Brunch's New Side Kick: Founders Breakfast Stout

Founders Double Chocolate, Coffee, Oatmeal Breakfast Stout
ABV: 8.3I | IBUs: 60 | Availability: Sep – Feb

Christmas Brunch has never had a better partner.
Move over Bloody Mary, keep your mimosa to yourself and enter the Founders Breakfast Stout, our second beer of Christmas. This is a tag-team post for Beer411 from Connecticut.

A quick trip to the World Wide Web reveals the story behind Founders; two passionate beer guys from Michigan threw caution and their well-paying jobs to the wind, took out giant loans and decided to brew the kind of beer that got them excited about beer in the first place: complex, in-your-face ales, with huge aromatics, bigger body, and tons of flavor. Like most businesses, it didn’t come without bumps (nearly declaring bankruptcy) but we are happy that they were able to find success through their passion. You can tell from the pour on this beer alone, that it was made with love.

The label:
The label features what appears to be an Irish lad enjoying his oatmeal … but that’s one Irishman to another – perhaps my Italian cousin would have a different interpretation. Copy on the bottle -- The coffee lover’s consummate beer. Brewed with an abundance of flaked oats, bitter and imported chocolates, and Sumatra and Kona coffee, this stout has an intense fresh-roasted java nose topped with a frothy, cinnamon-colored head that goes forever.

The pour:
A dark chocolaty pour with some amber peaking around the top and bottom of the glass. A one-finger, tan head rests on top, leaving a ring and lacing around the glass.

The nose:
Like I walked into an Italian café. A face-full of dark roasted coffee beans, chocolate, fresh baked bread, malts, vanilla and maybe a little anise and then alcohol. (If I had a biscotti I would dunk it in). My cousin likes black coffee… as he’s written. His hesitation for this beer is for those that aren’t coffee fans, but luckily for us, we are all in. The smell alone is getting us excited for the taste.

Taste:
It’s velvety and creamy, with a sharp roasted Sumatra flavor front and center -- following suit with the nose and heeding Tone’s warning, if you are not a fan of coffee, this brew will not be your favorite. A warming dark chocolate follows after the coffee, it’s bitter but balanced, leaving a dry coating on your tongue. Overall this beer is assertive, and complex, something that will wake you up in the morning. It's a filling, full bodied stout that, at 8% ABV, will stay with you and stick to you.

Pairing:
Breakfast, in general. Specifically, French toast, Cinnamon Rolls or banana bread.