Founders Breakfast Stout

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

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.

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.

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.

Pours like a thick black cola with big soda like carbonation bubbles and clumpy brown head. Aroma of coffee spilled on coffee cake, coffee grounds, cinnamon. This is a really nice coffee stout. The oatmeal adds a nice vanilla cream sweetness, however it finishes dry and bitter like black coffee and dark unsweetened chocolate. Earthy, some tobacco as well. I think I might like this better than Kentucky breakfast, the sweet bourbon just conflicts with the coffee there. Medium body with light soda-like carbonation, fluffs up in the mouth just a bit. Fast drinking... .

Two 12oz bottles sampled at my Imperial Stout tasting. Pours a thick, oily, viscous black with a foamy, active tan head. Aroma is mostly coffee, from far away smells a little like a chocolate milkshake, other aroma of chocolate, caramel, and breakfast aromas like cinnamon toast. It’s sort of like you’re drinking a carbonated mocha which makes this a bizarre drinking experience compared with other imperial stouts and other coffee stouts. Dark coffee grounds, dark chocolate, caramel, chocolate syrup, coffee cake, sweet sugary icing, toast and again - chocolate milk shake. Very thick in the mouth and throat with a light coffee bitterness. The bottle says it all, "Double chocolate coffee oatmeal stout". That about covers everything. Not for the faint of heart, but also not as overwhelming as other Imperial Stouts.

Poured from bottle to my Delirium Tulip glass. Pours black as can be with a slight 1/4 inch head. Nice ring of lacing around the glass. Smell is roasted coffee(mostly), a slight alcohol and some chocolate notes coming through. Taste is roasted, robust dark coffee. I’m also getting somewhat of a tobacco taste in there as well. The secret to this beer is letting it warm up to close to room temperature. Directly out of the fridge, the coffee taste is too dominant. Letting this warm up allows the mouthfeel to get a little thicker and creamier. It also allows the other flavors to come out and make themselves known. Mainly the bakers chocolate and molasses. This goes from an average beer to a world class stout at room temperature. Glad I have more of these to look forward to.

As Carl on the ATHF would say, ’’This is a Classic!!’’ Anyway. This is one of my favorites; if it’s on tap, I’m drinkin’ it until it’s gone. Pours a dark, dark black with about a centimeter of intimidating creamy tan head. Flavor is a complexity of dark chocolate, french press coffee, Kona coffee, and vanilla with the dryness of oatmeal. Velvety and full mouthfeel. Kudos if you can drink more than two and still function!

Bottle. This beer poured a dark dark blackish brown, almost no head at the start and then rising to a thick dense brown foam. Aroma is chocolate ice cream with hop overtones. Flavor is rich and dense. Thick and chewy with strong chocolate flavors, sweet to start with a bitter dark chocolate finish. Good long duration on a heavy palate, not a huge range of flavor as it pretty much sits in the sweet chocolaty zone. Smooth. Very drinkable and a great dessert beer, or for breakfast.