Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS)

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

Aroma dominated by oak. For the flavor, imagine that you have passed out after a night of drinking bourbon and you wake up face down, with your tongue out on an oak deck on which someone had spilled their coffee. But in a good way.

A thick black substantial pour with perhaps the darkest hued head I have seen. Aroma of coffee beans, sweet chocolate, and roasted nut. Feel is thick and almost powdery. This is such a smooth beer. Flavors of coffee that is full of creamer, chocolate, bourbon, vanilla, and a smidge of hop all cascade to the side of the tongue. Alcohol warmth is felt but not tasted. This beer is just so easy to drink. It doesn’t overwhelm like some impy stouts but definitely awes one. As good as Founders Breakfast Stout is this one surpasses it. Oak aging does such wonderful things to a beer. This is an example. It makes a terrific beer GREAT!

Thanks to fantomas! Heavy chocolate and coffee aromas, sweet and creamy with hints of bourbon. Pours black with no head. Rich flavors, vanilla and coffee flavors, surprisingly sweet, with hints of oak and whiskey. The 10% is well hidden. Very tasty brew!

12 oz bottle. Wow this is the best smell ever. Poured black as the night itself, thick and dense, with a lovely brown creamy head. Aroma is out of this world, my first ten ever. Notes of coffee, espresso, chocolate, vanilla, and just a hint of bourbon. Flavor is still a bit hot with lots of warming on the back of my throat that detracts me slightly from the awesome flavor in my mouth. If this mellows a little with age this will be the BEST BEER EVER!

First beer in a 5 round, top-rated imperial stout blind tasting to be held over the next few months. Four beers with similar characteristics will be sampled in each round. Round 1 - Bourbon Barrel. 12 oz bottle. Dark chocolate brown with a wisp and thin ring of tan head. Intoxicating nose of oak, bourbon and dusty dark chocolate; fruitcake and currants emerge. Silky sipper with bourbon and Baker’s chocolate. Lime peel tingle. Notes of coffee with cinnamon stick. Beet sweetness.

I actually had this one a few time before have the non BA breakfast. This is some beer, I really enjoy it. Lots of bourbon and creamy with vanilla and oak. Lots of bitter coffee and rich dark cocoa. Sticky body and pitch black.

12oz bottle thanks to bret27. Black with a tan head. The aroma has dominating coffee, mixed with plenty of oak and alcohol. Hot flavor with a little bourbon, wood, and coffee. Medium-full body with some tannic, woody astringency and alcohol burn in the finish. A blast of flavor, with a cool mix of coffee and bourbon that works a little better than in the aroma. The mouthfeel definitely brings it down though, with too much astringency and alcohol. This is one that I can see liking a lot better with a good deal of age on it to soften things.

Bottle. Deep, thick black with a small, brown ring of small bubbles. Big aroma of coffee, bourbon, cocoa, vanilla, caramel, coconut, fusel alcohol and tons of burnt toast. The body is big and thick on the tongue, easily coating and with carbonation to alleviate the weight. Sweet and bourbony, the flavor is reminiscent of many barrel-aged stouts. The bourbon barrels have a big affect on the flavors and really add a lot sweetness, vanilla and alcohol. The coffee starts to smell old and stale, not really appealing at all. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t begin to compare with the non-barrel aged version or other bourbon-barrel aged stouts.