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Founders Black Rye

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In 2014 the BJCP announced their first update in four years. It brought the elimination and addition of many styles, including full representation of a number of IPA variants, with black IPA and rye IPA coming out of the specialty category. Right on queue, Founders chose early 2015 to bring back their short lived 2006 dark rye IPA known simply as Founders Black Rye. While it doesn’t fit perfectly in either style, the beer is an interesting hybrid of the two.

Founders Black Rye

THE BEER

At first glance what we have here is a stout, or porter. Getting anywhere close however lets your olfactory sense know this a different creature. A Cascadian dark or black pale ale perhaps? No, there is something spicy lingering.

A few years back a good friend, Hop Bunny G of HopBunnies.com, told me how she was loving rye beers at the moment. I confessed I wasn’t sure I could tell rye malts, like those in Sierra Nevada’s Ruthless Rye IPA, from the stuff in Wheat Thins. Recently though, having had more exposure to them, I am starting to pick out that pumpernickel aroma and spicy kick that rye adds to a beer. This is what you take in when smelling a fresh poured Founders Black Rye.

TASTING NOTES

Fresh, Founders Black Rye has a piquant pine nose, awash with dry hop aromatics, showing that this is intended as an IPA, to be consumed fresh. Don’t age beer, especially this one. The head is large, light brown, with foamy bubbles that last a good while and cling to the glass. The mouthfeel is medium, with less thickness to the body than we might expect in a beer this dark, with good carbonation. The taste is another surprise, while the malts give a subtle Heath Bar flavor, they are not oily or as present as a hoppy porter. The spiciness from the rye blends with the pine, although without much roasted sweetness. The finish is slightly astringent, and mostly dry and clean.

CONCLUSION

Founders Black Rye is a conundrum of an ale. Even with the expanded BJCP categories, it defies style definitions, existing as complex rye IPA, hidden within the coating of “de-bitterized black rye malts”. The overall effect is a complex, tasty brew. Not likely the first choice for hopheads, Black Rye offers a great way to get a huge hop taste, in a more complex IPA. A real winner you should pick-up and try yourself.

7.5

Craft beer review of Founders Black Rye
Founders Black Rye
Date Published: 02/03/2015
7.5 / 10 stars

Founders Backwoods Bastard: 2011 vs 2014

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Founders Backwoods Bastard, the bourbon barrel aged version of the Dirty Bastard scotch ale, with its 10.2% ABV and huge flavor profile, seemed like a decent candidate for cellaring. For this review, Dave and I compare a 2011 to the most recent release from 2014.

Craft beer enthusiasts often look to mimic wine lovers habits. But while Opus One is conclusively considered to be better having laid down for years—depending on vintage—beer is a more suspicious candidate for this treatment. What most beer guys don’t know however, is that most wines yield a diminished experience with age. In our opinion, beer is best enjoyed fresh. Other than a few specific, high ABV styles, at the margins, beer is not improved with age and most often made worse. Despite our feelings, Founders Backwoods Bastard was considered a prime candidate for aging. And a fine chance to experiment with long term cellaring.

Neither of us are fans of the wee heavy/Scotch ale beer style. The unbalanced malt bombs remind us of the most simplistic failures of English style barleywines or old ales, with less body. As such, Backwoods Bastard was a happy surprise when we first sampled it, the barrel-aging adding layers of complexity and a roundness to the Dirty Bastard base beer. Fresh, Backwoods Bastard is a favorite. The hope that it could improve with age granted me the patience to keep from cracking two Founders gems for three years.

THE BEER

Dave Engbers often tells the tale of how the early days of Founders nearly saw the fledgling brewery go belly up. Brewing the first beer they were passionate about, the aggressive wee heavy Dirty Bastard—our base beer—brought back the excitement to the owners and their customers.

The transformation from Dirty to Backwoods Bastard involves time and aging in bourbon barrels. While this technique is common in imperial stouts, less wee heavy or scotch ales are barrel aged. The 2011 and 2014 releases have the same 10.2% ABV, and as far as we know, same recipe.

