I finished off the year right, with a limited edition Goose Island Stout.

A few years back, my neighbor and I celebrated his birthday with a bourbon barrel-aged beer pub crawl.  This year, days before he left for warmer weather (and employment for his recently graduated wife), he gifted me a bottle of Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout.  This beer is hard to come by, as retailers are supposedly only give one case to distribute.  Prices skyrocket, and since this is Chicago, underhanded deals are made.  If I’m going to be the recipient of an underhanded deal, it might as well involve bourbon and/or beer, or as is the case here, both.

The description on the neck of the bottle says it all, which is good because I am in no way a qualified beer critic.  I either like it or I don’t.  If you tell me there’s a hint of vanilla in the beer, then I’ll taste vanilla.  If you tell me there isn’t, well, I won’t.  Fortunately, there’s this thing called the internet, and instead of reading my substandard description of the beer, you can learn more from Goose Island or maybe check out a review.  I sipped mine while watching movies with my wife on New Year’s Eve.  Two great partners for a quiet evening .

Happy New Year, everyone (well, everyone who visit’s my website, so Happy New Year to the 3 of you…).