Founders Breakfast Stout

Brewed by Founders Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Grand Rapids, Michigan USA

I had been searching for a full serving of this beer ever since getting a sample from the Michigan booth at the GABF and was able to secure it over Christmas. Motor oil black pour with a decent brown head. Smell of sweet chocolate, coffee and oatmeal. Goes down silky smooth with taste of coffee and milk chocolate.

On tap at Capones. Lots of coffee in the nose. Chocolate and coffee dominate the palate and it finishes only slightly bitter. Very good.

12oz bottle. Dark pour with a decent head. Big coffee and dark chocolate aroma. Big coffee/dark roasted malt aroma, kind of bitter. Iv’e had better.

Bottle, John’s Grocery, Iowa City, Iowa. Shiny black pour, dense and sticky fine tan bubbles. I have a friend whose 80+ grandma has smoked a pack a day since the 1940s, and who enjoys three generous bourbons every evening. I admire that kind of old lady. (My grandmas were much less adventurous in their tastes.) This beer smells like that grandma’s kitchen on a day she’s been baking. The smell of fresh brownies (recipe from a well-used red and white checked Betty Crocker cookbook) and a lot of the sort of coffee that comes in gallon tins, but a deep sense of smoke and whiskey still lingering in the walls. I like this. Less smoke in the flavor, though still present, intense melting dark chocolate and boozy green plums. Wonderfully full and soft palate. Lots of sturdy character here, if a bit less refined than some. Cheers Grandma.

Pours and oily thick substance with a chocolate head. Deep, oily, robust, roasted aroma with a thick, full-bodied, viscous mouthfeel that delivers robust roastiness, coffee grains, black patent malts, and a pinch of alcohol to the palate. Moderate roast bitterness and deep, dark, chocolate on the finish. Flavors never unwind enough for me. To thick and unrelenting. Okay, but really, what’s the big deal?

Pours black as night with a thin but persistent nut brown head. Aroma is Coffee, chocolate, brown sugar, toasted oats, cinamon and spices. Flavor is huge and powerful yet somehow smooth, incredibly smooth. Coffee, dark chocolate truffle, burnt sugar, dark toasted marshmallows, toasted grains, cinamon, a hint of smoke, oh yeah and tons sof delicious sweet sweet roast malts. Finish is roasty and slightly bitter, with a little char.

On tap at Cooper’s in Scranton. Thick black color with a thing tan head. Heavy aroma of black coffee, spice, with chocolate. Impressivley balance flavor of coffee, chocolate and cinnamon. Just an impressive beer!

Bottle. Pours silky black with a thin brown head. Can really smell the coffee in this one, that is the dominating aroma. Taste is more of the same, some bitterness, a hint of chocolate. Finish is a little harsh. Decent mouthfeel. Not bad.