Starts off with a weird herbal taste, but gets better.

The first swig of this is super weird, the fenugreek gives it a bitter, Chinese herbal medicine like quality. There's a really nice brown ale behind it and as your palate gets adjusted it ends up being quite pleasant. However, "it burned my taste buds until it was fine" is not really a ringing endorsement for a beer.

This... wasn't bitter at all? It tasted awesome. I don't know if my taste buds were burnt after two strong beers, but this just tasted light, sweet, and unexpectedly refreshing.

Pretty good, hazy grapefruit-citrus. Spicy rye on top and a somewhat bitter finish. I liked it, but it wasn't as good as the beer that came before it or the one that came after.

Pours clear, tastes of mellow caramel and bourbon. Lightly sweet and finishes clean, not a hint of bitterness. Very yummy.

Sweet and vegetal, about where you start asking the question: “how hazy is too hazy?” At least it’s not bitter.

Like drinking a spruce tree. Very bitter finish.

Quite good, wish I had my wits about me.

Ends like the Misguided Youth but the start is more bitter.

Starts the same as the summer IPA but gets resinous fast.

Smooth. Burnt bitterness. I think this one is now clearly on the side of over-aged - it's definitely missing a lot of the complexity and there's nothing to buffer the finish.

Molasses, smooth florality from the lavender. Just on the edge of a fruitiness. If Botan Rice Candy were a beer this would be it.

Smooth, unsurprising lager flavors. Sweetness from honey and alcohol combine nicely.

Best of the bunch, just slightly better than the Reuben's. But I mean, this is a barrel aged dark beer, so it had an unfair advantage.

This is... not much like the regular Crikey! at all. Super hazy, thick and juicy. Smells super dank but the flavor is much more balanced - I think the resin is there but it's just balanced out enough by the tang and citrus. Liked this one a lot.

Slightly better than the Bruery, but not by much. Strong vanilla, strong clove, A little too sweet. Not great.

Fake cherry syrup and chocolate flavor. Sticks in the back of your throat. I've been pretty disappointed with this whole series so far, and from a brewery that's usually quite strong.

More immediately enjoyable than the Hazelnut Vanilla Latte variant. There's a rich chocolate scent and flavor that really meets the expectations of the name.

Quite tart, dominating blueberry flavor. I've enjoyed the berry flavors from Cascade maybe less than their other sours, but it was still pretty good.

Thin and cola-like, down to the flavor, which is effervescent and tangier than I expected. Hints of nutmeg or cinnamon and maybe cardamom. At no point during this glass did I come close to thinking "baklava."

Light, sweet, another beer that really evokes the memory of Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch cereal milk. That's a flavor you'll never hear me complain about, sooooo....

You know when you go to Panera and get that hazelnut drip coffee? This is like the beer version of that. A little thicker, maybe, but the basic flavor matches and seems to work much better as a beer than as a coffee.

The bottle says "white stout" but there's nothing stout like about this. It tastes like an intensely raspberry wine cooler, juicy rather than tart, and since I dislike raspberry, oh well.

Quite good. The ingredients on this beer were interesting and usually strong flavors, but none of them came through especially clearly. Not in a bad way, though! I'll chalk it up to good balance.

Light, sweet, buttery coconut and chocolatey stout. Feels a little insubstantial, but it was certainly tasty at face value.

Very not-tart for a Gose; sweet and pie-like with a light lime flavor. I'd say that here the strong emphasis is on the sense of "pie" rather than the other components.

Smooth, sweet, thick. Primary flavor is molasses, brown sugar. Hints of spice though I would not say licorice is overt.

Mellow then sharply sour then mellow again. Stone fruit, hints of cinnamon, floral tea.

A creamy, mellow milk stout. Not quite as impressive as the IPA but a very solid stout.

One of the best juicy IPAs I've ever had, fruity, mellow, not bitter at all.

Much better than expected, though it is quite sweet, but it's balanced by a strong burnt sugar finish that suddenly drops in sweetness. Very maple; the underlying flavor is dark and fruity. Liked this a lot.

Very good; slightly sweet, smooth coconut; creamy Merlin flavor.

