Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout

Style: Imperial Stout

Description: "Ale Brewed with Chocolate and Coffee, Aged in Maple Syrup-Bourbon Barrels"

Brewery: Founders Brewing Company (Grand Rapids, MI)

Package: 750ml into Bruges glass

ABV: 10.6%

Aroma: Huge coffee and dark chocolate right up front with maple syrup just peeking through. A touch of bourbon is there to remind you that this isn't your ordinary Imperial Stout.

Appearance: A black hole of darkness with a creamy 1-finger tan head. Thin sheets of sticky lace cling to the side, only to be enveloped by each swirl of the glass.

Taste: While some beers give you a certain impression from the aroma that doesn't quite match the taste, that's certainly not the case with CBS. Center stage is the coffee and bitter chocolate, but the maple syrup adds a touch of sweetness to balance it all out. A seductive hint of bourbon provides just a fleeting warmth, but certainly does not steal the show.

Mouthfeel: Viscous, a little oily and coats the entire mouth in sweet delicousness. Medium carbonation rounds out the experience.

Overall: In my opinion, this is nearly perfectly balanced, but allows the chocolate and coffee to shine just a bit more than the other components. Let this bad boy warm up a bit before drinking so that all of the aroma and flavor can come out. This certainly isn't an after-work refresher, but instead a rich, decadent dessert that I'll choose over cake (and I love cake) any day.  

Notes: I had to go through a lot to get this bottle, as South Bend only received two cases for the entire city. My go-to shop couldn't even hook me up this time around, but my long search was worth every tasty sip. Hats off to founders for giving what the customers have been asking for. When you add CBS to their offerings of KBS, Breakfast Stout, Backwoods Bastard, Cashew Mountain Brown, Harvest Ale, etc., etc., etc., it's tough to argue against Founders being one of the best breweries in the country.

Grade: One of the few beers that lives up to the incredible hype, and probably the best beer I've ever had. In my book, CBS gets an A+.

Fun Fact: I rescued this bottle from a ghetto liquor store in Niles, MI (Which charged me roughly 25% more than serious craft beer shops in the area were charging). As one employee was going in the back to find it, the other lady behind the desk looked me dead in the eyes and said, "I'm mad at you." Having no idea what the hell she was talking about (had I once dated her sister?), I looked around first to my left, then to my right. Realizing she was actually talking to me, I decided to indulge her crazy. Apparently this particular bottle was supposed to go to her because she had looked it up on the internet and decided, "it sounded good." Knowing the answer already, I asked if she was a craft beer drinker, to which she replied, "I don't really like beer, but sometimes I drink Coors Light." While paying the lady who resurfaced with the bottle, I assured her that people who normally don't like beer probably would not enjoy this, especially at that price. While trying to explain what I meant more thoroughly, she cut me off to ask, "does it have that weird beer taste to it?" I smiled and thanked her for her time, leaving with this rare bottle held tightly in both hands.