J.D.

Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS) (2023)

Delightful that it’s back. Now I don’t only have to hoard bottles, I can also buy them!

KBS Cinnamon Vanilla Cocoa

Revisiting. Again, struck by lack of sweetness in a self-proclaimed vanilla stout (yay!) & the relative (by Founders’ stout standards) hot perceptible ABV% (boo!). Cinnamon coming through particularly strongly this time around.

KBS Cinnamon Vanilla Cocoa (2021)

Tastes hot. To be fair, 12%ABV & it doesn’t taste THAT hot, but hot nonetheless, especially by Founder’s stout standards. Only semi-sweet, which I like, the vanilla isn’t cloying, & the cinnamon isn’t overpowering. Grows as it goes, but miles from CBS.

Velvet Rush (2021)

Decent overall but definite letdown on Founders scale. Vanilla & milk sugar both overdone, sweetness pushes the cocoa, Java & nutty notes around, & although initially muted per their usual ABV% heat comes rotating forward on finish. They make many better.

Bottle Shop Series Highball Drifter

Whiskey taste, dark cherry notes, & bitter orange peel each readily apparent. A Manhattan in a beer bottle. Less depth of flavor than a couple competing offerings, but per usual for Founders it masks the alcohol to almost zero (at 11%ABV!). Easy drinking.

Panther Cub (2021)

Unexpectedly poor showing given my preferences & love for the brewery, especially given how Norm reviewed it. But, a hard pass. Maple & vanilla don’t integrate nearly as well as the CBS standard & it’s the 1st Founders’ beer that tastes at all artificial.

Peace

Coffee H2H #2/6: Hot, unbalanced BBA. Bourbon comes across from outset, but ‘Belgiany’ quality plays second fiddle & coffee aspect is an utter afterthought. Merits revisiting versus other barrel ales, but fails the hybridization test for today’s tasting.

KBS Maple Mackinac Fudge

(Revisiting as dessert)

Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS)

Revisiting as benchmark (for Great Basin pastry stout) & socially-distanced fire pit beer with Samuel H. Still amazing!

Frangelic Mountain Brown (2020)

Tastes thinner than the last batch. Still great flavor profile, but not living up to my (recent) memory. Will leave former score unchanged for now, pending a revisitation.

Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS)

In honor of the folk-art Sam made with CBS labels, we hoist! All hail the mighty Five! *clink*

4 Giants IPA (2020)

1. Total lawnmower-party; but 2. too much bitterness for taste trade-offs, while reinforcing both 3. my view of Founders as being tremendous for malt ales but mediocre on the IPA spectrum, and 4. the truth that more ingredients isn’t always better.