(Chicago, IL) – Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout got approval last week.

[11/17 Update: From Goose Island’s Facebook account today, “Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout has been shipping out of the brewery all week, so look for it on shelves very soon.” Bottles are now available at Goose Island in Wrigleyville but that is the only confirmed location I know of right now. Check for more alerts on Twitter here and here as well as on Beer Advocate.]

[10/28 Update: From Brewmaster, Gregory Hall’s Twitter account, “Just tasted Lolita, BCS Vanilla and BCS Rare. All beautiful and ready to go. Vanilla in bottle next week JIT for FOBAB.”]

[10/27 Update: Ignore the release dates listed below. Vanilla won’t be packaged until November.]



Per the label, “Each year at the festival of wood and barrel aged beer in Chicago, drinkers enjoy hundreds of wood aged beers. Goose Island poured this beer at the 2009 fest and drinkers loved it so much we decided we had to bottle it.”

The beer is just as the name describes, Bourbon County Stout brewed with vanilla beans. As with other Bourbon County Stout variations being released this year, it will be sold in 22 oz. bottles and is 13% ABV. The release is scheduled for October.

Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout will follow this one in November.

Brewmaster, Greg Hall, said at the beginning of the year that more variations could come in 2011. They’ve put together some funky ones in very limited batches: Rye Barrel, Dry-Hopped, Blueberry, Brettanomyces, Orange, Black Peppercorn and possibly others. Time will tell if we see any of these in the bottle.