to do the biddies a lot? I'm just going to go to Jewelman.
00:25:03
Speaker
Because, I mean, whatever. I'm not going to buy everything, but I'm going to buy some of them. You know what I mean? Yeah. So yeah. So that was, yeah, that was, Eagle Rare is good. I'm looking forward to trying it, like I said, closer to room temperature.
Social and Event Activities
00:25:20
Speaker
Yeah. From there, well, after running into some friends, which was very nice and kind of unexpected, that was cool to hang out and
00:25:29
Speaker
you know, see some people. We also did not run into Joe. Sorry, Joe. Our number one fan. It's so funny, like how it always works out. I mean, we saw him last two times at Bear Under Glass. We had that going for us. Yeah, but like we, it was funny because like we were camped out.
00:25:46
Speaker
in a couple of spots for a decent amount of time. I know. And it's funny that we did not run into him, and yet we ran into other people. So sorry, Joe, next time. Ran into my buddy, Kreshmir, that I hadn't seen in God knows how long. It's been ages, and he was with his brother. That was fun to run into them. Nice. Yeah, so we took a little walkie-poo. Where'd we go?
00:26:09
Speaker
I feel another sneeze coming in. I always get ready to be like, hey, you run it. It is so close. I don't know what's going on right now. Again, I feel now it's late. It's getting later in the evening. I'm starting to feel congested. I hate this. We walked through some black mold in your place.
00:26:24
Speaker
In the walls. We took we took a walk. And we passed the free ring when the ring toss which was if you was it practice process which is a ring toss you you three chances the line was very long we got there you basically had a chance to.
00:26:49
Speaker
Throw three rings on top of bottles lands on a bottle. You get a chance to go and get. I think it was 2013 and 2014 prop or the 2015 rare in the wooden box. I might be wrong about that year for rare, but I think it was 2015. The first time they did in the wooden box. I was told for $10. Which had I known that I probably would have gotten that line too because that's not terrible.
00:27:18
Speaker
No, definitely. I thought it was because I saw like you pay only if you, you win and I was like, Oh, well, I don't know how much that's going to be. Like I didn't really want to spend much more money. Uh, but that's a, that's really cool. Like what a cool idea to do the toss for that. So that was kind of cool. But we ended up going, um, on the other side where we passed the new production facility of old Irving. That was cool.
00:27:40
Speaker
That was super cool to see. I did not realize how close they were going to be to Goose Island. I told Matthew I was really tempted to throw a sticker on their nice clean door. But I wanted to leave it clean. He was appreciative of me not defiling their place. Yeah, I figured they like us. That might make them not like us. Now, if I would have run a magnet, that would have been a different story. Throw a magnet on that metal door.
00:28:04
Speaker
Also, they actually would've been way better. They had the big train car out there. The Goose Island train car. Yes. Not an old area. Old area doesn't have a train car yet, where they were pouring prop 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, which is super cool. What a cool way to use your tokens to have other props. That's awesome. They had those on tap. We got in line there. Again, that line started getting long because we also saw over
00:28:33
Speaker
just beyond where that was, the Angel Envy, uh, Bourbon County line was incredibly long. Indeed. It was even longer when we got into it finally after having prop. So, uh, you already read what prop was, but, uh, yeah, my impressions were very cinnamon forward. So I'm looking forward, again, having that one a little less cold. You got a couple of them there. Yeah, I got two. I'm actually sharing one with, uh, Clark in two days.
00:29:01
Speaker
No, you're not. I'll let them know. Yeah. These are the droids you're looking for. Do you want to know what? By the way, do you want to know what food and wines description of prop was? No. Good. Yes. I mean, I already read it earlier when I was going. So, yeah, so that was good. Like after that, like we hung out for a while. That side of the street or that street was sunny and it was nice. We ended up hanging out there for a lot longer.
00:29:33
Speaker
Agreed. Yeah, that was like significantly different in the amount of or like in the temperature. It literally seemed like it was like you were in two different places, but it was it was super cool. Yeah, it's like a 10 degree difference. And they hadn't done that in unless they did it last year, like the props, properties that we've been to at that location were not like that. They did not have it set up.
