Our 2024 Bourbon County Stout Reviews & Rankings

It's a Rare year. Does that mean it's immediately our #1?

Happy Rare Day to all who are celebrating this afternoon! A couple of weeks ago, Team GDB returned to the Bourbon County Stout media scrum for the first time in years.

Unlike past events, this time there were two of us on hand, and we were able to participate on separate nights - one in person, the other via Zoom. Eric attended the Salt Shed gathering while Karl logged on remotely, and both of us were guided through the full lineup of barrel-aged beverages and their variants by Goose Island staff.

This year is pretty equally distributed: One OG, two barrel-focused variant stouts (Rare and Bardstown Cask Finish), two adjunct variant stouts (Macaroon and Vanilla Rye) and one barleywine (Proprietor’s Mexican Spoon Candy).

What did we think? How would we each rank these? What kind of beer disagreements are in front of us? Read on to find out: 

Publisher’s Note: This post is available to all our Premium Subscribers immediately, and will open up to all subscribers on Black Friday. If you’re heading into Rare Day and want to have an idea of what this year has in store for you, we’d love it if you signed up as a Premium Subscriber today: