Founders Breakfast Stout
Pours opaque black in color with a 1/2 inch creamy tan that faded slowly and left great lacing and rings of foam on the glass and a ring of tan foam around the top of the brew; this beer looked like left over motor oil, like a spoon would stand up in it. Wow, it smells hardy...the nose is so strong it smells like cake mix in the bowl. Smells of chocolate, molasses and coffee up front with caramel, grains (oats based on the label), cocoa, vanilla, a rum sweetness like it was barrel aged, and some light alcohol. This smells so tasty that it's almost like frappuccino and hot chocolate mixed in a wine barrel, which is just an excellent aroma. Tastes like it smells, with chocolate, molasses, coffee (coffee grinds, coffee beans, espresso, etc.), syrup, caramel, toasted grains/oats, cocoa, vanilla, charcoal, rum, sweet malt, bitter citrus hops, grass or hay, and a barrel aged bourbon like flavor that has hints of light alcohol. Dry, bitter aftertaste with a combo of coffee, vanilla, burnt wood and faint hops, which is really nice. Mouthfeel is creamy and smooth, with basically no carbonation, and watery flow that made this exceptional to drink; the body is heavy and chewy, yet this flows down easy. Good to drink or to sip and savor like a desert beer. I will shy away from saying "high" drinkability, as this would be a two beer limit for me because while it is a very tasty brew and the alcohol does not show at all, it is still quite a heavy and complex beer that just would be wasteful to pound and not savor. I will say it is quite drinkable; high drinkability for any stout lovers out there. Overall the flavor is excellent and I will try this for breakfast one day to honor the title. I highly recommend this beer, which lived up to the hype and review accolades. This is a very impressive beer in every way, which got better as it warmed up. Founders continues to impress me the more I try their beers.