I have a wide range of beer buddies and each with different tastes. This is really great because there are so many beers out there. Over time, I've started to keep mental lists of which beers should be shared with which beer buddies. And last night there was no question what to grab before heading out the door.
Kevin has a deep love for Bell's Batch 9,000 (American Strong Ale, 12.5% ABV), but then it is a really great beer that just keeps getting better with age. I think that this along with Batch 7,000 (imperial stout, 12% ABV), may be my two favorites from the Bell's “batch series”. Batch, 9,000 was bottled just about two years ago on January 27, 2010 and I am very happy to have a few left. In fact, I still see this around once in a great while at some bottle shops in Michigan. If you see it anywhere, you owe it to yourself to pick it up.
photo of Bell's Batch 9,000 when it was on tap at the Constant Spring
Now we actually cracked this year's version of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout (Bourbon barrel aged imperial stout, 14.5% ABV) first. This has always been a really good beer, and like Batch 9,000 just gets better with age. I had gotten a 4 pack, but just threw it into the cellar.
As you probably know there is a fair amount of controversy over the purchase of Goose Island by In Bev (basically Anheuser-Busch). However, they hired Brett Porter (formerly of Deschutes Brewing Company) as their head brewer and he is doing a fantastic job. I've heard some say that this year's Bourbon County Stout is the best batch since the 1990's. Since I only had my first BCS a few year's ago, I can't vouch for that, but I can say that it is fantastic fresh. I can't wait to get some age on the bottles that I have left. Unfortunately, there was very limited distribution of this beer into the Michiana market, and most bottle shops barely got a case.