Weird, but somehow less offensive than the Belching Beaver from earlier today. Smells very much like Pledge, but drinks more subdued; slightly sweet, cloudy. The only real problem is the aftertaste, which has an herbal bitterness that isn't super pleasant.

Smells strongly of canned peaches, very curly. But flavor is good; sharply tart but moderated by vanilla and cinnamon. It does a good job of evoking peach pie.

Medium-strong tart, clean nectarine-grape flavor. Very little funk, compare to yesterday's Mandarine.

Very much in the vein of the Pickle Gose although this was decidedly less cucumber and more pickled chilies (think Mama Lil's, maybe?). It's got the same sourness level but is decidedly spicy. I liked this just as much, if not more. I KNOW I KNOW.

This was surprisingly good, I thought. I can't exactly say delicious, but I'd drink more of it. The smell is very much cucumber more than dill pickle, but you can get a hint of the pickling spices as you drink, leaving this clearly in the savory camp. Medium sour, slightly more refreshing than you'd imagine pickle juice. YES I'M WEIRD.

A real raspberry cordial kind of flavor but intensely -- disgustingly, even -- sweet. It doesn't help that I don't like raspberries, but I really don't think that was the problem here. Couldn't drink any more than a couple sips.

Thick Baltic porter, milky, a fair bit sweeter than expected but pleasant. It's decidedly medium-good, we've definitely had a lot better in this category.

Honestly, this felt like a big disappointment after the other two - especially right after the Molé Merkin. In comparison, there was a bit of a vegetal weirdness to the flavor here. It evened out after the palate adjusted, and it's hard to argue the easy appeal of sweet, but it definitely colored my experience.

This was super yummy! Not overwhelmingly sweet, but just smoothly dessert-like. A bit of heat on the backend.

So many winners from Firestone. This one was exactly as advertised, a sweet bourbon Manhattan flavor; cocktail-like until it veers back to beer territory right at the end. Boozy without being punchy or strong. Smooth, refined, and delicious.

This beer has been sitting around for quite a while but ended up still tasting fairly good. One of those concentrated hop juice flavor IPAs but somewhat milder, maybe due to aging. I wouldn't drink a lot of it but it was fine.

The flavor was nice at first, creamy with vanilla and an actual... grainy cloudiness that actually evoked graham crackers for once. But the overall texture was thinner than expected and there was a dry bad-porter sourness that cut the flavor short. A beer that screamed for a little more oomph.

Thick and syrupy with a strong scent of brown sugar. Rich esters and a moderately sour finish. A bit much to take, honestly.

Quite good; an IPA with a clear, round exotic fruit flavor. Just slightly resinous near the end.

Tasted like a German hefe - slightly spicy, strong banana esters. Strawberry? Not so much. No bright fruit flavors, just a kind of dry fruit sourness lingering behind the rest of the flavors. If they used as much strawberry as they claim, they need to find a better approach to getting that flavor into the beer.

A dark belgian, caramel and figs. Quite boozy but with a very enjoyable flavor; it's more of a straight alcohol character rather than the bourbon in the description, which was ... not really detectable to me. With some aging this should be superb.

Smoothed out a bit with age. Almost gritty on first sip after the sours, but it got better. Thick and sweet, with a long, mild vanilla following the initial alcohol hit all the way to the finish. Sticks around a little in the throat afterwards.

Much, much better than the Museum Dose. Tamarind is clear on the start and in the aftertaste, dry and tart. The late middle is tea-like and mellow, probably from a combination of the lapsang and the cocoa (but the latter is not really distinguishable). Still weird, but actually enjoyable.

Smells woody/birchy, with maybe a hint of smokiness. The flavor is... really weird. Fruity sourness and the sarsaparilla and birch clash in a way that creates odd illusions of mint and herbal medicine on the tongue. If you squint this is interesting. If you don't it's just almost nasty.

Love wine barreled stouts, and this is ... big winner. I foolishly didn't take notes and this was a couple weeks ago, but I have another bottle so I'll write more then.

