all the same song

Redux Review 0009: Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) [Fresh Bottle]

Last August 14, for my 30th birthday, I sampled and reviewed Founders KBS. In 2012, KBS became available on March 15, the Ides of March — my bottle shop limited the release to one bottle per person. Yes, that’s ONE twelve ounce bottle per person.

This year, KBS came out a bit later than normal. Release date was April 1, and I’ve garnered more than one bottle this year. I’m super excited about that, because it means I can age some KBS now and see how it develops in the bottle. And, I can have a fresh bottle, which is the subject of this redux review.

First, let me make it clear that aging KBS goes against what Founders would like for you to do with the beer. They want you to enjoy it now; hell, they’ve already aged the beer for a year themselves. Founders maintains that they’ll age the brew for you, and you should enjoy it when you get it — that goes for all their beers.

On my first time having KBS, my bottle had about six months on it, so it wasn’t super fresh. Still, this is how I rated it:

Appearance: 15 of 15 points
Aroma: 15 of 15 points
Flavor and Palate: 35 of 35 points
Drinkability/Overall Experience: 35 of 35 points

Final Score: 100 points, or classic on my rating scale.

If you’re new to the game, Founders KBS is one of the most sought after beers in the United States. Perhaps THE most sought after brew. KBS stands for Kentucky Breakfast Stout, a nod to the bourbon barrels the beer is aged in. Legally, Founders cannot print Kentucky Breakfast Stout on the label, because the beer is not produced in Kentucky. Contrary to popular belief, KBS is not simply a barrel aged version of Breakfast Stout (my rating: 100 points) or Imperial Stout (my rating: 98 points); it is a different animal; it is brewed with premium coffee and chocolate, then aged in a cave in oak bourbon barrels for one year.

2013 KBS comes in as it always does, at 11.2% ABV (alcohol by volume) and 70 IBUs (International Bitterness Units). Bottling took place on March 1, leaving this one month to condition before being distributed. Put on your seatbelt, because its time to sample a fresh bottle of the ultimate Founders beer!

The pour delivered a small, diminishing dark tan head that is soapy and easily regenerates when swirled in the glass. The beer is pitch dark black like a stout should be; seriously, I held a flashlight to one side of the glass and no light came through. I have no idea about particles or sediment, as the drink is too dark to tell. The body seemed muddy as I poured; lacing was fair, leaving behind more than a few bits but nothing too overly impressive.

The nose is the perfect meld of all flavors discussed on the bottle — bourbon, but checked and not out of control, mixes with dark chocolate and coffee. This trio forms some caramel and vanilla notes, and there’s a subtle woodsy/oak/smokey aromatic in the background. As KBS warms, more of the coffee comes through, along with a slick edge of dark fruits. Heavenly. Extraordinary. Wow.

On the palate, this beer opens with competing flavors of vanilla and chocolate, light bourbon, and some toasted marshmallow. Does that sound good? Damn right. As it warmed, the front of the taste had some dark fruits. Middle of the mouth is a continuing deepening of the flavors; most notably, the dark chocolate comes out — then the finish, which brings more bourbon, heavy vanilla, and some bitterness in. The final refrain plays out long with some black, almost burnt coffee, a touch of the big 11.2% alcohol, and lots of sweet dark chocolate. KBS is full-bodied, and it has a thick, creamy mouthfeel, with soft carbonation.

KBS with six months age versus fresh? Well, I thought there was more of a hop presence on the finish, but there isn’t really much difference. And by “hop presence,” I mean the bitterness is a little more pronounced, not any hop flavors. There’s no hop flavor here at all. It’s all malt, bourbon, and the associated flavors that come with barrel aging.

Quite simply, this is everything you’ve heard about and then some. I was WOWED the first time, and I’m equally as stunned on second blush. I do recommend that you enjoy KBS a bit colder than you might normally sip on an Imperial Stout — that’s simply because this beer tells a grand story as it warms to room temperature. Sip slowly, friends.

In redux:

Appearance: 15 of 15 points
Aroma: 15 of 15 points
Flavor and Palate: 35 of 35 points
Drinkability/Overall Experience: 35 of 35 points

Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) [Fresh Bottle], 100 points. Price: $5.99 US for one twelve ounce bottle.

Redux Review 0008: Dogfish Head World Wide Stout

Exactly one year ago, I reviewed Dogfish Head’s (Milton, Delaware) World Wide Stout, an 18% ABV (alcohol by volume) monster of a beer that was once the strongest beer in the world. The bottle I reviewed last year was produced in December 2010, so the beer already had thirteen months of age on it when I gave it a first sample.

My initial World Wide Stout review looked like this:

Appearance: 13 of 15 points
Aroma: 10 of 15 points
Flavor and Palate: 35 of 35 points
Drinkability/Overall Experience: 28 of 35 points

Final Score: 86 points, or very good to excellent on my rating scale.

