Founders Lizard of Koz Review

Name: Founders Lizard of Koz
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 10.5%
IBUs: 40

If you're reading this right now at the time of this posting, chances are you are probably stuck with family eating copious amounts of turkey, watching football, drinking beer and awkwardly trying not to talk about politics. If so, Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Nick's Beer Blog. And by us, I mean me!

So I was at the store a couple days ago with the intent of only buying a re-release of Stone's 14 Anniversary IPA when I saw this beer from Founders and I knew I had to try this out. I give to you the Lizard of Koz, an Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels and brewed with vanilla and Michigan blueberries. As for the name, it was named after the head brewer's sister, who is named Liz and the "Koz" being the first three letters of their last name.

Appearance - Black with a slight purple hue when held up to a light. The head takes on a dark brown color and is rather foamy and the lacing itself is quite abundant.

Aroma - Cocoa nibs and chocolate malts with some vanilla and oak notes, along with a subtle blueberry sweetness. I'm also getting some mild bitter hoppiness along with a hint of cherries.

Taste - Vanilla and cocoa nibs upfront with a big blueberry sweetness and moderate oak notes in the middle. The back end of the palate opens up to more of that chocolate maltiness and vanilla sweetness and even the blueberries are still present here. The aftertaste is mainly light blueberry notes and vanilla.

It's not the most complex tasting Imperial Stout out there, but it's very robust and there's enough flavors here to keep the show rolling and then some. Plus the blueberries used in the brewing process give this beer a different enough character from other bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stouts out there. As such, that makes this extremely easy to recommend.

Founders Lizard of Koz - 9.5/10