00:29:58
Speaker
where you could literally go to like the other side of the street. So kudos for them for like securing that. And then I kind of thought in my head, I'm like, they're probably only able to do this because old Irving currently is not producing out of that location. So when they start, might not be able to do this anymore.
00:30:16
Speaker
or they just that's when they do the Krampus carnival is happening at the same time near the production facility and you know prop days happening it's just a combined thing what a great idea Matthew let's get on that so we after we had prop we all agreed kind of the same thing it's very good I was tempted to go back and get the
00:30:38
Speaker
Dammit, what's that a Spimoni? I forget which year that is I was gonna look it up But I was very tempted to use a token on getting the Spimoni prop because I remember that one being just really really good We ventured over and we got into line for the angel envy We and it's we figured out why by the way that line ended up being as long as it was once we got there the angels envy variant was not on
00:31:05
Speaker
It was not on tap. They were literally opening up cases and opening bottles and pouring for people. Well, so was Eagle Rare, just so you know. Oh, was it? Yeah. So what was fun? Yeah, because what was funny is when I was in the back, I put my drink down on a box behind that thing and I looked down and it was just boxes of the Eagle Rare. I'm like, somebody like in like security wasn't even around. I was like, somebody could come up here and just swipe a bottle and walk away. I'm like,
00:31:30
Speaker
Seems like a really bad idea. I'm not that person. I respect Goose enough, and they were gracious enough to allow us to come. So it was like, heads up for next year, Goose. Tighten up that security just a little bit. Or hide your beers. Yeah. So this is a 2023 Bourbon County brand, Angels Envy, two-year cask finish stout. Again, this is the description that food and wine is giving.
00:31:54
Speaker
The Bourbon County lineup's first cask finish stout spend a year in former Angels Envy Bourbon barrels before another year of aging in Ruby Port wine barrels, culminating in a stout with notes of cherry, spice, and cocoa.
00:32:19
Speaker
And that is correct. That is exactly what I got from it. And if I had to go between those two specific barrel beers, the Eagle Rare and the Angels Envy, Angels Envy was the one that was my favorite. Yeah, mine too. And it was funny at one point when I, I think it was probably right in the beginning when I took a sip, I was really, really terrified that the cherry was going to be the cough syrup. And I was like, oh no.
00:32:49
Speaker
And then there was a couple of times I was taking sips and I'm like, it's kind of like a flat cherry, cherry Coke, like with some barrel, like interesting. Um, but it was like, cause it was, I was getting like that cherry Cola kind of flavor to it. Um, like mixed with the beer. I'm like, this is, this is pretty cool. Uh, I did enjoy it. Um, I, I'm having a hard time like thinking if I'm going to go back and get a bottle of that.
Ranking and Reflecting on Bourbon County Variants
00:33:20
Speaker
Um, I probably will. Um, but yeah, I like literally the only thing in my mind is like getting as much bananas fosters as possible. I'm with you on the bananas fosters part. It's funny because the angels envy is the one that I know for sure that I was going to go in and grab. I mean, I'll get that like over any of the other ones, you know, by far. So yeah, I would, my plan is a couple of bananas fosters, like two of them, uh,
00:33:49
Speaker
Eagle Rare won, Angels Envy won. That's pretty much where I'm at on that. I'm not rushing out to get a regular Bourbon County because we just tried it. I'll probably grab that in a week or so. That'll be around for years, for months to come, I'm sure. And it's nice. I mean, that's a great beer to have around Christmas too, or as you're leading up for the holidays, when you go to holiday parties, grab a bottle of Bourbon County and bring it and everybody's
00:34:14
Speaker
No one's gonna be mad you show up with a bottle at Bourbon County. No one's gonna be like, no thanks. Unless they're done for the night. That's the only time I think they'll say no thanks. My family would be like, what the fuck are you doing? Where's the anger? Where's the Jameson? Good. Sorry. Chill out. I got Bourbon County. It's cool. And then at the very end, we headed over to the 2023 Bourbon County brand backyard stout.
