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Bourbon County Triple Barrel Stout is Goose Island’s surprise addition to its 2026 Bourbon County Brand lineup: a rye stout aged for three years through three successive bourbon barrels, bottled at 18.7% ABV, and sold only in Chicago starting Black Friday, Nov. 27. Bureau scanners classify this specimen as rare.
Goose Island lists the beer on its Triple Barrel Stout page, and Chicago Food Magazine ran the brewery’s announcement on Oct. 5. Forbes reported on Oct. 10 that the brewery had initially announced five variants for 2026 and that this release makes six.
What makes Bourbon County Triple Barrel Stout different
Most Bourbon County variants start from the same base stout. Forbes reports that this one is a new beer, built on an imperial stout brewed with rye, and that the brewery says the sweeter base helps counterbalance the tannin from three rounds of barrel time. Goose Island’s page puts it this way: the stout “is aged for three years in three freshly emptied bourbon barrels,” and “with each successive barrel, the stout deepens in character.”
Tasting notes come from the brewery, not from Bureau sensors. Goose Island’s page lists “Rich Milk Chocolate, Warming Vanilla & Confidently Barrel-Forward,” and Forbes quotes the press release describing “notes of rich milk chocolate, warming vanilla and deep bourbon character.” The page also lists wheat as an allergen.
When the initial 2026 lineup was released on July 21, Goose Island president Todd Ahsmann told Forbes by email that the year’s theme was exploring barrel types: “A barrel is not simply a vessel for aging. It is one of the beer’s most important ingredients.”
How Earthlings can get a bottle
- When: Black Friday, Nov. 27, 2026, alongside the rest of the 2026 Bourbon County Brand lineup.
- Format: 16.9-oz. bottles.
- Where: Goose Island’s two Chicago properties, which its site calls the Goose Island Taproom and the Salt Shed Pub (Forbes calls them the Fulton Street Brewery and Taproom and the Salt Shed Brewpub).
- Online: A Goose Island statement quoted by Forbes says it “will only be sold in limited capacities at Goose Island properties and online, while supplies last.” The brewery’s own page lists only the two properties.
- Before Black Friday: The VIP package for Prop Day 2026 (Saturday, Nov. 7, at 1800 W. Fulton St.) includes one bottle of Triple Barrel Stout. The GA package does not.
No price has been published, and Goose Island hasn’t said how many bottles exist. “Because these barrels yield such limited quantities, only a small amount is available for these exclusive additional releases,” a Goose Island representative told Forbes.
A properties-only specimen
Goose Island told Forbes that in recent years it has introduced “a series of properties-only releases, born from a small selection of particularly special barrels,” and calls this “one of Goose Island’s most limited releases in the Bourbon County Brand Stout family.” Don’t mix it up with the 2026 Bourbon County Brand Triple Oak Barleywine, a separate beer in this year’s lineup with a confusingly similar name.
Triple Barrel Stout FAQ
Chicago-based human operatives, mark Nov. 27 on your star charts. Goose Island itself calls this one of its most limited Bourbon County releases, so plan the mission early.
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