Puts the syrup in syrupy, oh lord. At this point I'm not sure I have liked any of these maple breakfast stouts; the coffee is just inspidily sweet, but the maple seems tacked-on and thin, not natural. By the end of my glass I was having a real hard time. (FWIW, I really didn't enjoy CBS, either)

Actually quite similar to the Hoof Hearted to the point where I had to take a double taste. The differences were in a slightly oilier character and a more exposed alcohol flavor. Otherwise, pretty much the same.

A fruity, orange-grapefruit hazy beer. Some oily rind bitterness, and an intensity of fruit flavor that makes me think IPA more than pale, but it doesn't finish bitter, which is nice.

Very funky, only lightly sour. It tasted... brown. It was fine.

This beer has now been ten years in the bottle, and it definitely seems like that was too long. This is like the skeletal remains of a great beer - it's there in outline but all of the character has smoothed out to the point where it's just a vaguely empty chalkiness and a pure alcohol flavor. Real uncanny valley stuff.

Smells very strongly of umami mushroom, like porcini. It tastes more balanced but there's definitely a broth-like quality somewhere in the background. Touch of burnt caramel. Works, but it does start to feel weird over time.

Way too tart to enjoy. Lots of qualities you'd like in a gueuze, medium funk, apricot-stonefruit, clear look and flavor and a bit of salt left on the lips. But the sourness was unrelenting and got worse over time. I was more pucker than sip by the end.

The aftertaste kills this... A bit like fake pound cake. To be fair I had significantly better stouts today - eight of them.

Like a Mounds. Quite sweet, bordering on fake, but sits very well on the light, cola-like porter base. Actually works because of its lack of heaviness.

Berry is more of a hint, up front. Dry, clean sour, mild florality of pine and not a whole lot of gin that I could detect. Very, very nice!

Starts out like a hoppy+malty amber, backbone is strongly caramel and mellow. There's definitely a florality here, but it kind of fades into the hops. More present is the toasty smoothness of tea on top.

Quite tart and citrusy. I think lychee and pear come through more as a clean flavor to the fruit than they do as themselves. Uncomplicated, but very clean.

Smells 100% like floral perfume, off-putting at first. Flavor is light, like a rice lager but with lightly tart fruit and lemongrass florality. Over several sips the fruit came through stronger, and this ended up really quite pleasurable.

The opposite beer - pungent and sour, hints of dark vinegar and more than a little whiskey to top it off.

Quite delicious. Light tartness, slightly herbal, slightly smoky, which I imagine comes from the oolong tea. Not sure how much cognac I got in between the other flavors, but this was very, very nice.

I've forgotten the details of this beer after the more interesting beers that followed, but I do remember it quite a good hazy IPA.

Gave off a skunky smell while pouring, but it wasn't evident in the taste. Belgian pale with light spice notes, white pepper, but with a dry, grapey, vinous tartness.

I don't like raspberry very much in general, but I think the dry tartness of the fruit made the best match for the lactic sweetness of the base beer, resulting in the best beer of the batch.

After the mango, this was almost annoyingly sweet. Realistic peach pokes through the sugar but otherwise the first few sips were not great. After I got used to it it was better, but still outclassed by the other two flavors.

Mildly tart mango flavor to start, followed by a rather sweet and hoppy IPA. The fruit does seem a little tacked on here, and the rest too sweet. But I like mango, and this was okay if you take it for a novelty beer.

Significantly worse from a can. A lot more of a tacky feeling in the throat afterwards that I don't remember from Thirsty Hop.

Possibly one of the best hazy IPAs I've ever had. Clean citrus/grapefruit/pine flavors with a clean, mellow, completely non-bitter finish.

A medium-bodied, smoky porter with a bit of sourness. Lots of roast and coffee, and a buildingly bitter finish.

Very sweet, boozy, young tasting. But in a charming way, if that makes any sense? It's not thick, it's got a bit of rye bite. A little too raw to truly love, but it was fun. Maybe in a couple years it could even be great (but it seems like it would still be a little too sweet).

Cider-like, with a bright, gingery opening. Gets dry pretty quickly, but not very sour, in a way that is pretty pomegranatey. I liked the ginger, not so much the finish.