00:34:40
Speaker
According to Food and Wine, a reboot of 2013's backyard ride, which was aged, let's try that again, a reboot of 2013's, this, this Bourbon County is hitting me a little harder than I was expecting. I had beef stew and mashed potatoes tonight for dinner. I don't know why.
00:34:56
Speaker
but his base wasn't laid down better. A reboot of 2013's Backyard Rye, which was aged in rye barrels and made with mulberry. This bourbon barrel aged stout has notes of chocolate, vanilla, and berry fruit. Which berry fruit? A year of aging. The beer was finished with mulberries, boys and berries, and Marion berries. 2013's Backyard Rye was the last fruited barrel aged beer from Goose Island that I really liked except for the
00:35:26
Speaker
which everyone had an orange in it, a midnight orange. That was the only other one that I liked. Any other time the fruits were in it, I was just, I just, that's just my palette though. Mike and I, my brother-in-law had a 2013 backyard ride, I think in like 2014 on a camping trip and we cracked open and we absolutely loved it. It was great. I don't think, yeah, I definitely don't have, I don't think I have that. You might. I don't know anymore.
00:35:53
Speaker
You might. You should just actually just go in and figure out at least what Brevard counties you have, man. Take care. Yeah. I'm really upset that I spent hours one night doing an Excel sheet of using an app and scanning in all the beers and literally had a tracker. And the cool thing about it was it synced
00:36:15
Speaker
uh with untapped so if i would check into a beer that was on my list it would ask me if i went back to the list hey did you drink this do should we take it off your list but then i stopped doing that well i already have a stop checking in every beer we had
00:36:34
Speaker
Only because it's like, oh, we've had this before or it's like, yeah, okay. We're just, we're just hanging out drinking. I don't need to check it in. But it's funny. I will check into Coors Light every now and then if I'm in a sporting event, I want everyone to know I'm drinking a Coors Light tonight, baby. I will say this. I last, during FOBAB, and I don't know if we talked about this in the FOBAB recap, but during FOBAB, I got less fruit from it.
00:37:00
Speaker
and I enjoyed it. I think I did talk about it because it reminded me of Revolution's Death by Fruit series. This time I got more fruit, a little bit more jammy, but it still was not off-putting. It was very tasty. I'm not sure if I'm going to grab another one. I'm going to see how I feel after I have the one that I currently have. I might save that one.
00:37:23
Speaker
I want to pair it with something as far as cooking goes. I'm not sure what, but I feel like having that as a dessert beer after having maybe something rich, but you also, it's okay to still have something like, I mean, Bourbon County has its own sweetness and it's very full-bodied. Having that fruit in there too, I think it would be a nice after dinner split the bottle type of beer. Maybe with you, Brandon, maybe we'll have some steaks.
00:37:53
Speaker
Tomahawks? Right now, there's $40 Tomahawk Stakes over at Shop and Save. Buy them all. You got it, buddy. Apparently, I might still have a 2013 backyard. I would be curious to do a side-by-side with a 10-year difference. Especially because you are 10 years out of that, man. That's awesome. Yeah. Don't you have a 2014 or 2013 Bourbon County? I think 2013.
00:38:19
Speaker
Did we say we were going to age it for another 10 years? Yes. Oh, I might have a 2012 too, actually. I feel like maybe we should drink one of those. Yeah. I just want to drink one of your old Birmingham counties again. After that, our gracious hostess also stopped by and gave us another token, which is nice. So we had a bonus pour. And I went and spent that on Bananas Foster.
00:38:45
Speaker
the same thing. Yeah, we did. Hooling up an As Foster and that was so I'll do this as we as we wind down here on this.
00:38:55
Speaker
very fun Prop Day, I almost said Plop Day, Prop Day, 2023 experience. I'm gonna rank them right now and I'm gonna see where you do it. And by the way, none of these to me were bad. They were not bad, but right now as I'm ranking them, it's just based on, oh, hey, I'm just ranking it on my personal preference on how I enjoyed them. I will say this.
