Guest Post! Founders Dinner Beer Review!

Roommate Joe - neat freak, aspiring (and excellent) home brewer, INCREDIBLY accommodating. Joe got pretty excited about the opportunity to review some beers to the point where he took things way more professionally than I did and actually took tasting notes all night. What a guy! What follows is his review in order of consumption and course-pairing.

"The Founders Dinner beerlist turned out to be a (almost) vertical tasting, and while I wholly believe this was unintentional, I enjoyed the experience more than I thought I would given that I've had 3 out of 4 of them individually in the past.

Unfortunately the representative they sent worked for a distributor -not the brewery- so we were very limited on the amount and kinds of information we were able to get from him."

Founders Pale Ale - Score: 5/10

"Served from a keg into a 8 oz rock glass. Little-to-no hop aroma, which was disappointing seeing as how it's a 100% Cascade beer. High carbonation which worked well with the light malt presence, but overall it was completely unremarkable. The rep presenting the beer said they consider this their “entry/gateway” offering, and I can totally see that, but what I can't see is anyone buying this beer on purpose more than once."

Founders All Day IPA - Score: 6/10

"Served from a keg into a 8 oz rock glass. Medium-high hop aroma, medium carbonation, very drinkable malt backbone. Amarillo hops are the centerpiece of this offering, being very much forward on the nose and tongue. Normally I'd be delighted about that, but in my opinion Amarillo needs support from other hops to make it shine, given its very assertive character. This felt very 1-note with a bitterness/aroma that doesn't seem to be in harmony. At least it was more interesting than the regular Pale Ale.

Strangely this IPA clocked in at a lower ABV than the (previous) regular pale ale, which nicely illustrates how the initials “IPA” have warped into more of a marketing term than an actual classification of beer. But that's a conversation (more likely an argument) for another day."

Founders Double Trouble Imperial IPA – Score: 7/10

"Served from a bottle into a tulip glass. This beer was basically All Day IPA but “more”. More aroma, more flavor, more mouthfeel, more … everything. And it pretty much worked, thanks to the slick, syrupy malt bill which kept both the huge ABV and aggressive Amarillo hops in check. A Simcoe-like hop was also present, which provided the support I previously mentioned was lacking in All Day IPA, giving it a well-rounded, citrusy profile.

Easily my favorite beer of the night, and I would definitely recommend grabbing this if you are into big American Double IPAs."

Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) Imperial Stout - Score: 6/10

"Served from a bottle into a tulip glass. Finally, we're in beer nerd territory! KBS is famous for a couple reasons, one of which is because of its limited production and distribution making it rare, and the other is the unapologetic way it crams more coffee and chocolate and alcohol into your glass than almost any other commercial beer out there. It's not balanced - and it's not trying to be, but I think that's half the draw for some people.

For me, it's too boozy and too over the top. When you're going to go off the deep end and make an “extreme beer” you need to do it with some sort of finesse if you want the end result to be anything more than just a gimmick. To me, that's exactly what this stout is."

Big ups to Joe for the review. I don't think it's going to be too hard to convince him to do more. craft beer is like this guy's bat symbol only way drunker.

For more information on Founders Brewing and what they've literally got on tap, check out their website and their brewer profile on BeerAdvocate!