Kentucky Breakfast Stout
It was a night to fix a few things. I had never tried Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS) and my friend had never seen Office Space. Office Space is the 1999 classic about working in cubes with a horrible boss, TPS reports, flair, and missing staplers. We found it on Amazon streaming.
According to BeerAdvocate, KBS is an outstanding beer, ranked number 2 behind Russian River’s amazing Pliny the Elder. Founders’ KBS is a delicious imperial stout. Founders Brewing has a nice description on its web page.
What we’ve got here is an imperial stout brewed with a massive amount of coffee and chocolates, then cave-aged in oak bourbon barrels for an entire year to make sure wonderful bourbon undertones come through in the finish. Makes your taste buds squeal with delight.
There was a big todo on social media about KBS. I knew I could drive down to Laurel and buy some at Total Wine, but I thought I’d try to find it in Columbia. I went to the Founders’ web page and clicked on their “find a beer” tab. My local liquor store, Allview Liquors had it, but kept it behind the checkout and would only sell a 4-pack at a time. Allview’s beer guy said he was surprised they still had any left.
My friend has an offer to retire this summer but has some reservations about accepting it. We figured watching Office Space would help with her decision. So we all brought snacks, wine, and beer and she provided the big TV and the movie. We all laughed at the opening scene where an elderly man using a walker passes the backed up morning rush-hour traffic.
I cracked open an Allagash Saison. It was pretty amazing – a nice citrusy farmhouse, with a bit of a peppery taste. A recent article suggested this as a good intro to saisons. I agree.
Meanwhile, Peter from Office Space is having a bad day. He forgot to put a cover sheet on his TPS report, and everyone is reminding him of it. He and his disgruntled friends head over to Chotskies where Joanna (played by Jennifer Aniston) doesn’t have enough flair.
At this point, we paused the movie, put on some stickers (my attempt at flair) and I cracked open a KBS. As usual, I rushed drinking the stout. As the imperial stout warmed it got better and better. The initial intense boozy and coffee flavors mellowed into a creamy chocolate beverage with hints of vanilla. Maybe not the second best beer in the world, but pretty damn good!
Office Space Peter is hypnotized into a permanent state of bliss after his hypnotist dies of a heart attack. As a result, Peter breaks up with his cheating girlfriend, only sporadically goes to work, hooks up with Joanna, while he and his office mates steal a massive amount of money from the company. In an absurd twist, everything ends on a high note in the movie.
Our friend has over a month to decide whether to keep working or retire. We hope that our Office Space guidance has shown her the light. Meanwhile, I’ll have another beer.
Cheers!
Warren