Craft Beer and Brewing: Breakfast Stout is a beer so many people know today and almost take for granted. How did it come to be?
Jeremy Kosmicki: “I was friends with former Head Brewer Nate Walser before we started working at Founders. When we came to the brewery, [the owners] were just about ready to throw in the towel and started making these crazy beers. Nate fabricated a one-barrel pilot system and in 2002. One of the beers we made was Breakfast Stout.
It was inspired by my homebrew days. I really loved coffee beers, such as Redhook’s Double Black Stout. It was a boozy bomber for $3 and so a great deal. Bell’s Java Stout was an inspiration as well. Then I had Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. That was a revelation! So it got us thinking, and we started fooling around with coffee and chocolate, and I started melting chocolate and steeping coffee into an oatmeal stout.”