Founders Breakfast Stout

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

Sampled with Decaturstevo, Shag, and Beerhawk over breakfast after the zap-it gathering. Near black pour with huge light brown head. Aroma is like Kahlua. Flavors of dark chocolate and coffee. Medium full body with low carbonation. Admittedly, i’m not a coffee drinker, but this was enjoyable. Gotta start the day right with an 8% abv! What a way to end an awesome tasting.

Bottle, thanks, Iowaherkeye, for this treat! Pours very black with just hints of red underneath the small dark tan head. This stuff smells awesome. Notes of baked oats, chocolate, coffee, ashes, are in the nose. The body is semi-thick with low carbonation. The oats cut through in combination with a very earthy coffee presence. Soft, delicate chocolate is beneath the smokier notes and an almost porter-like ashtray finish rounds everything out. The alcohol is not at all detectable. This is an excellent stout which flaunts almost anything that I would look for in a dark ale of this sort.
[Thanksgiving Day]
Ah, this is even better than I remember, and that’s saying a lot. The pour is magnificent with a very tall, dense, creamy dark tan head. Just sniffing this beautiful beverage gets my salivary glands going. It’s so creamy in the mouth with a savory chocolate finish that follows up a huge amount of toasted oats and earthy coffee tones. I really wish I could have this on a regular basis.
[April 27, ’07]
Yeah, I love this beer. Perfect defined oaty, nutty flavor with delicious chocolate and an ashy finish. Nice and heavy and savory. This time I picked up some olives in the aroma along with things previously noted above. This is pushing the boundaries for the style.

Bottle from iowaherkeye. Thanks! Twist off the cap and a fog appears as if hiding something evil. A whiff of bitter chocolate follows. I pour into my snifter revealing a tiny medium bubble dark tan head, that quickly dissipates to a small bubble ring around the glass. The liquid is pitch black. The aroma is smokey and earthy. A tiny bit more roasty aroma for than I prefer. Possibly too young. Initial sweet pleasing palate extremely quickly morphs into the bitter astrigency of putting cocoa powder on your tongue. Too harsh. Not my cup of tea, or I should say my cup of beer. My 3.5 rating is generously skewed because the beer is rated high. I just don’t prefer these coffee stouts, probably in the same way I strongly prefer coffee with cream and sugar. This is too dry and the coffee roastiness overpowers everything.

Rating 700. 12oz bottle from Parti-Pak Liquors (Indianapolis, IN). Pours a velvety dark black immpermeable to light with a thick frothy milk chocolate head that settles slowly and laces the glass heavily. Aroma is strong roasted malt and coffee notes with hints of wheat, caramel and bourbon. Flavor is much of the same – roasted malt and strong coffee notes with hints of molasses, toffee, dark chocolate and hints of bourbon and wood. Full body with a strong roasted coffee finish.

Bottle courtesy of Stoutlover72, thanks! Poured a deep black body with decent size head that dissolved pretty quickly. Aroma was great, coffee, chocolate and a touch of hops. Flavor was very bitter at first, not really in a bad way since I like dark bitter coffee. But in the end it seemed a little too thin. This was a good stout but nothing that wowed me like the high ratings this has. 3.8

Update. Had a fresh bottle that blew m,e away. The coffee and chocolate and sweetness of the oatmeal were a fine blend. This beer was so smooth and creamy. 4.3

Bottle courtesy of unclejedi. Pours a deep opaque black with a 2 finger chocolate brown head that fades into a thin top layer. Nice lacing. Nose is roasted coffee beans, cocoa and bakers chocolate. Palate is a lot like it smells - chocolaty coffee but with a touch of oatmeal at the end. Slight bitter finish. Creamy mouth feel. A great stout. Right up there with my favorites of the style.

A very nice stout. nose has an incrdible aroma of roasted coffee and semi-sweet chocolate. taste is more of the same. very thick. wish it was a bit warmer, have never been a big fan of iced coffee. very good for the style. Want to try that famed peche mortel now.

12oz bottle-Pitch black body with a huge tight mocha head which emits an aroma of big time chocolate and coffee. This full bodied brew has a taste of coffee with some mild chocolate undertones along with some bitterness in the middle and finishes with more coffee and brief chocolate. I was expecting more chocolate from the aroma but it still comes across. A great tasting Imperial Stout.