Beer. It’s what’s for breakfast. We know what some of you are thinking. Beer for breakfast? Who does that? But the true advocate of craft beer knows there is nothing quite like waking up, making scrambled eggs and bacon and cracking open 22 ounces of your favorite brew. In an effort to repeat the magic of the day’s first meal, some genius breweries have injected quintessential breakfast flavors into their beers. Who are we to judge? Enjoy our Craft Beer Crosscut 7.24.18: A Flight of Breakfast Beer.
Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier – Urbock
6.5% ABV, 40 IBU
One day we hope to taste the perfect bacon beer but until then we have the hickory-charred resin-dried chocolate-smoked German-styled smoked beer Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier – Urbock, in which its barley malts are smoked over beech wood logs. Its higher smoke malt concentration and longer maturation in the 700 year old cellars underneath Bramburg create a flavor profile of most intense smokiness beautifully balanced with deep malt sweetness. It tastes somewhat sweet dark malt with dark bread and a little treacle tone, dry toasty roast, moderately smoky notes of campfire and subtle smoked ham, oak, pretty dry on the back end where the smoky, ashy notes overpower the malt. It has a fairly light body with extremely low carbonation. It’s a solid smoke beer.
Founders Breakfast Stout
8.3% ABV, 60 IBU
Founders awoke early and brew this stout with flaked oats, chocolate, and two kinds of coffee beans. This imperial stout pours jet-black with a thick, tan head that strongly resembles latte foam. In fact, coffee really shines through in this beer, giving off a strong aroma of fresh roasted beans, caramel and roasted malt. If you like your coffee black and your beer before noon, this is the perfect way to start the day.
Wingman S’mores Porter
8% ABV
Along with Franken Berry, Count Chocula hit the scene in 1971. The mascot was based on the most popular and easily recognizable of movie monsters — Count Dracula. Count Chocula was a vampire who prefers chocolate to blood to naturally his cereal was chocolate flavor frosted cereal plus marshmallow bits, much like Wingman Brewers’ S’mores Porter. Peter Brown, Wingman Brewers lead brewer on the S’mores Porter sang campfire songs as he stirred Pale, Chocolate, Victory, Black and Carafa Type 2 malts in the mash tun. As Cascade and Saaz hops boiled he tossed in an endless stream of marshmallows and Honey Maid Graham Crackers. The monster cereal porter sports a tingly, medium mouthfeel, followed by roasted malt, graham cracker, cocoa and marshmallow with long chocolate finish.
Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin
7% ABV, 70 IBU
Ballast Point accentuates the grapefruit to the nth degree, while still retaining Sculpin’s fruity underpinning. Wake up to a grove-fresh fragrance, like Florida distilled into a 5-ounce serving. The grapefruit’s tartness turns Sculpin into a tangy thirst-quencher, a neat trick for a beer boasting a substantial 7 percent ABV. The arranged marriage of citrus and bitterness makes this beer perfect for pairing or substituting for your favorite grapefruit brunch treat.
Evil Twin Imperial Doughnut Break
11.5% ABV, 70 IBU
Once you’ve started the day with a few hot glazed, you’re probably not going to be getting much work done anyhow. Might as well start drinking, huh? A twist on Evil Twin‘s popular Imperial Biscotti Break, an imperial stout brewed with coffee beans, Imperial Doughnut Break imperial porter is made with almonds and bags full of glazed doughnuts dumped into the boil. It’s the sort of beer that gives Jeppe his reputation and it was completely delicious. A dark espresso color with slight red notes, we detected marzipan and oxidized coffee on the nose. Appropriately, the brew smells similar to a doughnut shop — a good sign! The mouthfeel is unique — it feels like our mouth is coated with doughnut glazing and the beer tastes like a doughnut.
