It’s a rare and special beer that can almost universally be summoned by its acronym rather than its actual name. Founders’ KBS — or Kentucky Breakfast Stout — is one of these beers.
First brewed in 2003, the barrel-aged stout has become a highly-coveted annual brew from the catalog of Founders Brewing Company out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Its 2017 iteration, coming in at a staunch 11.8% ABV, is just hitting store shelves and draft lines this week, but already the secondary market is humming. Want a four-pack of the new bottles, do you? That’ll be $51 on eBay. Oh, and they’re empty.
New this year, KBS will be sold in 750ml bottles in addition to the standard four-pack of 12-oz bottles. The bigger bottles will be exceedingly rare; expect most liquor stores to sell the smaller bottles individually, and with a limit per customer.
“KBS is a reflection of who we are as a company and the mark we hope we’ve made with extreme brewing,” said Dave Engbers, Founders’ co-founder and president, in a press release. “Fifteen years ago it debuted as an experiment with no agenda; a beer that no one asked for and initially, one that no one wanted.”
KBS has come a long way since 2013. Back then, they aged the beer in two Jack Daniel’s barrels; today, they’ve got thousands of barrels in caves under Grand Rapids.
“The impact of KBS on brewing culture has always exceeded anything we imagined,” said Engbers. “It’s a perfect example of the innovation that people love about craft.”
Thanks to our partnership with Craft Shack, we’ve got a case of KBS reserved specifically for Hop Culture readers; it’s been packaged with the terrific Founders Breakfast Stout to meet Craft Shack’s minimum purchase. You can find it at the link below.
