Big Lushious from Founders Brewing

Happy New Year to everyone. It has been way too long since I have typed up one of these. With the holidays and all, I was just hanging out with my wife mostly. We also got a new puppy. He is pretty awesome. We lost one of our pups back in August and thought that it was time to get another pup. Thank you to Facebook for making the day that I lost my dog one of the big moments of the year for me. That really sucked to pull up Facebook on my phone and see that displayed prominently. You suck Facebook. Anyway, we found an awesome dog at Stray Rescue.

I wanted to name him after a variety of hops. One of my favorite hops is Simcoe. Wifey said no way on that one. I started going through some of my other favorites and kept getting rejected until...GALAXY! His name is Galaxy. He is a border collie mix and is super cool. Our pit, Abbie, has started to warm up to him. They love to play. It took our cat Roddy longer to get used to him. Here is Roddy staring him down on the first day we brought Galaxy home.

So, with all that being said, I am going to try to write more reviews. I recently had a bottle of Big Lushious from Founders Brewing Company. This is an Imperial Stout with chocolate and raspberries. It is 7.8% ABV. It pours a dark black with a small tan head. The smell is...wow! The smell is like chocolate covered raspberries. The taste is the same, chocolate covered raspberries. The body is a little thick but very silky. This is a dessert beer. There are dessert wines and also dessert beers.

This really is an amazing beer. This tastes like Founders combined some of their Breakfast Stout with Rubaeus, their raspberry beer. I would love to have a glass of this after a nice dinner. Just great. I give this 4.0 hop flowers. Wonderful!

Stray Rescue of St. Louis
Founders Brewing Company

Christmas Bomb! from Prairie Artisan Ales

Prairie Artisan Ales, out of Krebs, Oklahoma, has an Imperial Stout called Bomb! or Prairie Bomb!. This is a very good stout. There is also Pirate Bomb!. The Prairie Bomb! is an Imperial Stout with coffee, cacao nibs, vanilla beans and ancho chili peppers. This beer is down right delicious. The Pirate Bomb! is the Prairie Bomb! aged in rum barrels (get it, rum barrels...pirate?). When these beers are released, there is usually a mad dash to your local craft beer store to get them. They are very tasty. I have both of these variants. Well, for the Christmas season, they release Christmas Bomb!. With this beer, Prairie adds Christmas spices like nutmeg and cinnamon. It is 11.5% ABV.

I was able to pick up some bottles of this stout from The Wine and Cheese Place. When it was released, we were still on vacation down south, so I placed an order online and picked up my bottles when we got back into town. I recently made my own Beer Advent Calendar and added this beer to it. Unfortunately, I have not tasted it and I will not be picking it of my Beer Advent Calendar box for over two weeks. So, I decided to grab another bottle and try it out. Boy, am I glad I did.

This beer pours a deep black with a small tan head. It was clear a little bit around the edges. The aroma was heavy coffee, some of the spices and malt. I could have just smelled it for a while but then that might have been weird. That first taste is really nice. It was chocolaty, malty and hints of those spices.

I pulled out my phone and brought up the Untapped app to rate it. I rated it a 4.0. I took another sip and got a few different tastes. This time, I tasted the coffee and more spice. I set the glass down for a minute or two. I picked it up and swirled the glass a little bit. I then got just a hint of licorice. I can not stand that anise flavor from black licorice but there was just a hint of that in the aroma. I did not taste it though. Wifey said it best when she said that when it warms up, it opens up like a flower. I have to totally agree with her on that. The more it sat and warmed up a degree or two, the more complex flavors came out. As it got a bit warmer, you get some of the alcohol heat. When you drink this, you really need to take a little while to finish it so you can taste the different complex flavors as they develop with the change in the temperature.

This is such an amazing beer. I cannot wait for the day that I can pull this out of my Beer Advent Calendar. I give this one 4.5 hop flowers!

 The Wine and Cheese Place
Prairie Artisan Ales

Here is my Beer Advent Calendar

Breakfast Stout by Founders Brewing Company

This is a beer that I see in stores all the time. I have always wanted to taste it but never have. I love stouts, so I don't know why I never had this one. I happened to be in one of my favorite places, Craft Beer Cellar in Clayton and they had it on tap. Wifey asked for a sample and she took a sip and handed it over to me. I took a small sip of what was left and thought "Wow, this is pretty good." Wifey ordered a full pour of it and I took a better sip from hers. "Wow, this is really good." (the sip went from pretty good to really good). After talking and drinking some more beer, I had to get up and grab a 4-pack of the shelf because, as I said, this was really good.

So, I was able to enjoy this beer at home. It pours nice and dark with a tan head. The aroma is a nice coffee smell with a bit of roasted malts. Man, this has a real nice aroma. The taste is so nice. You can taste some of the coffee and the chocolate is more pronounced. You get a little bit of the bitterness at the end. It has a little milky texture to it also. The more I drink of it, the more chocolate and coffee taste that lingers. This is really nice.

This is a beer where I would not feel so bad drinking in the morning. Why should mornings be just for Bloody Marys and Mimosas? I think Founders Breakfast Stout should be included in the morning alcoholic beverages. I'm not a coffee drinker so if I had some donuts and a glass of this, I would be very happy.

When I rated this on Untapped, I gave it a 4.0. After thinking about it more, I am going to give this 4.5 hop flowers. I have heard the whispers and rumors of Founders KBS, their Imperial Stout aged in oak bourbon barrels. You better believe I will be hunting this stuff down when it comes out again.

Craft Beer Cellar - Clayton
Founders Brewing Co.

(yes I know, this is the wrong glass)