Michael Swanson

KBS Blueberry Swanson

Take a chocolate covered blueberry & a chocolate bourbon cordial & mix. This beer conjures that. Thick & rich. The last blue beer in the holiday red, white, & blue beer project.

Cherry Solstice Swanson

Well-composed cherry beer with bourbon’s vanilla & oak tempering the fruit’s tartness & sweetness. Verges on rich, but remains a summery fruit beer, amped up a notch.

Citrus Sunrise Swanson

Blood orange & tequila provide strong flavors in this thicker than average, boozy barrel aged gose. But I want more salt!

Daycap Lime Swanson

Guess Founders decided their great Mas Agave imperial gose was too strong for day drinking. This lower-alcohol version works well, with lime & salt coming together with a hint of tequila barrel.

Stay In Stout Swanson

Mortal Bloom Swanson

Juicy grapefruity IPA in which the bitterest aspect of that pink fruit are somewhat mellowed. Still hoppy.

Ginger, Spice, Barreled And Nice Swanson

On this 3rd of a four-pack, cinnamon seems to be emerging, but ginger & clove still are stronger & more enduring. Base continues to express vanilla, oak, & toffee. Excellence in booze.

Kernza Pils Swanson

As this aged, it seems to have developed a pleasant lean to the mineral amidst its lightly malty base, accentuating the pilsner’s crispness.

Sweet Repute (2022) Swanson

Slightest note of yeast hints at the wheat in the wheat wine; otherwise it’s boozy with bourbon. Might be a touch of wood too. Maple has become sweet only.

Nordic Spring Swanson

Interesting & effective blend of juniper & citrus. Lightly hopped & well balanced with malt.

Geuze Mariage Parfait (2016) Swanson

This would be excellent, I suspect, for those who love beers in which they encounter extreme sour & extreme funk. I am not one of those folks.

KBS Blueberry Swanson

Blueberry makes its statement amidst the bourbon barrel roasty booziness.

Kernza Pils Swanson

Clean, crisp pilsner, rounded with a bit of cereal-grainy kernza, I guess. In terms of taste, I’m thinking Special K.

Ginger, Spice, Barreled And Nice Swanson

Bourbon boozy, with oak & vanilla, but just as focused on ginger & clove.

Blushing Padre (2020) Swanson

Raspberry made more intense by tequila barrel aging. Strangely, the finishing note reminds me of chocolate covered cherries. I can rationalize the cherries as not dissimilar from razz; but there is no chocolate herein, nor have I had any in hours.

The Headless Gourdsman 2023 Swanson

Bourbon & its oak blend beautifully with maple, cinnamon, & nutmeg in this all-but-pumpkin pumpkinesque beer. Big surprise: it’s boozy too.

Pennsylvania Tuxedo Swanson

Piney hops remind me of the hunters to whom thus beer is dedicated.

KBS Blueberry Swanson

Really fine blueberry - chocolate blend — it’s a tough combo to get right. Vanilla, coffee, & oak also make their presence known.

Ginger, Spice, Barreled And Nice Swanson

I seem to be the 6th Untappd person to post this beer, & it’s a brilliant beer, w/ a ginger - cinnamon - clove nutmeg blend that wins the holiday. Bourbon brings oak & vanilla, yet the spices & barrel qualities together cover the booze well. Superb.

Walking Run Swanson

Hoppy with an unusual citrusy / dank taste combo. Highly carbonated.

Green Zebra Mango Swanson

Mango with minimal salt. The texture is more oily than most goses.

Green Zebra Pineapple Swanson

Minimal but present salt puts the good pineapple flavor in context. Refreshing.

The Headless Gourdsman Swanson

On a cool fall evening, something strong. Bourbon, maple, cinnamon, & nutmeg (& no pumpkin) works fine for my autumnal cocooning. Sweet & boozy & thus warming.

Green Zebra Peach Swanson

Little salt in this perky peach gose. The peach is summery & more full than I’d have guessed.

The Headless Gourdsman Swanson

Rich & full with pumpkin spices (cinnamon & nutmeg), & oak & maple from barrels used for bourbon & maple.

KBS Blueberry Swanson

Blueberry stouts seem to be difficult. I say this as someone who has blueberries in his cereal every morning. This one works partly because the chocolate is minimal; light coffee works better. & partly because the bourbon blends well w/ blueberry.

Kernza Pils Swanson

Crisp & clean & malty, with a nutty, earthy vein that might come from the kernza.

BoDeGose Swanson

Guava kicks in after very light cherry & salt only a bit stronger. I’d love it if it were more strong.

