Introducing Contestants – Founders Breakfast Stout

The Contestants, of course, are the beers – they’re the ones competing for the grand prize of… well, being the tastiest.  I’ll be doing a quick profile of each of the tournament hopefuls as May Day approaches, as well as intros to each of the judges.

To start off the introductions, we’ll start with one of my favorites (and my pick to take it all, if you’ll recall), Founders Breakfast Stout.

(Thanks to Dave E. & the good folks at Founders for sending me the nice pic of Breakfast Stout)

Founders Brewing Company is a Grand Rapids, MI based craft brewery that has been around since 1990 with a mission to make interesting, complex beers that beer lovers will love.  There’s a bunch of other stuff to be found in their portfolio of beers, but Breakfast Stout was the only one we put in the tournament (because I couldn’t get my hands on any of the hyper-rare, hyper-awesome Kentucky Breakfast Stout anywhere other than the Flying Saucer, and sadly they wouldn’t let me take the keg home).  You can get most of the Founders beers at Total Wine here in Raleigh (I recommend the North Hills and Brier Creek locations), though God help you if you’re looking in Maryland.  Never tried to find it in DC or Virginia.

Founders Breakfast Stout is a wonderfully flavored, malty, chocolaty, coffee-y, oatmealy stout.  Hence the name; it really tastes like a smorgasbord of all those things, which definitely gives the feeling of “breakfast” to me.  I’ve always thought malt tastes like non-sugary cereal, so perhaps I’m odd in that respect.  It clocks in at a respectable 8.3% ABV.  That sounds high if you’re a T&A beer fan (anybody with commercials involving… well… T&A), but for those of us on the high-end beer circuit, that’s middle-of-the-road.  It’s easy to drink and the alcohol doesn’t really impact the taste.

The reason this one stands above the rest to me is the balance of the flavors.  There are a lot of chocolate stouts, a lot of coffee stouts, and a lot of oatmeal stouts, many of which have some flavorings from the others, but I’ve never found another one that balances them all quite so well.  This also avoids the trap that some flavored stouts fall into where they are absolutely overpoweringly sweet.  There’s always a certain sweetness to a malty beer, and stouts are known for so being, but you can go too far.  I had a vanilla stout from a brewery that I was otherwise a fan of (I forget exactly which) one time and it was just sickening.  Liquid sugar is not what I want in my beers.