Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS)

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

2007 bottle sampled on 3/21/08: Similar to previous vintages with a rich silky smooth and dark caramel and chocolate sweetness. Good oatmeal bourbon flavor with some mild coffee notes. Always complex and enjoyable.

First bottled release sampled on 5/4/06: Pours a viscous opaque with a brownish, thin-lacing head. Aroma boasts lots of fresh, dry roasty coffee and a good light oaky bourbon balance with some dark fruits and brown sugar. Body starts with a light caramel malty sweetness revealing some earthy bourbon and coffee complexity before a warming, lightly roasted mocha finish. It seems a little hot right now, but should improve with some age.

Sampled at the 2005 EBF: Rich oily black opaque body with a beautiful thick dark brown head. Aroma is a nice balance of sweet caramel and coffee with good oaky bourbon complexity. Body starts full and sweet with dry oaky flavor and a roasty mocha coffee finish with very little detectable alcohol. A great beer to start with and well balanced with the bourbon flavor. Founders is going to be giving Bells and Three Floyds a run for their money in the midwest.

Foxy, dark-beige head, thick, over jet-black beer. Capuccino: coffee with cacao. Chocolate malt used by the ton. A bit of tannines. DVD says Irish coffee. Taste yields cigarette ashes, coffee, moccha. Enormously long-lasting coffee palate. Full bodied doesn’t come near. The alcohol comes out in the aftertaste at last. Syrupy MF. Superb stout, the barrel aging here is really fully integrated in the flavourprofile. More than worth looking for. Big thanks to Dirk!

Pitch black colour with a small light brown head. Roasted malty, coffee bitter aroma with a chocolate sweetness. Light roasted malty flavor with a light chocolate and alcohol sweet note.

Bottle: Pours pitch-black, small brownish foamy layer; sweet dried fruits, leather, liquorice and a tinge of vanilla in the complex nose; very solid bitter-sweet flavour, full bodied, but soft MF; port-wine and vanilla in the very solid bitter-sweet finish. Applause: very fine, very complex stuff................

Sample at XBF:

The Lure:
Decadent coffee and vanilla cream, dry roastiness and bathing oatmeal cookies are sensually laced together.

The Festivities:
Ferocious oaky vinosity somewhat mars the rich vanilla and coffee beans, but the roasted malt bitterness sure gives it a run for its money. Thinner-bodied than its coffee imperial stout counterparts (Speedway and Péché Mortel) and not as satisfying as their regular Breakfast Stout, for me. Still, one of the highlights of the festival, an inspiring creation I wish to have again in full-bottle format.

Pours brown with a thin tan head. Smells of bourbon and day old coffee rinds. Tastes like someone dumped Sanka and Guinness into a whiskey barrel then filtered it through an ash tray.

Bottled (Thanks Sliffy for trading me this). Pitch black coloured. Dark brown dense head. Sweetness, roast, coffee, alcohol and this vanilla barrelage thing. Flavour as well is very dominated by vanilla barrelageing. Sweetness, fruits, roast, cocoa and light liqourice is notable. Is medium bodied. Sweet and spiced alcohol end. Quite nice but definately not a top 50 in my book. The barrelageing is too dominant.

(35.5cl bottle) Pitch black colour with a creamy beige layer. Strong roast-malty aroma with a smoky touch, notes of (burnt) wood and a tinge of vanilla and alcohol. Burnt bitter flavour with a moderate oaky sweetness, full bodied with a mellow mouthfeel. Roasty malty taste with chocolate, leather, mocha and a distinctive touch of vanilla. Long-lasting roasty and slightly woody finish with vanilla, mocha and a mild, well-integrated alcoholic burn. Also the barrel notes of vanilla fit very well. Superb (09.IV.09).