Citrus Squall Swanson

As one who dislikes grapefruit, I can say that the grapefruit juice herein is relatively light. The lime is even lighter. For an 8% ABV beer, this seems a bit weak. Not thin: there’s some thicker-than-average texture here. But that’s as full as it gets.

Sweet Repute Swanson

Rich with caramel, maple, & bourbon, with notes of vanilla & wheat. Great boozy alcohol core.

Higher Math Swanson

Syrupy & sweet, this mammoth golden ale boasts mild chocolate & sour cherries, but they appear as flavor notes to the boozy golden core. Hoping for an early night — job interview in the a.m.

Sweet Repute (2022) Swanson

Strong with boozy bourbon & maple, & warming.

Nitro Rübæus Swanson

Utopias Barrel-Aged 120 Minute IPA Swanson

Utopias barrel aging takes the hop edge off of this one. It’s still hoppy, & intensely boozy. But the overall impression is boozy dark fruit — let’s say raisins — w/ a hop backbone. And it’s scrumptious. I need to buy another for aging.

KBS Maple Fudge 2021 Swanson

Great taste of sweet chocolate fudge up front — fudge, not just chocolate — with subtle maple & less subtle dark coffee following.

Chocolate Cherry KBS Swanson

The chocolate / cherry balance seems to lean too much to chocolate, as finding the cherry takes some patience. Some coffee is there too — and, of course, booze.

Kernza Pils Swanson

Crisp & light. Are the organic ingredients a reason that despite having this in a can for months, it tastes fresh?

Blushing Monk (2020) Swanson

This has aged well. Raspberry still tastes great.

Snowbound Vanilla Porter Swanson

Vanilla & a bit of roasty coffee ride on this smooth porter. Founders’ original porter was exceptional, and this is just as good.

Sweet Repute Swanson

French Toast Bastard Swanson

With no effort, you can smell the maple from more than 1’ away. The only things missing from the French toast are eggs; the vanilla & cinnamon match the maple for sumptuous goodness. & even with all that, there’s a determined surge of Scotch ale booze.

House of the Dragon Swanson

There’s some chili heat here, but just as strong is the tannic, very dark roast, bringing some coffee. Less than a tad of dark chocolate.

World Wide Stout Swanson

Just sweet enough to give the deep, dark, roasty booze (18%) some context. Somewhat mouthcoating. Rich.

Nitro Breakfast Stout Swanson

Deep, dark coffee with almost no sweetness — near-tannic — centers this nitro stout. Baker’s chocolate does nothing to make this more breakfasty. Oatmeal softens the toughness just a bit. It’s great, but it’s not my breakfast beer.

Crimson Cru Swanson

Complex, fascinating blend of a tart red Rodenbach Grand Cru & a dry-hopped red DFH ale. It moves quickly from cherry sweetness to hoppy bitter-citrus tang, moving through some rum-soaked fruit bread middrink. Fulfills my high hopes.

KBS Maple Mackinac Fudge (2022) Swanson

Lovely still, with maple, bourbon, & chocolate fudge combining for a rich experience.

4 Giants IPA (2022) Swanson

Not as strong or hoppy as expected. Pine is primary, with (weirdly) a malt kick in the end (?).

Ultimate Oktoberfest Swanson

So why is this the first bourbon barrel Oktoberfest beer I’ve ever seen? (I’ve seen one or two since buying this one.) Bourbon goes very well with the malty amber. Deeper and richer, while still maintaining the sense of that malt.

Punkin Ale (2022) Swanson

Better than previous versions: more pumpkin, sharper spices.

Wake Up World Wide Stout Swanson

Clean, rich, complex dark coffee & chocolate make this a great beer for breakfast, especially since the 15.3% ABV might give you a surprise: the coffee is so good & earthy & strong that the booze factor in taste is very low.

Mid-90s Microbrewery Red Ale Swanson

Certainly evokes those great toffee-tasting red ales of 30 (!!?!) years ago. Mellow, with a bit of British bittering. Smooth. And it’s great coming out of the cask.

Mango Magnifico Swanson

The mango comes on first, & then there’s an almost thicker and more generically fruity wave, followed by the gradual settling in of the habaneros, which linger & then build in heat. Fine sweet / hot balance. Very drinkable. Slightly boozy.

Porter Swanson

Still one of the best porters around. Soft at first approach. Then dark coffee roast and semi-sweet chocolate is beautifully blended. Worth savoring via sips and also quaffing.

Spontandryhop Citra Swanson

Untappd says it’s a lambic. If I were drinking it blind, I might say “dry-hopped sour”; & (I seriously only just now read this fine print on the label) so does Mikkeller. 15 mo. past its best date, & it’s still sour & dry & fruity & wakes up my mouth.

