Home / Food & Drink / Window Shopping

Can’t Find Rare Bourbon on the Shelf? These Beers Are the Next Best Thing

Stouts aged in Weller 12 and Old Forester Birthday Bourbon barrels.

goose island bourbon county 2020 lineup Goose Island

By Tyler Chin

Published

·

Updated

Every product is carefully selected by our editors. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more

Welcome to Window Shopping, a weekly exercise in lusting over home products we want in our homes right the hell now. This week: hype beer, a cooking device for lonely people and more.

Goose Island has announced this year’s bourbon barrel-aged stout variants for its fabled Bourbon County Stout lineup to once again be released on Black Friday. For 2020 we’re getting seven variants, with the flagship Bourbon County Stout and the Chicago-only Proprietor’s making the usual new recipe appearances. Bourbon County Special #4 Stout is a blend of a coffee and oatmeal stout with Intelligentsia’s cold coffee and single-origin beans from Ethiopia (plus bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup).

Three of the remaining four include aging in some top-notch barrels that whiskey lovers will certainly croon over: Bourbon County Caramella Ale is this year’s Wheatwine Ale aged in Larceny wheated bourbon barrels; Birthday Bourbon County Stout was aged in barrels of the extremely rare Old Forester Birthday Bourbon; and Anniversary Bourbon County Stout was aged two years in Weller 12-Year barrels.

While it can sometimes feel like everyone does bourbon barrel-aged beers, seeing the gravitas of the barrels that Bourbon County Stout has been aging in for the 2020 release is a reminder that no one is focusing on barrel selection quite like Goose Island has been. — Ryan Brower, Commerce Editor

My phone is hideously scratched up, and I’m pretty sure it’s from the handful of times I’ve accidentally thrown my keys into the same pocket as my phone. We recently partnered with Orbitkey to create a limited-edition version of their eponymous product: a tidy organizer for tucking away your keys. Our version is made of luxurious Saffiano leather with a classic olive lining. You have to carry your keys everywhere, so you might as well look good doing it.

The market seems saturated with products that promise the ultimate work from home upgrade. Moft is one of the few brands to keep up its promise. The Moft Z is a foldaway laptop stand that converts into different settings for seated positions. Once you find yourself tired of sitting, the stand converts into a standing desk so you can work on your feet. Besides its ergonomic benefits, the Moft Z keeps your laptop off your lap. According to studies, a laptop’s heat and electromagnetic fields are detrimental to male sperm quality. For $59, it feels like a steal, even compared to the cheapest desks.

Former metals analyst David Olkovetsky uses a high-carbon, high-hardness, high-alloy stainless steel called Elmax instead of the usual carbon steel to make kitchen knives that are, in a word, badass. His newest creation is a paring knife, which features the hallmark Elmax steel as well as the company flagship Chef’s Knife’s dedication to ergonomics.

Inside Weather added three new pieces to its Usonia collection, a furniture line designed in partnership with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The trio includes a chair, ottoman and stool, all of which take style inspiration from some of Wright’s most famous works. And like the rest of Inside Weather’s products, they’re customizable to the nth degree.

I am neither lactose-intolerant nor vegan. Yet somehow Brave Robot convinced me to try its animal-free, vegan ice cream, and I was pleasantly surprised. Brave Robot uses whey protein from Perfect Day, kind of like the Impossible Burger for dairy substitutes. If you’re into something like Oatly’s ice cream, this is not it. Brave Robot’s ice cream tastes almost identical to dairy-based ice creams, except whey protein doesn’t come from cows. Check it out even if you don’t have any dietary restrictions — they somehow feel more guilt-free than they probably are.

I thought it was tasteless to make one-pot pasta and eat it out of the pot. Honestly, it might be lowbrow, but the Bonbowl makes it less so. Mike Kobida invented the two-in-one cooktop-and-bowl after living in a tiny apartment and working a hectic schedule. The inducting heating burner heats up quickly and it only heats the inside of the bowl. Once you’re done cooking, eat straight out of the bowl (it looks a lot better than eating from a pot). The accompanying lid has a built-in strainer so the Bonbowl is pretty much an all-in-one cooking tool. Choose from a stainless steel or non-stick interior, though we’re pretty sure you can’t go wrong with either.