Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS)

My thanks to nbutler11 for splitting a bottle with me. This bad boy smells like 7-11s used to in the eighties: old coffee and ice. The aroma and the flavor are even layers of coffee, roast, and charcoal, creating a monument of texture and power - monumental, but not super complex, which is why I couldn’t do more in the Palate category. Obviously a masterpiece.

Bottle thanks to mibirder. Pours like ink. Black body with a small and quickly leaving brown head. Alcohol legs and good lacing. Aroma of black coffee, chocolate, dirt, minerally, and light burbon. Taste is burbon, chocolate, and dark coffee. Syrupy mouthfeel, little lively bubbles and a long finish. Good beer, but not really a 4.2 beer.

Poured pitch black from the bottle with a tan head of foam. Permeates the smell of burnt coffee. Loaded with the flavors of coffee, cocoa, oatmeal, and a faint note of bourbon. Plenty of heat on the finish with a dry aftertaste.

Thanks Santa! Hmmm, a bit unbalanced! Poured a deep black, dark brown head, 2 fingers thick. Aroma is all over the map, with oak, vanilla, coffee, milk chocolate, roasted malt, some resiny hop, and alcohol and swirling and competing for attention. The flavor is quite similar, very sweet and heavy. I think their regular Breakfast stout is a better beer, showcasing the coffee without the bourbon character smearing it all up.

Poured a thick black with a small semi-creamy brown head. Rich and complex aroma of lightly buttery bourbon, coffee and half and half, chocolate, fruits, and a bit of alcohol. A stoutish aroma with the depth of one from a good barley wine. Taste, for me, is comparatively disappointing. Lots of heavy alcohol and bittering hops dominate the palate, overshadowing virtually everything. If I strain, I maybe could find some roasted coffee and buttery bourbon, but it would probably be more confirmation bias than anything else. If I were to close my eyes, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between this and a similarly over-the-top bitter and alcoholic barley wine or double IPA. Normally this happens when I drink an imperial stout too cold, but that is hardly the case here. I decanted it at room temperature in a brandy snifter, and it still tastes like this. My only regret is that my fair and honest score, though below this beer’s average, doesn’t quite articulate my disappointment with this beer.

12 oz bottle courtesy of secret Santa. Pours an opaque black with a small tan head. The aroma is strong with smoky spices, wood, bourbon, coffee and a touch of alcohol. Flavor is almost all bourbon, there is also dark biter chocolate and coffee rounding out the sides. The mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. The finish is medium in duration with lingering dark chocolate and whiskey. Overall: A superbly well crafted beer, my congrats to the guys in Grand Rapids.

22oz. Trade with TheEpeeist. Thanks. Pours thick black with a small creamy dark brown head. Complex aroma - chocolate, vanilla, coffee, bourbon, sweetness, wood - "Im sold" & very impressed. Medium to low carbonation. Smooth, filling, oily, thick. Very light & harmless warmth from alcohol. Really incredible & the best beer Ive had in a long time!

Big thanks to Kevin and Karen for sharing this one. This one’s tasty, with lots of bourbon and the usual chocolate, coffee, vanilla trio that comes with these big stouts.