120 Minute IPA Swanson

This known hop monster works for similar reasons as does Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute IPA: the crazy hops are well balanced with a strong, sweet, boozy malt. It’s a thick beer, which also boosts the malt. And it’s 18% ABV.

Green Zebra Swanson

The watermelon rolls into prominence on what seems like a ribbon of Jolly Rancher watermelon juice thicker than the beer around it. That ribbon works dynamically w/ the beer’s mild brine. One of those goses that reminds me about a little bit of salt.

60 Minute IPA Swanson

Great malt / hop balance here. Somewhat astringent, but not off-puttingly so.

Belgian Twist Swanson

The 10% ABV is well hidden in this near-classic Belgian tripel. Lightly fruity and a good start to an evening of beer.

Kernza Pils Swanson

VERY clean & crisp, which tastes, as the Miller Lite commercials used to say, “less filling”. You can imagine drinking it under a low-light starry sky on a warm summer evening. There’s some nuttiness in the aftertaste.

Cuvée Saint-Gilloise (Champions) Swanson

Dry, but not drying. Fruity, funky, and sour. Slight tinge of grapefruit in the finish. Goes down very easily.

Utopias Barrel - Aged World Wide Stout (2021) Swanson

This one’s almost immediately going to my head. Leather & black licorice & dark red wine & black coffee & black rum & 88% darkest chocolate. As the label says, it’s “rich, roasty, & complex.” As it warms, it’s even more intense, & it becomes Kraken-like.

Cerise Swanson

Medium sweet cherry beer, with a lasting tart tang. Not really a light summer cherry at all. Lovely color.

Frootwood Swanson

Here’s a beer with the thickness of cherry nectar, with that sweetness enhanced by vanilla, maple, & bourbon, & cut by the distinct woody taste of the barrels. Complex layers of flavor, and 8% ABV to help you think about that.

Scarlet Dawn IPA Swanson

A pretty mellow IPA, very drinkable. Balanced malt and hops and a bit of melon in the finish.

KBS Cinnamon Vanilla Cocoa Swanson

This continues in the Founders KBS tradition, with a bourbon-barrel stout in this case augmented by cinnamon, vanilla, and cocoa. All show up here in harmony with the barrel aging. It’s a pleasure to drink.

Beer Hop Breakfast Swanson

Should I have saved for breakfast? I wanted a black IPA. Thank goodness for the local pizza place that carries really interesting beers. Somewhat drying — or is that my mouth tonight?

Oktoberfest Swanson

Another good beer of the season, with chewy amber malts.

Nemesis (2021) Swanson

Darker barleywine than most. Boozy, hoppy, and strongly roasted. Time for bed.

Velvet Rush Swanson

Sweet coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and bourbon make this like a Kahlua cocktail.

Unraveled IPA Swanson

Very hoppy, and a bit dank.

Panther Cub (2021) Swanson

A dessert porter, with maple, vanilla, & chocolate bourbonized. Sweet, thick, & boozy, with a hint of roast barley rounding out the taste.

Más Agave Prickly Pear Swanson

I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, & it fulfills expectations. The original Mas Agave was a brilliant margarita beer, & here’s the prickly pear version. The berry-like p. pear mixes well with tequila barrel aging. Just wish for more salt.

KBS Espresso Swanson

My 500th unique stout, and a damn good one. Strong coffee mixed with cocoa and a relatively light bourbon barrel aging to provide alcohol delights. Give credit to Founders, a brilliant maker of stouts.

Blushing Monk Swanson

Sweet-tart raspberry at a high ABV level is Founders’ pitch here. Successful if slightly too sweet.

Kriek Boon Swanson

Cherry lambic that tastes like the cherries just burst in your mouth. Uplifting and refreshing and tart.

Big Luscious (2020) Swanson

I’ve had raspberry stouts that: had no fruit flavor; were too fruity; mixed the fruit badly with the more-it-less required chocolate.... Maybe it’s not surprising that Founders does it right — the name is accurate. And this is brewed in Sept. ‘20!

Más Agave (2019) Swanson

In the very small beer subset of margarita beers, Mas Agave is still the best. Sweet, salty, lime — and, of course, the honey-like agave. Brilliant.

Santa's Little Helper (Grand Marnier Barrel Aged - 2015) Swanson

Santa's Little Helper Swanson

Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS) (2020) Swanson

Costumes And Karaoke Swanson

Oak-Aged Vanilla World Wide Stout Swanson

Marvelroast Swanson

Festina Pêche Swanson

Más Agave Swanson