Wait, let me get this straight… Am I allowed to drink this for breakfast? Because it says 11.2%ABV on the bottle and I’m not sure that’s going to make me super productive at work. Playful, yes. Slurry, certainly. Able to focus on complicated tasks, definitely not. It does beat the shit out of Weetabix though, so I’ll give it some more thought.
Founders Brewing Company is an almost 20 year-old Michigan based craft brewery that regularly finds itself listed in the top five brewers of the world and its Kentucky Breakfast Stout, which we’ll be sampling this morning this evening, is one of the top 10 beers in the world according to BeerAdvocate.com.
KBS is an imperial stout brewed with a massive amount of coffee and chocolate, then cave-aged in oak bourbon barrels for an entire year. It’s only made in small batches in the Spring, but it is available right now from your nearest craft beer and beard admiration establishment, and although its pretty expensive for a bottle (roughly £7.50) it is well worth it, especially if you treat it like a sipping brew.
The stout is super sweet with a subtle bitter aftertaste. It’s like a really good, strong cup of black coffee. Really good. Like the kind that makes you immediately sit up and take notice of every little thing around you. Much like than an oatmeal stout it has a similar thick, mealy taste, but there’s also a sweet lightness that undercuts the palette making this surprisingly drinkable. Although again, at 11.2% you may not want to operate any heavy machinery or need to spend the day standing upright for long periods of time.
As I have stated before in our Adnams Jack Brand review, the traditional thing to do in drink reviews is to add food matches, but instead I’ll offer taste matching advice from an area I feel more comfortable in…
Simpson and Bruckheimer movie matching: something funny, a little bit reckless yet gritty and very much of the 80s. Perhaps something you haven’t seen for a long time.
Try to spot the visual clue…
Yes it turns out Beverly Hills Cop is the perfect Simpson and Bruckheimer movie for drinking a KBS. Just the first one though. I couldn’t possibly speak for the sequels.
For more of the latest and tastiest brews, check out our new craft beer reviews section including By the Horns’ revolutionary Wolfie Smith.
