Thursday, February 28, 2013

Founders at Kite & Key

This past weekend, Kite & Key put on a whole lineup of Founders beer for us to try. Starting with the ever popular KBS, they also had Bolt Cutter, Devil Dancer, Imperial Stout, Frangelic Mountain Brown, and quite a few others that I can't remember. All in all, a very impressive list missing only a few offerings from the Founders lineup.

Just like a lot of people already sitting at the bar, I started with KBS, their coffee and chocolate stout aged in bourbon barrels.
I wish I had taken a picture of the bar because it was KBS as far as the eye could see. The nose was full of chocolate with hints of bourbon. Definitely not a booze bomb like Bourbon County. Chocolate, sweet bourbon, vanilla, and some earthy bitterness (partially from the roast and partially from the hops) in the finish. As I drank more, the chocolate asserted itself over mostly everything with the coffee being a slight flavor in the background. Real nice beer and pretty delicious. On a side note, KBS was known as Kentucky Breakfast Stout for a long time until the government said they weren't allowed to have Kentucky in the name since it wasn't from there. So, they just shortened it and now we have KBS. Funny.

After that I got a glass of Bolt Cutter, a barleywine in three parts: one part aged in bourbon barrels, one aged in maple bourbon barrels, and then a fresh super hopped up part.
Bourbon caramel nose with some citrusy hops. Lots of sweet caramel up front, followed by some pleasant citrus hops in the finish. Basically tasted like an american barleywine with not much coming through from the barrel treatments in my opinion. I think the hops cover that part of it up too much which is a fear I had about it when I first read the description. Now, don't get me wrong, it's still a pretty good american barleywine, but the cost of bottles was too high for that since you can find that style for less than $10 instead of over $20.

As I said, lots of other stuff was available but after getting an Imperial Stout (super tasty) I headed home. Things ebbed and flowed as far as the crowd, but it was busy without being packed the whole time I was there. Very good sign for the event. I'm not sure if it's the next event at Kite & Key, but the one that had caught my eye is the Firestone Walker lineup on March 9th for the Craft Beer Express. I won't make it unfortunately but it's definitely going to be worth your time to stop by if you can.

2 comments:

  1. Felt similar about the bolt cutter. Was impressed by the Frangelic Mountain Brown but mostly because it tasted like coffee creamer to me. I would have preferred the hazlenut flavor be a little less but it was good and fun to be able to try it.

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  2. I liked Frangelic enough to drink a whole 750 when it first came out but the hazelnut they used is really fake tasting. I don't mind it, but I totally understand why people didn't like the beer.

    Bolt Cutter was good but the blending seems to have added more cost than flavor.

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