Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS)

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

Pours totally black, thick and creamy. A few fat bubbles disperse immediately. Aroma is of very strong, deeply roasted coffee, blackened grains, dark chocolate, vanilla hints from the oak and a monstrous helping of bourbon. the alcoholic notes are so strong in this I can’t help but feel like the barrel was washed with whisky before the beer was pumped inside. The flavor is more enjoyable, with additions of pulpy coconut and milk chocolate. Sweetness is very high but somewhat offset by the heavy roastiness and coffee bitterness. Finishes chocolatey, sweet, long and very warming. The mouthfeel is very thick, chewy and smooth, but for the intense alcoholic drying. Very tasty, but too heavy on the bourbon notes for my total enjoyment.

12oz bottle courtesy of drewbeerme, thanks Andrew. Very dark pour, tan head. Very woody aroma, roasty malts as well. Aroma of vanilla as it warms. Very tasty, vanilla and oak flavor , very warming as well. So glad to have finally been able to try this.

Had from a bottle on my 25th birthday. Bottle from Sams Wine and Spirits Chicago.

Black with no head. Nose is strong with coffee and is fairly one sided. The taste is mostly coffee with just a hint of smoke, vanilla and bourbon. This becomes much more present as the beer warms up. In fact, had I not been drinking this slowly I am afraid that I would have missed a lot of the subtleness that exists. Overall pretty darn good, I would like to see more of the bourbon but I guess that is just the way that this is because of the coffee used.

On tap at the Beer Engine in Lakewood 8-2-09. Served in a glass mug, which at $2.00 for the glass, it was quite a bargain...unlike the beer. At like $9.00, it was well worth it honestly. The aroma is rather relaxed, notes of coffee are well hidden with the vanilla and oak scents. The flavor is equally relaxed, but the coffee is still there. It has this amazing buttery-nutty taste to the coffee flavor, not the burnt coffee flavor that is often in the big stouts. It really has mellowed nicely and doesn’t come off ’hot’ at all, even for the 11.2% which snuck up on me like the Hillside Strangler.

2008 Bottle - First beer of the new year (and for breakfast to boot) - Thanks buckybeer- Pours thick black with a medium brown head...aroma is oak, cacao and molassas malt...flavour throws it all out on the table, nothing hidden, bourbon, coffee, vanilla oak...finish is char bitter, not hop bitter...a lot of flavour but still not too complex, just an easy drinking winner...

!2 oz. bottle. Pours black with a small (half finger at best) light brown head that disappears instantaneously. The aroma met me half way: strong coffee, chocolate, and smoky wood. I couldn’t wait for the first taste. It did not disappoint. The coffee/espresso, roasted malt, and chocolate dominate however they are not alone. The bourbon and alcohol flavors are present along with more subtle vanilla and dark fruit flavors. Full bodied which leaves a fairly strong coffee taste in the mouth. I have not been able to drink beer for a week due to a surgery and I’m glad I made this one my first.

On tap at the Glass Nickel at the GTMW pre-party Insane coffee, malt, and cappuccino aroma. Taste is sweet, coffee, bourbon barrel, typical stout flavors, vanilla, and more coffee. Brisk carbonation. Nice mouthfeel.

Nutty caramel whiskeyish strong coffe aroma. Bid amber head, very dark color. Flavor is really more of the same although the alcohol seems more pronounced and a bit of oak comes through. Texture is oily and full bodied. I must say that I didn’t think this one lived up to the hype although it is still a very fine beer.