Founders Breakfast Stout

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

12oz Bottle - Trade - Pantanap
Aroma – Big stout aroma. Dark malts, tons of coffee and chocolate aromas.
Appearance – Dark black in color with a thin stout head.
Flavor – Awesome flavors, Coffee, chocolate and dark malts. This beer has it all. Just the right amount not overwhelming like some can get.
Palate – Huge Mouthfeel, great stout texture with a nice dry finish.
Overall – This was a great beer. One of the best I have ever had. The beer had so many flavors and they all came out. This will be one for the ages. Great Job Founders Brewing.

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color ale with a nice dark foamy head with average retention. Coffee aroma is quite overpowering with some subtle roasted malt. Taste is totally overpowered by coffee and as much as I like some coffee characteristic in my stout I cannot drink coffee. Total lack of balance or complexity, just an overpowering of coffee. Definitely not one for me.

Combo review, original and re-rate: I’m a firm believer that beer’s not just a breakfast beverage, but man, this one sure leads the pack for top breakfast picks!!! Worth the wait, since I’ve not been able to score this one in a long while, very pleasing, smooth, a great drinker. Pour is jet black, yet still reveals some mahoganey hues around the edges. The head is tan and generous in the beginning, resides to a thin (1-2mm) coating with excellent retention, and yields fine lacing in this stout glass. Re-rate from the tulip glass in 2/07 was likewise impressive in apperance. The aroma is whamo coffee, strong bitter and sweet coffee scents, not a lot of hopping detected (and as much as I’ve wanted this one for a while, I had no idea what to expect). This brew hits the tongue and impresses with a burst of coffee and nice, smoothy, silky mouthfeel comforting the tongue and mouth. The coffee hits from many different angles, it’s not strong enough to take over the beer, yet is dominant and delicious. The alcohol is invisible, imperial stout? Oh, ok, 8.3%, but still, really smooth. There is a mild sweetness behind this thing, yet a subtle dryness, and a bittering balance. The bitterness doesn’t have a lot of flavor, not seemingly from significant hopping, moreso from a bitter coffee malt presence. The interplay here is quite nice. The aftertaste and lick of the lips reveals dark fruits, very light chocolate, but this is a coffee imperial stout, among the best in coffee strength while not being overdone. Great sweet / bitter balance here, the semi-dry aspect to the finish (including a graininess) is akin to that which accompanies St. Ambroise’s. Hats off to Founders for this concoction.

Bottle from Lone Hill. Black with a small dark brown head. Sweet earthy chocolate and coffee aroma. Dark chocolate taste with a big earthy grain and coffee bitterness finishing somewhat dry. Pretty good.

2007 vintage. Pours pretty much pitch black with the faintest possible mahogany tint. A thick, foamy, coffee colored head displays excellent retention, lasting the entire drink and coating the glass in heavy sheets of lace. The aroma is big and chocolaty, with huge notes of coffee, mocha, heavy cream, and oatmeal. The flavor is equally huge and incredibly smooth. Mocha milkshake comes to mind. Chocolaty, roasty, sweet, and creamy pretty much sums this one up. The mouthfeel is full, silky, and not at all cloying. For some reason, I’m trying hard not to like this beer, but it isn’t working. I’m pleasantly surprised, especially after not being that impressed with the Kentucky version. Awesome brew.

Pour is black with a nice dense tan head...smell is coffee and flour?...taste is a little more chewy sweet than bitter chewy...coffee definately there, but cocoa and and chocolate cake doughnut were slightly overwhelming...the coffee returned in the finish...very good, but over-rated I think...

on tap. pours black with creamy tan head. nose is really nice, fresh coffee aromas with chocolate and toffee. flavor is much of the same, really tasty stuff. mouth feel is med, not thick and syrupy making this really drinkable. no alcohol taste. wow this is like one of those smaller imperial stouts but it really tastes like the bigger ones. i’m enjoying this a lot more on tap than i ever did in the bottle.4.2.

11/13/07, had a fresh bottle of this and it was the most enjoyable FBS from the bottle I can recall. Almost as good on tap, i really think freshness is the key with this stout. the coffee just really works with the beer when fresh..4.1.

huge coffee aroma and flavor, medium body, sticky on the tongue. gorgeous flavor. Very tasty. Thx hopsrus