In my first review, I noted the aroma of World Wide Stout took on a heavy solvent note, no doubt thanks to the big ABV. While the flavors were great and almost entirely too complex to describe with words, drinkability suffered due to the alcohol, which was overly present in the taste.

Here we are in 2013, and I have a bottle from the same batch, which has an additional year of age, bringing this beer up to 25 months old. What has changed? Is this still as complex as it was before, and has drinkability improved?

Since my last review, Dogfish Head have announced they will return to brewing this beer after a short hiatus. The next bottles will be released in December 2013.

It’s time to take a visit to one of the harder beers to review, simply because it is so unique, more like port than beer.

The pour produced a murky brown beer that was topped by an average size head, much more head than I got from the last bottle. It hung around for a good while, too, and you could see light bits of particles and sediment floating in the beer. As expected for such a high gravity brew, this one left no lacing, but there were plenty of alcohol legs when the drink was agitated.

Talk about a night and day difference — we have it in the aroma, which sees that solvent note turned way down, almost absent. Shining through are the plentiful dark fruits; prunes, raisins, figs, and fleshy, ripe grape. The raisins aren’t quite to rum-soaked level, but it’s close. And lurking in the background are actual typical Stout aromas — some caramel, and a small note of chocolate. A small whiff of oxidation is present, too. Overall, much improved with the added year of age.

The taste sees a greeting from sweet caramel and raisin up front, mixing wonderfully together, which leads to a big punch from the ever-present alcohol. It’s a nice warming sensation that opens the beer to plenty of those dark fruits found in the aroma, along with notes of pear and sweet molasses. The finish rides out more of the dark fruits, along with a small note of coffee and some chocolate. The exiting flavors seem to go on forever. World Wide Stout is full-bodied just because of the alcohol, but the mouthfeel is on the low side of medium with a creamy texture. At 25 months old, the carbonation is still average.

Without a doubt, this is a much improved beer with more time. Again, the drinkability suffers, but nowhere near as much as it did last year. I think with more age, this beer opens itself up to a wider audience. If you can obtain a bottle, I think you should — and wait at least two years to open it.

We’ll be checking in again once another few months have passed.

In redux:

Appearance: 14 of 15 points
Aroma: 12 of 15 points
Flavor and Palate: 33 of 35 points
Drinkability/Overall Experience: 31 of 35 points

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, 90 points. Price: $9.95 US for one twelve ounce bottle.

Redux Review 0007: Founders Breakfast Stout

Back in December 2011, almost exactly a year ago to the date, I reviewed Founders (Grand Rapids, Michigan) Breakfast Stout, an Imperial Stout brewed with flaked oats, imported chocolates, and Kona and Sumatra coffees. I was so impressed by the beer that I rated it 100 points, perfect on my rating scale.

A year ago, I hadn’t tried the amount of Stouts that I’ve had the opportunity to taste today. Knowing that this would make an interesting redux review, I stashed a few bottles of this away last winter, and today I’m pulling out a Breakfast Stout that has been aged exactly one year (bottle date: December 8, 2011), and a fresh 2012 version (bottle date: August 20, 2012).

I can tell you that since the first review, my love for this beer remains unchanged. In fact, after that review, I bought a case of the beer so I could enjoy it throughout the year, as it is a seasonal release (September-February). And, up until this year, this beer was a bit hard to find. Thankfully, Founders have made tons of Breakfast Stout for this year, so you can readily walk into just about any bottle shop and find as much as you need.

So…with a year of age on the bottle, and a year of age on my palate — a year of which I have tried a ton of new brews, lots of them being Imperial Stouts — what has changed?

Important numbers about Founders Breakfast Stout: this beer comes in at 8.3% ABV (alcohol by volume) and 60 IBUs (International Bitterness Units).

Breakfast Stout 2012

The pour drew out an average size head, lasting in nature, and creamy and soapy in texture. The color of the beer was deep midnight black, opaque, and the pour itself was fairly muddy. The liquid was too dark to tell about particles or sediment, but Founders does not filter its beer, so there’s probably a little bit of something floating around in there. Lacing was fair, leaving behind a few bits here and there.

The aroma follows exactly what is printed on the bottle: lots of black coffee, some dark chocolate, and a hint of smoke. This just smells creamy, and it’s pretty sweet. Pungent and quite fragrant. Delightful.

On the taste, there’s lots of dark roasted coffee, leading to a dark chocolate middle that brings on some alcohol warmth. The beer is sweet up to the finish, which starts with a gentle smoke puff, black coffee and dark chocolate, this time more-so on the lightly bitter end. As always, full-bodied, with a thick, creamy texture.

