Kim and Tonic

I found it! *insert frolicking unicorns in a butterfly sunshine field of flowers here*

Seriously, I didn’t think KBS was going to happen for me until next year at the earliest. I was working on KBS release day, and the day after, and so on, meaning that there was no way I was going to be able to high-tail it into Missouri for any. This made me very sad, but what could I do? To be honest, I sort of figured I’d used up my Rare Beer Finding Power when I managed to get ahold of Boulevard Chocolate Ale.*

Anyway, yesterday was National Beer Day. I decided to drag husband and brother out to Waldo Pizza, since they’ve got A+ pizza and a fantastic tap and bottle selection. Plus, you know, it’s in Missouri instead of Kansas, so I figured I’d be able to get something fun. And I did – they had Founders Double Trouble on tap (review to come probably tomorrow), so I was happily slurping my way through that when I saw that they had bottles of KBS. I grabbed one before my brain could process what the combination of an Imperial IPA and an Imperial Stout would do to my ability to remain headache-free later in the evening. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT. I mean, it’s not like I was going to turn it down even had I processed the headache potential for later on.

Here it is. Isn’t it beautiful and inky black and lovely?

Basic Info:
Name: Kentucky Breakfast Stout – usually abbreviated to KBS
Origin: Founders Brewing Co., Grand Rapids, MI
Style: American Imperial/Double Stout (Barrel Aged)
ABV: 11.2%
IBU: 70
I drank this: bottle pour at Waldo Pizza, KCMO

I’ll start with the copy on the label. It proclaims:
“DOES NOT PROVIDE RELIEF FROM: rheumatism, neuralgia, sciatica, lame back, lumbago, contracted muscles, toothache, sprains, swellings, and all manner of distress.
IS GOOD FOR EVERYTHING A STOUT OUGHT TO BE GOOD FOR”

And it totally is good for everything a stout ought to be good for. It’s bloody amazing, it is. Proof: here is me when I got my first whiff of it:

Dude, I was happy.

Anyway. It smells like chocolate and bourbon and oak and roasted malts and oatmeal and other things that were summed up in my notes with a few choice swear words, because I couldn’t think clearly enough to come up with anything else. It’s beautiful. Like, rainbows poking around giant stormclouds beautiful.

The flavor is full and round and complex and so much more than mere barrel-aged Breakfast Stout. It’s filled with milk and bittersweet chocolate flavors, bourbon, black coffee, and oat, with touches floating around of bourbon, vanilla, smoke, and cream. The hops and the alcohol are slightly bitey, slightly sharp, but in a pleasant happy way that adds to the overall symphony. And it’s heavy, creamy, and smooth. Bonus: the aftertaste is like Hershey’s Kisses.

Most of my notes from then on out are profanity-laced exclamations of joy and rapture.

To sum up: if there is a heaven, KBS will be on tap there. This beer is Founders’ Crowning Moment of Awesome.

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*Note to non-Kansas Citians: the madness surrounding Boulevard Chocolate Ale out here is beyond anything I’ve ever seen in my life. Here’s my recap.
Note to Kansas Citians and anyone else not totally involved in the beer world: KBS has been, so far, the most highly anticipated beer this year. Quite a bit of madness surrounding it as well, but in the subdued, everyone’s cool-type way that beer folk generally have.