Founders KBS Release Party

Back on a cold, February Saturday morning, I set my alarm to ensure that we didn't sleep past the 11 a.m. (I know some of you are shaking your heads) $5 ticket sales (going to charity!) to purchase bottles of Founders Brewing Company's Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS).  This is a beer that is rated #5 (behind the even better Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS)) on BeerAdvocate; however, in our books, I think it's #1.  We actually woke up early that day, so I setup two laptops to get ready for the ticket opening on Brown Paper Tickets because the last time we tried buying tickets for the Winter Beer Festival, we were denied.  We couldn't risk missing out on this one!  At precisely 11, I started logging in, but of course the browser timed out on both laptops, and just when I thought I submitted a payment, it timed out again.  In the end, we pulled up to eat our breakfast while the browser clocked again with my payment, and this time though, I won!  It was as if I won the lottery when I saw "success" message and email confirmation, especially after reading later that everyone had problems with the Brown Paper site.

We already had planned to make a weekend of the bottle purchasing and release party in Grand Rapids with Steph and Matt.  Scottie and I arrived around 11:30 or so to a long line outside the brewery as to be expected; however, those with bottle purchase tickets could just walk right up and purchase their 3 6-packs!  They were selling the beer all week as you had to buy a ticket for a specific day.  Luckily, our ticket coincided with the taproom release party!  After purchasing our bottles, Scottie and I waited in line to get our first sip of the good stuff.  It took probably about 20 minutes and it was very efficient.  Once inside, we just stayed in the line to get our KBS!  

The first sip was magical.  This beer is an imperial stout brewed with a "massive amount of coffee and chocolates, then cave-aged in oak bourbon barrels for an entire year".  As Founders describes it "makes your taste buds squeal with delight."  So worth every mile and every penny.  We're not sure why we never thought to come to this release event before!  Steph and Matt joined us a little while later, and the fun continued for several more hours, several more glasses of KBS, and a tasty lunch!  

The whole day was run so efficiently at Founders, which I suppose makes up for the whole online tickets sales debacle.  Even though it was a beautiful Spring day, we opted to stay inside so we could continue to drink out of the snifters!  Plus, we had a wonderful server, who even brought us one last sample of KBS before we walked out the door!

We moved the party to HopCat and The Grand Rapids Brewing Company before heading back to the CityFlats to call it a very long, and productive day!  The next morning, we celebrated Easter together at the JW Marriott for a tasty brunch because our old stand-by, San Chez was closed for the holiday.  

Good times, good friends, and good beer!  Cheers!  More photos from the adventures here.