Let's be honest, this wasn't going to make an impression at all after the other two.

Very smoothed out, with a kind of caramel honey sweetness on top. Fairly prominent wood smoke flavor. Would have been interesting to compare with a young bottle. Very tasty, though!

Whiskey forward, inky black porter with quite a lot of bitter roast. The bitterness builds up strongly over time.

Yum!

Malty, strong amber with a prickle of hops on top. Well balanced.

My memory is not good here, but I recall this being a blah, generic IPA.

Definitely a Belgian IPA, has those faint peppery spice notes underneath the expected hops. It's an odd style that somehow always makes me think of rubber tires. Not as good as what I think of as my paragon of the style, Stone's Belgique.

Nicely round oak and caramel to open. More than a little piney hop but clean and balanced pretty well. Tastes less boozy than you'd expect at 11%+ ABV.

Syrupy and yuck.

Jammy blueberry sour, with a little more of a musty finish than I like.

Also tastes young. Blending this with the Midnight Orange makes an orange cream stout that is probably better than either component beer. This is interesting because I first got to know Goose Island through their excellent orange cream sodas in the ‘90s.

Strong orange. Almost perfumey, but just avoids that mortal sin by a hair. Tastes very young.

A forward, sharp tartness, some followup chocolate, and a whole lot of authentic blackcurrant flavor. This was very good. I don't quite remember what the original Tart tasted like, but I have the strong feeling that this was better.

This was really good, although all told it was more red wine than beer. The stout was pretty hard to detect through all of the dry grape and brett funk. Rounded, only slightly bitter, with a lingering grapey fizz. This split opinion, but I liked it.

A bit raw in its hit of whiskey but otherwise a pretty good barrel-aged scotch ale. If it's reminiscent of anything it's Goose Island's Cooper Project Scotch.

Bracingly tart, but clean; emphasis on dank pineapple flavors with some sweet wheat funk right at the end.

This was really, really good. Not bitter at all, dry, grapey flavor very like a brut IPA but with a much more intense fragrance. Different from most wet hop beers I've tried, and really fantastic.

Thick texture, somewhat thin flavor, but sickly sweet. Smells odd, though not quite pizza in my mind. I don't know how different this is from before, but this time it was just really gross.

Smells nice, like a complex saison. That first sip, though, it's like an herb salad that kind of overpowers every other flavor that might be involved. Just a little too weird to get over.

UGH I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN NOTES. This was very delicious though.

Missed logging this at the time and it's way in the past. I do remember liking this very much and that the fig was quite striking.

This was about as good as you could expect of a non-barrel aged stout; creamy, sweet, slightly boozy and roasty. I still don't know what I had back in Chicago, but it could have been this. Who knows?

Watery caramel scotch ale. Bit of wet hay.

Main flavor here is hazelnut, creamy and nutty. It really manages to overcome the sweet umami heaviness that usually characterizes this family of beers. Only real complaint here is that the chili was pretty much a non-entity here. I didn't taste it at all.

Very similar to the pale, but with a fair bit more high bitterness at the end.

A mellow pale with a medium resin-on-the-tongue hop presence. Really drinkable and fairly tasty.

Smells like a fruity red, tastes like a fruity red. Well, with stout caramel on top, which makes it taste a lot like prunes. Tacky sourness lingers in the throat. Maybe this'll get better with age, but ... meh for now.

Sweetish drip coffee but with an unpleasant vegetal flavor right up front. Not so convenient.

This was... kind of nasty. Smells good, but you're hit by a really funky, sweaty-something flavor to open. It goes fairly quickly to a sour, decent peach flavor, but the very next sip starts 100% funky all over again. Unlike many sours, this doesn't get better the more you drink.

NOOOO FRANCIS, FAREWELL I CRY FOREVER

Absolutely disgusting. Sickly sweet, smoke is like a tire fire, acrid and bitter.

Really interesting. Bracingly tart on open, with a hop-bitter-sourness (not at all salty). Finishes clean, and all fresh grape. Each sip was a flinch followed by pleasure. Basically unlike any other sour I've had.