Fresh Founders Breakfast Stout.

Got 2!

 

I agree with @DonicBoom

I was lucky and was able to save some FBS and XOCOVEZA from last year, and compared both of them side by side with their fresh counterparts

I almost want to say both of the fresh versions were too bitter and adjunct heavy in flavor. Bitter coffee dominated FBS. And nutmeg and cinnamon dominated Xocoveza. Yet at a year, they had barely any of those flavors left. A true chocolate brownie type flavor FBS (never caught any pepper flavor), and just a thinner lighter Xocoveza, a shell of its former self. I want to call the perfect zone for me at the 3-6 month mark on both of them.

It even seems like both fresh may be packed with more flavor than their prior year fresh counterparts. I don't remember so much coffee and IBU creeping around fresh FBS or Xocoveza.

Cool thing is, take your pick. Fresh FBS, I don't love it. With a bit more mellow flavors, I Love it. And then I'm back to just liking it when its got a year on it. I do agree with OP. If you absolutely love a coffee bean forward stout, this years batch (fresh) is to die for. I personally stock pile it and drink it through all of its stages

 

Nope, never been in sixers.

 

The more beers I drink, the more I'm settling on readily available staples that I can keep in my fridge as opposed to ticking. FBS is a beer that has run the gauntlet and will always have a place in my rotation...a standard for the style IMO. And yes, this year's batch is mighty fine...

 

I realize it was a huge anomaly but in summer 2016, a local liquor store managed to obtain a truck load of FBS, presumably overstock, and sold them for $25/case. This along with their already high sales of other Founders beers earned them the largest allocation of KBS in the state.

 

Crikey....that makes me wanna chunder!!

 

I pick up some every Fall. Between me and my java loving relatives, it doesn't have time to age.

 

I'm sure it's just the Michigan native in me but FBS is one of my favorite beers of all time. The fresher the better though!

 

How often is FBS bottled? Last year, my area got one shipment (bottle dated 8/31/16 i believe) and that stayed around until right before thanksgiving.. This year, I'm seeing 9/1/17 and fear the 20 cases my store got is all we will be getting. I want to say in 2015, we saw 2-3 different bottle run releases around my way* (it was also the first FBS run for my area). So maybe the fresher stuff goes to new markets.

How fresh is fresh for some of yall? I still remember having this on tap in NY in May when BA ranked it as the 18th best beer on their top 250 list (2013 seems so long ago). It still seemed coffee forward and awesome, so I cant imagine less than a month old. Does it taste like straight coffee when its super fresh? Given, this years batch at its latest was bottled some 5 weeks ago. I wonder how this tastes at 5-7 days

 

5-7 days will be the same as 5 weeks unless you leave it in 90 degree heat.

Enjoy

 

I'm sorry, but that's just ignorant.

 

You've never had Christmas Bomb from the same batch fresh and with six months on it, then.

 

Is that Australian dollars or American? I mean, that's still absurdly expensive, but you're lucky to get our craft beers at all. Lots of places, including the UK, don't get our top tier craft beers.

 

Why is this a discussion? Are people aging FBS for some reason?

 

Some are aging FBS, because stouts are generally believed to improve with age. Some stouts improve with age, often because some flavor falls off, enhancing other more desirable flavors. The risk with aging coffee stouts is that the coffee can develop a green pepper taste.

About the only stout I've noted a big improvement in when aged is Prairie Pirate Noir. Aging only six months really brought out the rum flavor which I like. Fresh, the rum flavor was muted. On the other hand, I thought that aging KBS a year ruined it.

 

Never heard of Christmas Bomb until this post.

 

Just how is that? Also calling me ignorant shows how ignorant you are. No need to call anyone ignorant because they don't feel the way you do.

 

Yes, I assumed that everyone knows this, hence my question. Aging FBS is ludicrous, as is the belief that stouts will "get better" with age.

Noobs love to fetishize aging beers. Differences they perceive tend to do much more with placebo, batch differences, and palate differences rather than age differences. But hey, it sounds more pseud-sophisticated to say "I really like (beer x) with 6 months on it. It really brought the flavors together nicely." than to say "I like this beer aged because I think aging is cool hence I mistakenly believe it has changed appreciably for the better when really it has not."

 

I moved across the country a few months ago and cant get FBS anymore

edit: or any founders for that matter

 

You've never heard of Prairie Bomb?