Kentucky Breakfast Stout - Founders Brewing Company, Grand Rapids

Founders beers are like cranberries or goose, I only consume them on special occasions. These beers aren't available at every liquor store in these parts and they're quite pricey... almost prohibitively so. I've had a good time with the Founders Breakfast Stout so it seemed like a given that I'd enjoy the Kentucky Breakfast Stout. The one thing that turned me off about the KBS is that it's barrel aged. It seemed like every specialty beer I had this spring was barrel aged... so after a while they all started to taste alike. So I decided to wait about a month before having my first KBS, hoping that my fondness for barrel aging would return...

My first impressions were, "I spent how much on this beer?" My first sip wasn't that great... in fact it was pretty bad. I got a mouthful of dirty chocolate and a slightly oaky finish that tasted suspiciously like coffee. My second thought was along the lines of, "How am I going to drink this whole glass?" Luckily my opinion of the KBS warmed along with its temperature. The flavors blended much more harmoniously as the beer neared room temperature.

I still didn't fall in love with the KBS like nearly everyone else did. Maybe I'm missing something about this beer... I get the chocolate, the caramel, the vanilla, Bourbon and oak, but there's something about the proportions that just doesn't add up for me. If you're looking to get hammered, like most Kentuckians who are up early enough to have breakfast are, then this beer was made for you. It's one of the smoothest delivery mechanisms for getting an 11.2% ABV beer down the hatch so quick and effortlessly. As a beer I'd like to sip and appreciate... I dunno, it just doesn't do much for me.

In the end I didn't hate this beer. I didn't love it either. I wouldn't buy another 4 pack of this and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wasn't a Stout aficionado or of those people who thinks these special releases are automatically the best thing ever.