It’s black Friday in America. The time of year when so many of our retailers hold their breath and hope their revenues turn from red to black. But for beer geeks, it’s traditionally meant something else. It’s the release of Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout. The lines are as long as the temperatures are low, and these days, the craze for Bourbon County stretches across the country — 9 different cities this year actually. It’s mostly a celebratory affair, but as BCS became harder and harder to get, it’s also been a bit of a spectacle.
Mike Seigel is Goose Island’s innovation manager — he’s deeply ingrained in the process and logistics, and the creativity of these beers, so much so that it’s hard to get him to talk about anything else. Even at the bar, far away from the brewhouse, he’ll start bending you ear about something technical that’s he’s obsessed over.
So with all the hoopla around BCS this year, as with any other year, I thought it would be a perfect time to sit down with Mike, and let him bend all your ears for a change. So if you’re waiting in line, and it’s cold out, and you need to take your mind off the wind and the chill, then here’s your escape. We taste though the new set of BCS for 2014, and all things production and process, in a sort of Siegel-esque way, for the next hour.