00:39:22
Speaker
I am going to leave off regular Bourbon County. It's just, I think we've done that before when we've had, I think when we did our build your own media, oh, knocking on the mic now too. I think we did that last time we did the build your own media kit too. We did not include regular Bourbon County. So I'm not gonna include regular Bourbon County in my rankings here. So here we go. This year's 2023, Bourbon County lineup ranked
00:39:47
Speaker
by one of your hosts, Tony York. Number one, Bananas Foster. Fantastic, love the banana, love the cinnamon. Having it a second time, it is very much reminiscent of the 2017 prop, and I think this might be the one that is the best as far as adjuncted variants go from Goose Island. Next for me is gonna be the Angel's Envy. I thought that one was fantastic.
00:40:15
Speaker
You especially with it being a cast finish, you got that cherry a little bit more barrel, which is very nice. It's just super tasty. Following that up, prop 2023. Very good. I'm looking forward to having that again so I can get a little bit more raisin.
00:40:33
Speaker
Very interested in that. I hope that I get that rice pudding feeling. I hope I get that feeling of rice pudding. I hope I get the actual experience of a beer that's got the taste of rice pudding. That's that the prop is always a nicely adjuncted beer.
00:40:56
Speaker
And then after that, I would put the Eagle Rare, which is, again, something I'm looking forward to trying while it's a little bit closer to room temperature. And after that would be Backyard. Backyard's only at the bottom because fruited stouts of me don't always get along. But this one is very tasty and I'm looking forward to having it again. So I had literally the exact same lineup and the only two that I was flip-flopping on were the last two.
Conclusion and Future Expectations
00:41:24
Speaker
Like I can't decide
00:41:26
Speaker
if I was, you know. As I was saying it, I wasn't sure if, I still am kind of like flip-flopped on. I'm not, I think like Backyard and Eagle are kind of the same for me. Yeah, so it'll be interesting to try it again. Yeah, both of them I think will be interesting to try again. It'll be nice. But yeah, it was, Prop Day was awesome. Such a good time.
00:41:52
Speaker
The other cool thing was, I found out, by the way, Brandon, had we gone in and went into the bottle shop, those other bottles that were available, what was it? The double barrel, Angel's Envy and Ian Rare, they were all $30. I wish I knew that. The double barrel. That's exactly. You're like, I'm not paying $80 for a double barrel.
00:42:19
Speaker
Mean now that I wouldn't I just couldn't afford it right there and then it's like man $30 I would've dropped $30 and get another hey girls. Can we get a double barrel for Tony? We go back we come back real quick to be like hey, we got those prop day badges for me
00:42:35
Speaker
But yeah overall man was great experience was your take on the whole prep day I loved it. I enjoyed it was super happy to be there weather was perfect the staff helping us Everyone was like super super nice. So I was I was glad it was an overall good experience and
00:42:57
Speaker
it was it was super easy to get out of there when we decided to leave like absolutely we left earlier than the event you know ended but that's kind of become our thing is just to do what we want to do try what we want to try and then get out um and again we're we were welcome to guest so we don't we don't overstare welcome either um
00:43:18
Speaker
But we definitely took advantage of our time being there, and we had a great time. And thank you, Goose Island, for inviting us. It was a lot of fun. We look forward to future events, and definitely another Prop Day. I mean, I always look forward to what the next year is going to be after this year has been consumed. You know what I mean? Yeah, and Prop has always become, I think, one of my favorite things that they do, just because not only that it's a Chicago-only beer, but the fact that they
00:43:46
Speaker
You know, it changes so often. I mean, it changes every year, but it's like the, it could be a completely, completely different, you know, type of stout. Um, cause prop is the one that they let staff pick, right? Correct. They all come up with their own. And I think they start doing it in January. They start like doing things and it's nice that Bananas Foster.
00:44:06
Speaker
I don't think this is the first one that became that was a prop that turned into a regular one, maybe the second one, it could be wrong. But it would be nice to see the Spimoni or the strawberry coconut ice cream bar one also become a variant in future releases. Because I would like to have those again fresh. And I feel like after doing it with props,
00:44:27
Speaker
they could probably even fine tune it and tweak it a little bit more to be exactly what they want. And this one, I mean, Bananas Foster is the best. It is honestly the best variant I've ever had. If I had to choose variants out of all the Bourbon counties I've had, this would be number one and Devil Bear would be number two.
