Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS)

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

Bottle from wetherel. Pours pitch black with nice tan head. Strong aroma of vanilla and bourbon with some roast and coffee in the background. Taste is similar and I feel some alcohol and dryness at the end. I would say that overall it is a pretty good imperial stout but I think the bourbon and vanilla are a little too intense to my liking and tend to shadow other flavors. From what I remember of the original breakfast stout, I prefer it to the bourbon aged version. Thanks John!

Thank you so much Daniel/TheCheeseMan for this one! It’s pitch black with a nougat colored, dense and creamy head. The aroma has notes of roasted malt and bourbon, and I also find hints of burnt chalk. The flavour has a light sweetness, notes of hard roasted malt, chalk, bourbon, vanilla, a warming alcohol, coffee, licorice and hints of chocolate. The finish has a kind of ashy feeling to it. It’s a very fascinating beer, but since I do not like a pronounced bourbon or whisky flavour - I prefer the simply divine Breakfast Stout, if I could choose.

Hate to give a beer all top scores so I’ll nit-pick. Everything about this beer is dark. Pours syrupy black with dark tan head. Head doesn’t last too long but aroma is strong enough to hold. Smells very close to regular Breakfast Stout. Side by side I don’t think I could tell the two apart. Taste is also similar, but as it lingers in your mouth and warms, the Bourbon flavor comes out. Not overpowering at all but very smooth. Exceptional beer. Worth the hefty pricetag in my opinion.

Huge thanks to my Secret Santa (pantanap) for this treasure. It’s like draining my Xterra’s oil...a very still pitch black with the shyest of heads. Huge coffee nose with roasted malt, bourbon and vanilla oak. Wow...what a great beer. Wonderfully creamy body that showcases bourbon heat, roasted coffee, dark chocolate, charred oak and brandy on the finish. Lovely.

Bottle. Pours black with a small brown head that leaves some lacing. Aroma of coffee, bourbon, roasted malt, caramel, and a hint of vanilla & oak. Taste is the same as aroma but more pronounced. Mediumium full mouthfeel that finishes dry and roasty with a moderate amount of bitterness and very well hidden alcohol. A very well done BB Stout with just the right amount of bourbon flavor and well balanced complexity.

Viscous pitch black liquid with a very thin brown head. No lacing. Aroma is huge coffee with hot dash of bourbon. This is gonna carry a kick! Tastes like one shot of espresso, one shot of melted semisweet chocolate, and one shot of bourbon. It’s got a nice heat to it that fits with the other flavors. Finish is drier than the Sahara. Mouthfeel is a bit hot but the dry finish takes over and makes you want more. Drinkability is a bit hampered by the bourbon but this is still pretty smooth for 10% abv. I feel that this is significantly different in taste but about equal in quality to the regular breakfast stout.

Bottle thanks to dmac621. I poured this way to cold, but once it warmed the flavors were lots of bourbon, roasted malt, some vanilla and black licorice, coffee. Very good.

Bottle from franksnbeans -- thanks!

I’ve wanted to try this one for several years now, and tonight’s the night. Leo Smith’s Divine Love on the stereo, I settle in and crack open the bottle within a few degrees of room temperature. It pours out into my snifter dark and beautiful, thick with vast lacing and a small dark-tan head.

Huge smoky, ashy catches me by surprise. I was expecting more vanilla, less smoke. It recalls Peche Mortel in its ashiness, but somehow it wears that ashiness much better; here I get charred hardwood and pipe tobacco rather than soggy cigarette butts. That ashy aroma dominates the nose; underneath there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on, though you have to go looking for it: blackberries dipped in chocolate, peaty whisky.

Despite all of the ash I get a vinous, juicy flavor, tannic wine, berries, lots of bourbon. Bitter chocolate cake late. It’s acidic early, dry through the close; not a sweet imperial stout at all. Full, warming mouthfeel. only a hint of alcohol heat, that fascinating ashiness rising into the sinuses.

I’m not sure it’s right up there at the very peak of the genre -- and I don’t think I enjoy the flavors quite as much as I did with the bottle of the Abyss ’07 from a couple of nights ago -- but I freely admire this one as a fascinating and obviously well crafted beer.