After a nice dinner at Reality Bites with my friend Joe, and a great Wookey Jack on draft, we headed down the street to Fat Jacks. One nice thing about living close to Chicago is that we tend to get a good supply of Goose Island’s barrel aged stuff, and Fat Jacks had their Bourbon County Brand Stout on tap. So, after have a snifter of that fine beer, I decided to finish off the evening with this one.
Location: On tap and served in a 10oz glass at Fat Jacks in Bloomington, IL.
Numbers: 7.2% ABV, 50 IBUs, 31.1º Lovibond, ~200 Calories
Ingredients: Grain: Maris Otter, Crystal 60L, British Chocolate, Black Malt, Roasted Barley; Hops: East Kent Goldings, Willamette, Cascade
Appearance & Aroma: It was black in color, and I couldn’t see any light through it in the dark bar. The head was very thin, and the aroma was a roasty cocoa and some coffee.
Taste & Feel: The body was medium to full and the mouthfeel was smooth. The flavor up front was dark chocolate like with some grainy roastiness. There were some roasty coffee notes that came in the middle, surrounded by the dark chocolate notes. The roasty bitterness grew slightly in the finish, with some dark earthy hop bitterness in the background. The roasty dark cocoa and coffee flavors lasted for a minute or so in the aftertaste.
Food Pairing: This beer has a lot of dark cocoa and roasty coffee flavors, and I’d either highlight the roasty flavors with something off the grill – like a steak or dry rub BBQ ribs – or a wet BBQ – like a pulled pork sandwich to add some sweet caramel flavors to the mix.
Overall Impression: For a porter, this beer had a good amount of body and backbone to it. I enjoyed the dark cocoa flavors that carried throughout, and the coffee like bitterness was fairly smooth and drinkable. Overall, I’m not sure if I’d classify this as a porter, but it was a good, flavorful beer.
My Rating: 
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