Rich and robust, these simple flavors combine in Founders Breakfast Stout to make what I consider to be a classic beer. Each year, you pick this up and it’s just damn tasty. Each year, I know I look forward to September when this is released, and I pick up many four-packs in each given Stout season. Super enjoyable fresh — a must try for any beer lover.

In my personal beer drinking experience, the Stout that makes you fall in love with other Stouts.

Founders Breakfast Stout (2012), 95 points. Price: $9.99 US for a four pack.

Breakfast Stout 2011

Vintage 2011 Breakfast Stout looked basically the same as the 2012 version, save for better lacing. Again, the same dark black opaque beer, muddy in pour, and with a steady, creamy head that is slightly lighter in color than 2012.

There are big differences in the nose; 2011 features a heavy coffee note that replaces the chocolate with a dark fruit (prune) note and a light floral hop. The aroma is still sweet and does have a hint of chocolate, but it also has a small oxidation note and a bit of ash. More complex than 2012, but not as pungent or enjoyable.

On the taste, there were a bunch of prune and dark fruit flavors up front, mixed with very black, almost burnt coffee, and a major dial-down of chocolate. It’s richly sweet, which makes the same transition as the 2012 beer in the middle of the taste, offering more dark fruits, more black coffee, and dark chocolate, while amping up the bitterness to nearly overwhelm the sweet. Full-bodied, and a thick, creamy mouthfeel.

Oddly, the 2011 Breakfast Stout is more complex but just not as tasty as 2012. I think you might be able to chalk that up to how simple the flavors are in this beer; you’ve got a thick layer of chocolate, and a thick slab of coffee. Founders do those two palate-pleasers very well, so when you allow this to develop more in the bottle, the intensity of something that is already very good gets turned down and added are flavors you might like, but don’t want in this beer.

While still very good, and I think the score here says a lot (as in: still better than many other beers), I say enjoy Breakfast Stout as fresh as you can, while you can, for the optimal experience.

Founders Breakfast Stout (2011), 89 points. No longer available.

Redux Review 0006: Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

Happy Halloween! Here’s a redux review and a small vertical tasting all-in-one. Last year, I reviewed Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale, their autumn seasonal, and gave it 80 points. At 7% ABV (alcohol by volume), this pumpkin beer seemed like it might be a good candidate to hold onto for a year and see how it changes. So, I did — and when the 2012 version recently came out, I picked up a bottle to do a redux review and a vertical tasting.

Punkin was one of the very first pumpkin beers on the market, with roots all the way back to 1994. The beer made its debut at an event held in southern Delaware called ‘Punkin Chunkin,’ where competitors build homemade contraptions to see who can launch a pumpkin the furthest. In addition to the pumpkin throwing, there are a bevy of pumpkin inspired food and drink — and in 1994, Dogfish’s Sam Calagione brought his pumpkin beer to the event. It took home first prize in the pumpkin recipe contest.

Brewed with real pumpkin, organic brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg, Punkin is basically a spiced-up Brown Ale. I find that Punkin tends to be one of the more popular pumpkin beers, and people seem to really go after this brew…probably because it’s from Dogfish. Punkin sees release each September 1, and Dogfish is to be applauded for not saturating the market with the early release of a pumpkin seasonal.

For this review, I sampled both the 2011 and 2012 versions of Punkin side-by-side. We’ll start with my take on the fresh 2012 batch:

The pour served up an average size, creamy head that quickly diminished. The liquid was amber-orange in color, had a clear body, and was free of particles and sediment. As I drank, there were a few small bits of lacing that clung to the glass.

The aromatics were fairly basic and good for a pumpkin beer: The pumpkin was up front, and mixed well with the generous helping of allspice and nutmeg. Caramel was a prominent part of the backbone, along with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. Other than the sweetness, this didn’t really have much in common with a brown ale other than a sweet bread-like scent.

On the palate, Punkin 2012 offers toasted bread, which picks up the spice component well — there’s ample cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and even some clove. The pumpkin was present, too, but it’s more of a background offering. The finish delivered caramel sweetness with just a touch of bitterness from some burnt toast. Mouthfeel was thin and foamy, with average carbonation.

I thought the fresh batch was a little too generous on the spice and didn’t go enough in with the pumpkin; however, I felt like I could drink a couple of these, which is saying a lot for a pumpkin beer.

Dogfish Head Punkin (2012), 86 points. Price: $7.99 for a four-pack.

Punkin 2011

The pour on the aged version produced the same average sized, creamy head that the new bottle made, only it faded a bit faster. Again, the beer was amber-orange, and the body was clear, free of particles and sediment. There was a small amount of some sparse lacing. Nearly identical to the 2012.

