Founders Breakfast Stout

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

This beer is like a Mexican knife fight. Don’t ask me why. This is possibly the best stout I’ve ever had, and one of the best beers period. Quality coffee flavor overwhelms, but that’s cool with me. Darkest, shiniest stout I’ve seen. I must disagree with many of the raters here by saying that I would never want to drink this in the morning. 8.3%?! No way!

Pretty smooth stuff. Had it at Jeff’s B-day bash ’05. Chocolate and coffee all over.

Thanks Santa! Awesome! Very dark brown, with a rich pleasing aroma of chocolate and coffee bean. Moderate roasty malts are in the background. In the mouth, these 3 components merge successfully into a single fine, rich flavor. Full bodied,velvety, like a dessert in many ways. Easily one of the best coffee stouts I’ve had.

Bottle sampled in a snifter at 55*F. Pours a viscous inky jet black with virtually no head to speak of. Exquisite, up front aromas of freshy ground dark roasted coffee beans and semi-sweet baker’s chocolate with some licorice and molasses lingering in the background. Mouthfeel is almost perfect for this style; round, slick, smooth and slightly oily. Intense, rich flavors of espresso coffee, dark chocolate and black malt come agressively to the forefront, supported nicely with hints of vanilla, caramel, molasses and charcoal. Very well balanced overall, starting out slightly sweet but quickly finishing with a moderate, but long charred oak, hoppy bitterness with the alcohol warming the finish up admirably. I wish I did indeed have another one of these for my breakfast tomorrow morning! Great stuff!

This was the crowning glory of an evening in which I had a number of excellent beers. It is a nice oil pouring from the bottle, black with a quick finishing dark head and some yellow-to-red spectrums of color at the edges (but otherwise black). The aroma is like walking into an interstate truckstop on a cold morning, with a half dozen industrial strength coffee makers going. Had I been blindfolded I might well have thought that someone had given me a cup of coffee rather than beer. The palate doesn’t match the expectations of either the appearance or in general what one hopes for from such beers, but the coffee flavors in all their complexity and richness are an amazing accomplishment. Thanks TChrome for one very memorable beer.

The Lure:
Decadence meets in the balanced gathering of roasted coffee beans, dark chocolate and dollops of wet cream. Sweetness pushes them onwards into a fantastic saturnalia.

The Festivities:
Oh my god, this is a cousin of Péché Mortel!! Sweet chocolate blended with malt roastiness into a devilishly smooth and intensely flavorful stoutuccino. Sudden desires of being alone with this one.

Transcendence:
That baby is going to be a fat and happy kid.

Deep, dark brown body with a light tan head. Mouth-watering and complex aroma of espresso beans, roast, some burnt phenolics, chocolate, and spice. Flavor is like an intense, robust cup of the best coffee you could ever have. Has a lot more dimensions than most coffee beers. Lingers for a long and enjoyable eternity. Perfect fullness and texture. I like this better than AleSmith Speedway Stout. This is a great experience and has to be the world’s best beer with a twist-off cap. Thanks for sharing, Eric!

Thank goes to JPDIPSO for this trade. Great Stout. Chocolate, coffee and molasses flavors. Finishes clean, smooth, and thick.