If you ’re a craft beer toper , betting odds are you ’ve at least heard of Goose Island ’s extremely in demand Bourbon County Stout . Despite aninfection recallthat impacted last year ’s batch , these barrel - aged beauties are the form of beer that nerds like me snatch up and stash away each November so we can bring them to nerd gatherings and nerd out over them the direction nerds just be intimate to do . Needless to say , Goose Island basically leads the pack when it comes to the human beings ofwhiskey - soaked wood .

But have you ever stress one of Goose ’s " Sour Sister " ? If not , you should definitely get on that . This tart , incredibly complex fleet contains , turn over down , some of the party ’s tasty brews . They ’re laden with fresh fruit sourced from the same Michigan farm and get on in all sorts of barrels – include wine-coloured and tequila – which create for very classifiable flavors and mouthfeels . All the mouthfeels .

I of late stopped byGI ’s insanely monumental barrel house– like , football game field massive – inChicagoto check out the space , converge the family line behind the caskful , and , of course , sip on some damn all right beer . gilbert beer maker A.J. Platt took me around , poured me a few , and give me the inside liquid ecstasy on those tasty , tasty Sour Sisters .

goose island beers

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Hombre Secreto

Belgian potent wan ale , 9 % ABV"The infrastructure beer is a Belgian saison get on in tequila barrels with Brett Brux , ” Platt explained . " There are ultimately go to be four variant on this . For the second , we have 34 caskful of the original and recirculated it with 2,700lbs of mango – that ’s the Hombre Secreto Mango . There ’s also another coming up with prickly pear , where we put in 25lbs of pear puree , 10lbs of chayote white pepper , and newly - squeezed lime succus into each cask . "

The Hombre Secreto , if you could get your script on it , is f - ing amazing . It ’s vex a great sweet - tart counterbalance going on , some Casimir Funk from the Brett , grassiness from the tequila , and a whole lot of perfumey note on the nose . And , as if that was n’t enough to cast you in , the tequila dries out the destination beautifully and adds just a bite of boozy bite . This is Beach Beer 101 , waaay better than those sugary frozen margs , and at 8 % ABV , almost as potent .

" This is pretty modest - mickle stuff , " he continued . " It ’s amusing – I say little batch , I have to keep position , but I have in mind 188 caskful or something . For us , though , that ’s just a small project . "

goose island taproom

Meredith Heil/Thrillist

Juliet

American wild ale , 8 % ABV"So when we begin our dark political platform – I really call them yield or tart beers – back in 2007 , Juliet was the first , " Platt evidence me . " At that sentence , there were 50lbs of blackberries going into every cask – I imagine we only ordered a twosome thousand pounds of fruit . And now we ’re sourcing about a quarter - million pounds of yield every single year . "

Juliet ’s a wild one – literally . This pretty brew is fermented with fantastic barm and age in wine barrels on a whole crowd of blackberries . The result is a tiptop - jammy , surprisingly complex brewage erupt with deep , toothsome fruit notes , hearty spice , and tannins . It drinks like a puckery , effervescent variant of a average - bodied red wine , and certain knows how to complement a in effect steak .

Halia

Farmhouse ale , 7.5 % ABV"We’ve got about 700 blank - wine-coloured barrels of Halia ageing mightily now for 2017 , each with about 50lbs of whole white peaches at heart , " Platt say , touring me around the gun barrel house ’s ample souring section . " It takes a long time , too , anywhere between eight and 12 months for the yeast to really eat through all those dough . "

Haia , a fruit - forward , somewhat foul Bretted farmhouse ale , feel like bite into a ripe , late - summer peach , brim with soft bubbles and just a ghost of sour at the finish . If you ’re a yield fan , you in spades do n’t want to overlook out on this one . White - wine drinkers are guaranteed to make love it , too .

" What ’s fun is there ’s all these niggling stories behind the names of the beer , " added Platt . " One of our former brewers , Brian Taylor – who of late opened his own brewery , Whiner , down on the South Side – he named it after a upright supporter who pass away away . His friend was Hawaiian , and Halia means ' in remembrance of ' in Hawaiian . "

goose island sour beers

Meredith Heil/Thrillist

Gillian

Saison , 9.5 % ABVGillian is a wolf of a beer . This Belgian saison is wedge - full of strawberries ( 40lbs per cask , in fact ) , spiked with Brett Brux to even out the berries ' sugar factor , then dosed with 50 gigabyte of livid common pepper , 25lbs of Illinois love , and some Champagne yeast for a lasting , tingly , back talk - smack finish .

" Last year Halia was my favorite , this year Gillian ’s my favourite , " said Platt . " I get the dryness from Champagne , the tartness from the strawberries . Also the love , that ’s definitely present – I think I placed an order for 40,000lbs of honey , if you may imagine . And it ’s all from the same honey farm . “As it turns out , the bottle ’s deep - cherry recording label is quite meet . According to company traditional knowledge , it ’s an court to a very special redheaded FBI Agent .

" There ’s some mass that would say that the inspiration behind the beer is Scully fromThe X - Files , " Platt said with a smile . " They key it after Gillian Anderson – she used to work at the Clybourn brewery . And this year for her birthday , we Photoshopped a picture of her with the beer and wrote , ' Happy Birthday , Scully . ' She ended up ratify a bottle , taking her own photo with it , and tweeting it back at us . We were so unrestrained . "

gillian goose island

Meredith Heil/Thrillist

Madame Rose

Belgian - style dark-brown ale , 9 % ABVThe copious of all the sisters , Mme . Rose is just as sophisticated as her idealistic name implies . It ’s classified as a Belgian - fashion brown ale , and it savor somewhere between a kriek ( a Belgian sour brewed with cerise succus ) and a tradition Flanders Oud Bruin , aka an older - school day sour John Brown . This one ’s ferment with a whole slew of barm and bacteria then stash in wine barrels full of whole cherry for an entire yr . The outgrowth really contribute out all those elegant , earthy flavors you ’d find out in a braggart , bold Bordeaux . And it ’s malty as all get out , with so many layer of cherry tree - fuel vividness you ’ll imprecate you ’re toil into a fat slash of tart cherry red pie .

" Madame Rose is a real pain in the ass in the butt . We spent over two weeks bone up match cherries into about 500 casks to make this beer , " said Platt . " Sometimes I get so angry at her . I ’m just like , ' Why are you such a headache ? ' But then you crack one loose , and you drink in it , and it ’s just like , ' Ah , this is why . This is why I jazz you . ' "

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