TASTING NOTES

Founders Backwoods Bastard vertical

2011

Starting with the older beer, the 2011 Founders Backwoods Bastard (bottled 10/13/2011) pours out cloudy and brown. Minimal head of white microbubbles forms, but dissipates quickly. On the nose, 2011 has hints of vanilla, caramel and cardboard. Taste of the older Bastard is sweet malts with vanilla, oak and toffee, all quite muted. The flavor profile reminds us of an English style barleywine that has sat for a long time. There is a lack of depth in the flavors mid-palette. The body is med/thin, with only the slightest carbonation scooting it down. The finish has just enough hops to retain a slightly bitter kick, giving this beer a bit more complexity. The sweetness stays around, helping to mask the high alcohol content.

Founders Backwoods Bastard 2014 vs 2011

2014

Coming out of the bottle with an observably higher carbonation, the 2014 Backwoods Bastard (bottled 9/24/2014) is ruddy brown, with greater clarity than the vintage bottle. The nose is huge blasts of bourbon, all the vanilla and oak along with a candy sweet note. Flavors are equally huge, following the nose the taste erupts vanilla and oak from the bourbon barrels, paired with a sticky sweetness, leaving only a hint of the high alcohol content. The body remains on the thinner side of medium, but with better carbonation powering the big beer across the palette. The finish is still sweet, with noticeable hops sneaking in on the finish, with the booze showing itself.

CONCLUSION

When I put a few bottles of Founders Backwoods Bastard down to cellar, the hope was simple. With age, see some of the boozy finish disappear from the beer, while retaining the amazing bourbon sweetness. Unfortunately, what we got in our three year old beer was a shadow of its former glorious self.  Meanwhile, the relatively short three months since our 2014 Bastard was released had pleasantly muted the potent burn Backwoods Bastard can display when fresh.

With cellaring, beer lovers gain an outlet over which to brag, and lust over others hordes. And yet, every day beer sits, even at the perfect temperature, humidity and darkness, it fades away. So too sadly is the case for our 2011 Founders Backwoods Bastard. The fresh bottle is an amazing, treat, perhaps the most bourbon forward beer we have sampled. The aged, at least one going back three years, retains little of what makes it worth tracking down. And for the cost of around $13.00 per four pack, there is no reason to enjoy it at anything but the beers peak numminess.

 

Craft beer review of founders backwoods bastard 2011 vs 2014
Founders Backwoods Bastard
Date Published: 01/25/2015
9.0 / 10 stars

Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Narwhal

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UnicornVsNarwhal

Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Narwhal: Improving on Excellence

Winter is the season for awful award shows and hearty beers. Barrel aged stouts are among the thickest, booziest beasts of the craft brewing world. So when a legendary brewer like Sierra Nevada decides to brew a new one, we have to uncork it.

THE BEER

Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Narwhal is the logical tweak on the 2013 GABF medal winning (silver 2013/bronze 2014) Narwhal Imperial Stout. The original base beer, a well hopped American stout bursting with roasted malt flavor, seemed a great candidate for setting down in a cellar, or better yet, to face the refinement of aging on bourbon casks. Unfortunately for some states like Ohio, the 12.9% ABV is too high to permit sales.

Sampled from a corked and caged 22oz bottle. A Sierra Nevada employee posted on a Beer Advocate forum that the aging was “in fresh bourbon barrels (a combination of Willett single barrel, Heaven Hill and various Beam brands)”.

TASTING NOTES

Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Narwhal

For starters, the regular Narwhal is an impressively huge stout, combining sweet malts with a slight bitter kick of hoppy astringency. A very nice Russian imperial stout, with a bit of heat. A natural choice for barrel aging.
Barrel Aged Narwhal keeps the sweet nose, with chocolate, whiskey, and anise, pouring with an unexpectedly large, latte colored head. One challenge in aging beer on bourbon is getting the flavor of the spirit, without drowning out what makes the beer what it is. In this case, Sierra Nevada gets the balance just right, starting out vanilla sweet, with an oak note mid-palette, and finishing with a slick boozy bourbon kick. The carbonation works though the thick body, washing it down with no lingering barrel. The 12.9% ABV is hardly noticeable in this BA stout wonder. Only the kick of hops has diminished.

