Four of the five 2013 beers will be distributed nationwide, though, so I can’t say with 100 percent confidence that Chicago will get more Bourbon County than last year—more of the stuff stays here than gets shipped to any other city, but there are a lot of other cities.

In case you’re curious why BCBS labels don’t mention a specific aging time, it’s because each barrel spends anywhere from 8 to 12 months working its evil magic on whatever beer it holds. Brewers started filling barrels for this year’s BCBS variants in August 2012.

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  • Bourbo Count Brand Barleywine

Bourbon County Brand Barleywine (12.1 percent alcohol) Now we’re getting into the beers that are entirely new for 2013. The introduction of Bourbon County Brand Barleywine—also sold in four-packs of 12-ounce bottles—accounts for most of the growth in the Bourbon County program this year. The inaugural batch filled an impressive 600 whiskey barrels, some of them freshly emptied of spirits but the majority previously used to age regular Bourbon County Brand Stout.

Siegel tells me that Backyard Rye filled about 200 barrels—roughly the same number as Cherry Rye or Vanilla BCBS in years past—and that 50 pounds of puree were funneled into every one. (Each barrel got a single kind of berry.) In case you’re math impaired, that adds up to a frankly astonishing 10,000 pounds of fruit. None of it actually came from anybody’s backyard, but some of the mulberries were harvested in Humboldt Park: Goose Island enlisted a horticulturalist to help flag trees whose fruit would ripen at the right time, and on the appointed day brewery staff returned to collect the berries by spreading tarps on the ground and shaking the trees.

  • Those are indeed the colors of our municipal flag, signaling that Proprietor’s will only be distributed in Chicago.

Proprietor’s Bourbon County Brand Stout (14.1 percent alcohol) Goose Island says this Chicago-only release, which filled a scant 88 barrels, is “meant to show our immense gratitude to our neighbors here in Chicago—the loyal and adventurous fans whose support helped bring Bourbon County Brand Stout to towering new heights.” The Proprietor’s name will persist after 2013, but the recipe will change every year.