Founder’s Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS): Only the 10th best beer in the world?

I need to get my hands on the other nine....

Kentucky Breakfast Stout
Founders Brewing
Imperial Stout
ABV: 11.2%
100% on RateBeer
10th Best in the World (Beer Advocate) (when I published this it was actually ranked 8th)

Like Girl Scout cookies, this beer comes once a year and the fervor and fanaticism with which it is met, far surpasses the Tag-Along and Thin Mint hardcores that adorn Walgreens entrances this time of year.  (STL was pretty much tapped the day it arrived.  Myself, I drove an hour roundtrip to get it)  In both cases, some of the frenzy is due to the product being a special release (a fact the Girl Scouts use to their advantage).  In the case of KBS, it truly is that good.

Kentucky Breakfast Stout is a stout brewed with coffee and chocolate and aged in a cave in bourbon barrels (hence the “Kentucky” of KBS) for a year.  One full year for all of the maltiness to develop and all of the competing flavors of chocolate and bourbon and hops to mellow.  One full year for the magic to work and the motor oil to fully mature.  One year to create a taste you won’t soon forget.

KBS comes in a four pack.  It is $18.99 and I spent the entire drive to Friar Tuck’s in Fenton deciding how to ration the (presumably) only four bottles I would be getting this season.  I decided that my wife and I would share one bottle when I got home.  We would then each get one bottle to drink at our own discretion (mine was consumed with my buddy Patrick while writing this review–yes I am that good of a friend).  And the last one I am “cellaring” for a year.  I never cellar my beers (I also played with ALL of my action figures), but I am curious to see what this beer will taste like in a year.

I love this beer, but it’s only true downfall (and it’s a biggie)  is that it does not, as the label points out offer relief “from rheumatism, neuralgia, sciatica, lame back, lumbago, contracted muscles, toothache, sprains, swellings, and all manner of distress.” If you’ve got anything else, though, I highly recommend it!

When we tasted the beer, Patrick and I jotted down a couple tasting notes.  Here’s what we came up with:

Tasting Notes:
It’s so good.
Balanced.
You can find the bourbon if you’re looking for it, but it’s not ultra present.
Coffee, vanilla, malt, dark chocolate as it warms.
Melted chocolate milkshake (in a good way)
70 IBU’s, but extremely balanced