Founders Creates Breakfast Stout

In 2002, Founders Brewing Company brewers Jeremy Kosmicki and Nate Walser created Breakfast Stout on a one-barrel pilot system at the brewery in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The beer grew from Kosmicki’s homebrewing interest in coffee beers and from commercially brewed examples including Redhook Double Black Stout, Bell’s Java Stout, and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. Kosmicki and Walser experimented by adding coffee and chocolate to an oatmeal stout, then strengthened the base beer when the initial version proved too thin. Founders initially brewed Breakfast Stout in two-barrel batches for its taproom before eventually releasing it in bottles. Its combination of an imperial oatmeal stout with coffee and chocolate became one of the brewery’s defining beers and a prominent early example of the richly flavored American stout tradition. Around two years later, Founders began aging a stronger version in bourbon barrels, developing the beer that became Kentucky Breakfast Stout, later known as KBS.