Founders Breakfast Stout
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Coffee in the morning. You don’t mess with that. 
Life needs its constants. Coffee in the morning is one of mine. And this morning, Saturday morning, I decided to branch out a bit.
But full disclaimer – my morning coffee came first. That’s the thing about constants. They live up to the name.
It was the chubby little kid on the Founders Brewing Company label for Breakfast Stout that convinced me I would need to drink this beer for breakfast. He’s holding his oatmeal bowl at an angle, to better scrape up the last vestige of hot cereal. Once you get past the creepy gaze, you realize he’s hypnotized with goodness.
“Whoah!” That was the first word from my mouth — and I hadn’t even tasted the beer yet.
The Breakfast Stout poured from the bottle like oil, thick and viscous and powerful. My nose filled with a rich coffee, and the head that formed in the glass was speckled and dark.
I’ve taken to measuring the temperature of my beer. This one suggests serving at 42 degrees F, and my pour was 39 degrees. I decided to cook some breakfast while the stout warmed up a touch — and yet I couldn’t resist sneaking a quick sip.
The aroma belies the taste.
“Whoah!” That was the second word that came from my mouth. Strong coffee at the front, but then the sweetness of oatmeal and chocolate slides into focus, only to be batted down by exactly the right about of hop bitterness. A well-executed triple play.
I kept throwing sideways glances at the beer while I fried up a Saturday morning comfort classic — spam and eggs — as if afraid some beer lover would traipse in and steal my Breakfast Stout.
According to the Founders website:
You’ve got to love coffee to truly appreciate this phenomenal brew. Brewed with an abundance of flaked oats, bitter and sweetened imported chocolates, Sumatra and Kona coffee. Breakfast Stout has an intense fresh roasted coffee nose topped with a cinnamon colored frothy head that seems to never fade and makes you wish breakfast could last forever.
My breakfast played a distant second fiddle to this beer. As with the Milk Stout earlier this week, the Founders Breakfast Stout doesn’t overdue the coffee taste. Yes, it is strong on the nose and pronounced on the front, but the one-two punch of chocolate/oatmeal and bitter hops keeps the peace.
The LAPD could take a lesson from this beer. I’m drinking Rodney King’s dream; it’s all getting along.
Founders is in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They don’t yet have details on where they are distributed, but I’ve confirmed you can get it online, assuming they can ship to your state.
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2 Comments
January 18th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Lovin the site. Give me a touch more variety. 2 stouts in a week? You are slipping.
January 18th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Thanks for the feedback, Bruce. Glad you enjoy the site. And if my only mistake so far has been drinking two of the same styles in a week, I must be doing pretty well! :-) So far my main goal has been to drink a beer that strike my fancy on a particular day. I’ll try to keep variety in mind to keep you coming back.