Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout

Draft at Brouwer’s during Seattle Beer Week. Black with dark brown creamy head. Bourbon oak aroma. Smooth blend of chocolate, roast, bourbon, and sweet bacon (really? I guess...it’s in my notes...). Moderate alcohol burn. Mild bitter finish. Beautiful aroma.

12oz handbottle from wetherel shared at the socal sour tasting, this was an epic handbottle that really brought out a lot. Pours black with a light brown head. Nose is sweet with interesting varied notes. Taste is sweet mapely wow, really a damn epic imperial stout.

12oz handbottle from pwoods. Huge thanks Patrick! Excellent condition. A little smoke. Lightly sweet. Mellower than regular breakfast stout. I can’t notice the maple. Very good.

On tap at Brouwers Stout Festival this past spring. I can’t imagine having one at the ass-crack of dawn, but maybe the first one of the day. Coffe and maple syrup flavors make the breakfast angle.

On tap at Churchkey, Washington DC. Pours an opaque, oily black with a huge creamy, lacing tan head. BIG nose, maple syrupy, brown sugar, candy, woody, a touch of coffee. Close your eyes, take a sniff and it smells like butter melting over pancakes. Flavor starts with coffee bitterness, molasses, dark fruits, a weird cherry-like sourness, brown sugar, wood pulp, booze, coffee with cream. Wet, oily, sour finish. While the aroma is one of the best I’ve ever experienced on a beer, the rest of the beer is a bit over hyped. There may also be some lingering infection as the sour cherry notes are definitely not supposed to be there.

(draft) Large tan head atop black body with brown edges. Aroma is sweet, maple, caramel, some chocolate, some alcohol. Taste is sweet, maple, some chocolate, caramel, alcohol, light coffee. Smooth medium-full body. Very good, but the sweetness makes it hard to drink a full serving.

On tap at Uncle Mikes Highway Pub. Midnight onyx with a foamy tan head that leaves nominal lacing. Aroma of chocolate, roasted malt, vanilla, coffee, mild maple and light alcohol. Taste pretty damn good… the best of the breakfasts stouts I’ve had so far (BC/KBS/CBS). Chocolate, vanilla, roasted dark malts, moderate coffee are accentuated by a touch of maple. Goes down pretty smooth and finishes up with a minor alky/roasty bite.

(Handbottle, thanks StFun!) Pours black with a small brown head. The aroma holds strong notes of heavily roasted coffee beans up front. Green bell pepper, gravel, fried parsley and mild jalapeño. Under all the coffee there is some chocolate roast, vanilla, salt liquorice, burned nuts, earth, dark bread and green hops. Almost no oak or maple on the nose. The nose is nice but not super complex, the coffee covers too much of the interesting undertones. The flavour is near medium sweet, light to medium bitter and light acidic with tones of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, light caramel/fudge, light maple and light oak. The mouthfeel is round, soft and light oily with light carbonation. Coffee and maple blends well in the finish. Bit hoppy. Some warming alcohol is notable. Medium to full bodied. A nice coffee beer but I would have loved some more maple character.