Ranking 2015 Bourbon County Brand beers in order of greatness.
I once had the first taste of Bourbon County beers all to myself.
Usually it came in the following manner:
Me, to Goose Island: "Hey, those Bourbon County beers are coming out soon! How about I come by and we taste them and I write about them before they're released?"
Goose Island, to me: "Sure, come on by!"
Anheuser-Busch ownership or no Anheuser-Busch ownership, the Goose Island folks have always been quite pleasant and accommodating. And believe it or not, those unassuming Midwestern ways continued well after the 2011 sale that kicked craft beer in the pants.
But now that craft beer is very much a thing and Goose Island has a major chip in the form of its annual release of the Bourbon County family of beers, they have begun media events to promote the release of those beers. It's hard to blame them.
There was one such event in Chicago on Thursday night in their West Side barrel warehouse on candlelit tables surrounded by whiskey barrels. And there are events coming up in Los Angles and New York because Goose Island is a big deal now, and Bourbon County is an even bigger deal as one of the nation's most celebrated annual beer releases. So like I said -- who can blame them?

During the course of a couple of hours Thursday, Goose debuted the beers for me and several fellow writers and podcasters. What follows are notes and thoughts about this year's crop of BCS beers, which will be on sale the day after Thanksgiving. Alone among them, Rare will be released earlier, Nov. 13 to those drawn in a lottery, as well as on Black Friday. (The lottery ends Friday (Oct. 9) at 11:59. To enter, go here: gooseisland.com/rareday)
Ranked in order of greatness:

1. Bourbon County Brand Stout
I'm surprised that the simplest incarnation of the Bourbon County family was my favorite, but here we are -- the beer that started it all is simply outstanding this year. A very strong chocolate nose is followed up with heavy dark chocolate on the palate with wisps of vanilla and dried fruit -- cherry, mostly -- at the edges. Some versions of BCBS need to age a bit, but this is ready to drink, whether on its own or beside a weighty dish that's not too fussy (like, say, a steak). If you can, buy a few bottles and adopt the three-month rule: drink one now, one in three months, another in six months, and so on, until you run out of bottles. Hopefully you don't run out of bottles for a while.

2. Rare Bourbon County
Hype surrounds this beer, as it is the second Bourbon County to get the designation of "Rare." This incarnation is "rare" based on being aged in 35-year-old Heaven Hill whiskey barrels that Goose Island apparently never expected to get. So what did they do with them? Age some BCS for two years, naturally. There's no way a beer can live up to that hype, however this is a wonderful beer. It has a vague tart-dried fruitiness with an incredibly deep and lingering finish that's something like sipping cognac, Dutch tobacco and chocolate all at once. Drinking Rare is an event, and the epitome of something to be treasured by the fire this winter.

3. Bourbon County Brand Regal Rye Stout
Made with blackberry juice, cocktail cherries and sea salt, this beer is tasty, but also a bet on the future. I'm guessing that like last year's Bourbon County Vanilla Rye, which graduated from intriguing to a perfect, silky web of chocolate, vanilla, caramel and even cotton candy after about eight months of aging in the bottle, Regal will peak within the next six to 12 months. This mostly amounts to Chocolate Cherry BCS with a salty finish. I'd gladly buy this beer with curiosity about how it unfolds.

4. Proprietor’s Bourbon County Brand Stout
A Chicago-only release with a recipe that changes annually, this year's version features maple syrup aged in bourbon barrels, toasted pecans and guajillo peppers. Perhaps best described with the word "interesting" -- and that's not pejorative. Proprietor's is quite interesting as an amalgam of flavors -- cinnamon, brown sugar, a wisp of coconut and an increasing amount of maple as it warms, with a bit of a spicy pepper finish. I probably prefer the previous two Proprietor's to this -- the finish here is a bit one-dimensional -- but this is still better than most things on the shelf and would work beside any rich dish.

5. Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout
I'm usually a huge fan of this beer, but this year's version tastes off to me. The first word that came to mind was "peppery" which was the exact same word that came to the gentleman sitting across from me. And I can be wrong, but there's no way we could both be wrong. Right? Made with Intelligentsia’s Los Delirios Nicaraguan coffee bean, Bourbon County Coffee is relatively balanced, mild and easy to drink -- none of which I'm particularly looking for in a coffee stout.

6. Bourbon County Brand Barleywine
Disappointing, because I was a champion of this beer during its first two years. Its long brown sugar sweetness has been replaced by a ton of dried fruit -- think raisin and cherries. With a thinner body than years past, Barleywine lacks the long vanilla finish of previous years, which I miss. Yet this would also be ideal with a hamburger. It's that sweet-savory thing.

7. Bourbon Country Stout
The jokers around me poured all six beers in one glass to see what it would taste like and named the experiment Bourbon Country. Funny, and a worthy experiment. But bleh. Apparently those Goose Island folks know what they're doing.
jbnoel@chicagotribune.com