Goose Island: Matilda

While Goose Island‘s regular rotating beers are pretty darn good, their special ones are absolutely spectacular. They are well worth the price if you can find them, and this Matilda is no exception. I actually first had this about 6 months ago or so on a trip to Peoria for the annual meeting of ASCLS-IL. A classmate of mine works at the original Goose Island brew pub and gave me a bottle of this to take home. Six months later I finally drank it.

and check out my fancy new staging thingy!

 

Style: Belgian Strong Ale. Similar to a Belgian Pale Ale but with a much higher alcohol content. A highly complex ale with a huge, billowy head. (I can attest to this—there was some spillage…) Fruit and hops flavors balance each other nicely.

Overall Impression: This is really, really good. Somewhat surprisingly, it went well with my spicy Thai peanut pasta. I would recommend sharing the bottle as the alcohol content (7%) is a tad high for a session brew.

Appearance: Beautiful coppery amber color with excellent head that receded into lots of lacing on the glass.

Aroma: Fruit aroma–it tastes more complex then it smells.

Taste: Fruity, tarty, with spicy yeast flavors as well. You taste something new almost every time you take a sip.

Mouthfeel: Light with good carbonation. Smooth as well. Goes down easily.

Try this if you like: Brooklyn Local 1, Dogfish Head’s Faithfull Ale (and any number of Belgian beers but those may take some effort to find)

You’re Making This Really Hard

This weekend I was asked by a visiting guest to provide recommendations for a beer that he would like. Specifically the boyfriend and I were planning on taking him out to dinner at one of Goose Island’s two brew pubs in Chicago. So, naturally, the first thing you ask in reply is “well, what do you like?”

The answer we got was not helpful for two self-proclaimed beer snobs. “Well, I like that one by Miller that comes in the clear bottle…oh but not Bud, that I don’t like.” To be fair, if I was asked to choose Miller over Bud I’d choose Miller every time. Bud tastes like piss water, whereas Miller tastes like it may have once been beer. He went on to say that Coors was okay and so was Michelob. But he didn’t want anything that was too bitter, or too dark, or too malty.

My conclusion, which the boyfriend brought up, was “Oh, so you like water flavored?”

So here I am, sitting here wondering what on earth he’d order at Goose Island. Unlike many craft breweries, Goose Island simply does not have generic American light lagers. 312, while fairly generic, is a wheat beer and tastes like it. Honkers Ale is too hoppy. The rest of the them weren’t even worth considering.

Why am I posting this? Because, friends and followers, there is a WORLD of beer out there for you to discover if you’re willing to try something new! Wait until you’ve actually tried a Bock, a Witbier, a summer ale, a stout, or a Scotch ale to say you don’t like them. Like me: I don’t like Hefeweizens, but I’ve tried at least 4 or 5 different ones. I also am not a huge fan of IPAs, but I will drink those.

For example, if I had never decided to branch out into the world of stouts, I would have missed things like Dogfish Head’s Worldwide Stout, or Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, or best of all, Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout.

So, for the love of all that is tasty, if your friends think MGD 64 is the best the beer world has to offer (or even if you think so, though I doubt you’re reading this blog if you are) please convince them to try something new! That way when you’re asked for a recommendation, you’re not at a complete loss as to what to do.

Bad News for Goose Island Lovers?

Quick post while I’m at work. I mean….

Evidently Anheuser-Busch has bought out Goose Island. They’ve had a minority stake in the company since 2006, and have been helping to distribute it to more people, so this isn’t entirely unexpected.

Hopefully this doesn’t affect the craft quality of Goose Island’s beer. They are one of my favorite breweries and they make some damn good stuff.

Then again, being owned by Miller hasn’t really affected Leinie’s in any terrible ways, so maybe everything will be alright.