00:44:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think I might have a 2017 prop still. I think it would definitely love to do a side by side with that. I think you do. I probably do. I'm pretty sure you also have every single one of your bourbon counties from last year. Yeah, probably. You might even have two of each. Some of them, definitely. I think most of them do.
00:45:12
Speaker
Guess we got to crack into one of those old Fitzgerald Barley wines this year before the year's over. What are we doing for new? What are we doing for New Year's, Brandon? We're partying. Crack open that giant wood stout I got. Hey, I think I'm coming up with a plan for New Year's for us. There you go. All right, well, Goose, thank you so much, Goose Island. That was awesome. We thank you for inviting us and bringing us there as media. We know it was a short list, and we were happy to be a part of it. And thank you very much. And we look forward to next year. Hopefully, it would be great. Yeah.
00:45:42
Speaker
Thank you very much. Everybody, by the time this is out, this is the Monday after Thanksgiving. So hope you got your prop. Hope you got your prop. If not, go check all your, well, prop in Chicago. Anybody else listening in the United States, I don't know if Bourbon County makes it outside of the United States. I don't have that information in front of me. I do know that's nationally distributed. It makes it to Hawaii. I know that. I mean, that's the United States, but it blew my mind that I saw bottles of Bourbon County in a store in Hawaii.
00:46:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty awesome. But yeah, go out there and get these variants while they're still there. As much as they're out there, not all of them last as long as others. So definitely go and find the ones that you want and you know, cheers everybody and happy post Thanksgiving. Yeah.
00:46:35
Speaker
try to think of something like clever to say like, hope you didn't get stuffed too hard. Left me hanging on there. I was hoping it was gonna be so Oh, by the way, the prop glasses are also very fucking cool. These are the best prop glasses they've ever had. Just gonna sit there and do an awkward stare. When you did it and thanks. These prop glasses this year have like an embroidered
00:46:58
Speaker
you know, protruding prop day. And then on the other side is like the the blue prop day, our prop bottle, goose island. So I just refilled my glass. I'm not going to sip on it so I can take a picture. Awesome. Because this is a never ending bottle for me and I am going to finish it and I can't believe it. This is how I like enjoying Bourbon County.
00:47:22
Speaker
Well, I literally just filled this back up. So like, that's the rest of it. And I want to take a picture. There we go. So yeah, take a picture of your glass. And that's what we use for the photo. Don't throw the bottle in there because I'm not going to take a picture of my bottle. Cool. Take a picture of the goddamn glass. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening. Happy Prop Day. Happy Thanksgiving. We look forward to the rest of the, you know, shit. We're coming up to Christmas beers. The Maltese is the end of the year. Clark did tell me his one appearance this year.
00:47:52
Speaker
He and I joked about it. He will be available for the Maltese. He will make himself available for the Maltese. Oh, now we just got to make sure to invite him to the Maltese. Let's see if that happens. We'll see if that happens. Maybe Matthew's going to come in. Actually, Matthew should probably be on the Maltese this year. I think so. All right, that sounds good. We'll pick a Saturday and do that. All right, Brandon, I love you, buddy. Love you too, man. Thanks, everybody, for listening. And we'll see you guys next time. Bye.
00:48:21
Speaker
This has been The Malting Hour. Be sure to follow us on all social media by searching The Malting Hour and at themaltinghour.com. You can also follow us individually on social media. Brandon can be found on Instagram as bmdub81, on Twitter, bdub81, and on Untapped as bdubdrinksbeer. Tony can be found on Instagram and Untapped under Ace of Hope Chicago. On Twitter, The Ace of Hope Chicago. Clark can be found as Clarkowski on all three.
00:48:49
Speaker
Dan can be found on Instagram as hip underscore underscore hops and hip hops on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe, like and rate the show on your preferred podcast listening platform. Until next time, cheers from all of us at The Malting Hour.