Here’s where things begin to get vastly different: the aroma featured no pumpkin at all, and what we had here was truly a faded Brown Ale — sweet caramel/toffee up front, providing a base for sweet bread notes with just a slight hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. I wouldn’t call it a bad scent, by any means… just faded, and with no pumpkin.

The taste brings on a nice bit of caramel but then a sharp toasted bread; middle of the mouth has some of the pumpkin/yam, but very faint, ushering on a finish that is moderately bitter with a definite taste of alcohol. I didn’t detect any of the spices used in this beer on the palate, which was a shame.

Bottom line: don’t age Punkin. I’m thinking you want to enjoy this within six months of bottling, or better yet, just drink it while its on the shelf.

A brief capsule:

2012: Smoother, more pumpkin flavor, lots (maybe too much) of the spices.
2011: Softer in terms of spice, but lacks pumpkin flavor. Does have a nice caramel flavor, but any advantage is lost here with the alcoholic and bitter finish.

Dogfish Head Punkin (2011), 77 points. No longer available.

Redux Review 0005: Bell’s Hopslam (Celebrating #IPADay)

Six months ago, I reviewed Bell’s Hopslam, the Kalamazoo, Michigan palate destroying limited release Imperial IPA. It proved to be a perfect beer, scoring 100 points on my rating scale, and it quickly became a beer I wanted to buy by the case.

One small problem with that: this stuff is so limited, most stores will only sell you one six-pack. Some stores only allow you to purchase one twelve-ounce bottle. The demand for this beer is insane, and rightfully so; while the ingredients are a secret, Bell’s puts the best quality in this brew, and take extra steps to make sure IPA lovers get this one as fresh as possible.

My first review of Hopslam looked like this:

Appearance: 15 of 15 points
Aroma: 15 of 15 points
Flavor and Palate: 35 of 35 points
Drinkability/Overall Experience: 35 of 35 points

Final Score: 100 points, or classic on my rating scale.

And here we are today, on #IPADay, drinking a Hopslam. That whole freshness bit? What gives?

I stashed one of these beers away in the dark depths of my refrigerator six months ago just for this day — just to see how Hopslam ages. The fact that six months of age falls on #IPADay is just a happy coincidence, and all the more reason for me to bust the cap on my last bottle of Hopslam for 2012!

Before the redux review, a note about #IPADay — I’ve noticed some detractors regarding the day, and they make some valid points. They say we should have a Craft Beer Day instead; that #IPADay isn’t welcoming to new craft beer drinkers because the style can be challenging to just jump into headfirst. While I see the logic behind that… IT’S JUST A DAY. I like that we have #IPADay, and I think we need more days like it. Speaking as someone who doesn’t really care for “normal” holidays… these types of celebrations call for the unleashing of beers like Hopslam, or beers you’ve been sitting on for a while just looking for an occasion to open them.

So let’s open this one. Happy #IPADay!

Pouring produced classic Hopslam: an average size head, lasting and creamy. The beer was vibrant golden with carbonation bubbles zooming to the top, and the body was cloudy with a light amount of fine sediment. The lacing was of high quality, thick and creamy, and was almost reminiscent of whipped cream.

But here’s where things started to go off, in a faded sort of way: the aroma was definitely not what it once was. Yes, the hops are still up front, but the once dominant note of tropical fruit has now given way to a strong grassy smell that is matched with some orange peel. There’s hints of the tropical fruit; pineapple and mango were present, but not in a big way. There is a touch of grapefruit, and the malts are more sniffable, presenting sweet caramel and bread.

On the taste, there’s grassy hops followed by a slight note of pineapple and orange. There was a big malt hit in the middle of the sip, sweet caramel and an almost roasted flavor that leads to a bittersweet finish which starts off very sweet, and transitions to quite a bitter bite, but it never turns medicinal or overwhelming. At 10% ABV (alcohol by volume), this one hits you with the booze in the nose, and by the end of the drink, you’re feeling it in your throat and stomach.

In short, this bottle of Hopslam, put in the vessel on 2/2/12, is not as good of a beer on 8/2/12, after six months spent in the refrigerator. The hops, while not disappearing completely, have faded in such a way that if you’ve had this beer fresh, you might not like the results. That being said, this is still a good beer, and some people might actually like the age on a big ABV Imperial IPA — but I happen to enjoy this one much more fresh.

This was an interesting #IPADay experiment, and it leads me to this proclamation: ATTENTION BELL’S BREWERY: Make Hopslam year-round, so we can enjoy it fresh all the time!

Shelf life on Hopslam? I’m thinking you need to enjoy it within at least three months of the date on the bottle.

In redux:

Appearance: 15 of 15 points
Aroma: 12 of 15 points
Flavor and Palate: 30 of 35 points
Drinkability/Overall Experience: 30 of 35 points

Bell’s Hopslam, redux score of 87 points. Price: $19.99 US for a six pack.