If you’re among the most hardcore of beer nerds, you might already be camped out in front of Binny’s Lincoln Park for this week’s real holiday: the annual Black Friday release of Goose Island’s barrel-aged Bourbon County Brand Stout.
This year will see six variants (down one from the seven originally announced in June): Bourbon County Brand Stout, Bourbon County Brand Barleywine, Bourbon County Brand Stout Coffee, Bourbon County Proprietor's Brand Stout and Bourbon County Brand Northwoods Stout, and Bourbon County Reserve Brand Stout.
The epicenter of BCBS celebration, as usual, will be Binny’s Lincoln Park location, kicking off Friday at 9am. The first 200 customers in line will receive a Goose Island BCBS tote bag, poster and a sample of Intelligentsia Black Cat espresso (which imparts its flavor to this year’s Coffee Stout). Attendees will be able to purchase up to five 16.9oz bottles of BCBS original, three barleywine, two each of coffee stout and Proprietor’s and one each of Northwoods and Reserve, while supplies last, of course.
There will be smaller allotments of the full range of bottles available at Binny’s South Loop location as well as several area Jewel-Osco stores in the city and suburbs (city locations include 370 North Desplaines Street, 102 West Division Street and 3630 North Southport Avenue), all starting at 9am as well.
The taproom at the Goose Island Brewery in Fulton Market will open at 11am Friday, offering flights of the 2017 Bourbon County Brand Stout, Coffee, Barleywine and Northwoods, with bottles of Proprietor’s and Reserve available for purchase and special tappings of previous years’ BCBS vintages throughout the day. Tapping events will also take place Friday at locations including Jake Melnick’s (starting at noon), Fatpour Tap Works (2pm), the Long Room (3pm), Timothy O’Toole’s (5pm) and Whirlyball (6pm). Be on the lookout as well for Black Wednesday tappings, to be announced on Goose Island’s social media channels.