CONCLUSION

Sadly, some of the world’s best barrel aged stouts have no pedigree. Goose Island’s Bourbon Barrel Stout, Deschute’s The Abyss, The Bruery’s Black Tuesday all evoke desire for stout lovers, but none offer up a direct base beer. Experiencing a fresh stout, and then getting to see how it changes after the aging process is a fun exercise. With Sierra Nevada’s Barrel Aged Narwhal, the craft beer fan gets that opportunity to see what goes into the barrels. On top of the available pedigree, BA Narwhal is one hell of a beer. While not as complex as The Abyss, nor quite as superlative as BCBS, BA Narwhal outshines nearly all others, including most of the smaller brewery, small batch BA stout walez. More drinkable perhaps even than the lower ABV non-barrel aged version. Sweet, deep and potent; this is a limited release so grab one by the horn, tooth, or whatever.

8/10

Craft beer review of Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Narwhal
Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Narwhal
Date Published: 01/02/2015
8.0 / 10 stars

Buffalo Bayou Gingerbread Stout

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Guest Tasting w/  Jess (@Epicfaul) and Christine (@Revstich)

THE BEER

The holidays bring us together with family and friends and in that vein we review Buffalo Bayou Gingerbread Stout, a beer given as a Christmas gift, with two guest reviewers.  Jess and Christine both enjoy beer, but neither is huge fan of imperial stouts.

A bayou is gross and smelly. In 1836 the Allen brothers founded Houston in Buffalo Bayou (or mother bayou), which now runs into a shipping port, then on to the Gulf of Mexico. There are scores of cars abandoned within the bayou, many with people still inside. But the city lacks the funding to remove the vehicles.

Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company  founded in 2011 appears to be in better shape than their namesake bog.  Part of the emerging Houston craft brewing scene, Buffalo Bayou has 2 lines of beer; the Heritage Series that has only 2 beers and appears to avoid style descriptions, and the Secessionist Series, from which our reviewed beer comes from.

TASTING NOTES

According to the brewer this is “A limited batch brewed for Christmas in July”. So our late December tasting has given the brew about six months to age. The bottle is covered in seasonal red wax. The label contains a tiny gingerbread man with only one leg, frowning, upheld by a cane. The bottle reads:

This is brewed in homage to all the gingerbread men and women who lost their gumdrop buttons in the war against child sadness.

Ladies first as we all offer notes on Buffalo Bayou Gingerbread Stout…

Jess: Thin. Smells more of gingerbread/cinnamon than it actually tastes. Would expect more sweetness from a ‘gingerbread stout’. Heavy carbonation. 6.5

Christine: Thin. Slightly tart. Doesn’t pair well with cheese straws. 6.0

Steve: Great nose. Smells just like a gingerbread cookie; all cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. Looks pitch black, like a traditional imperial stout. Strong carbonation leads to a modest brown head that dissipates soon. The taste is surprisingly subtle. The ginger and nutmeg are still there, but muted. Much less punch you in the face ‘holiday spice’ that many others in the Christmas Ale type beers. This is a positive, as spice bombs can fatigue the palette. However, I doubt the sour notes are intended, and may not of been there initially. The finish was mild roasted malt with some spice, although not sweet. Body, as noted above is much too thin for a stout. 7.0

CONCLUSION

Buffalo Bayou Gingerbread stout is the first Buffalo Bayou beer we have tasted. This beer was apparently brewed for release around July. We found a bottle in late November on the shelves for this ‘limited’ release. We all agreed the smell was spot on, an inviting gingerbread man cookie. After that it was less a stout than we expected, and less gingerbread. The sour note may have replaced an earlier sweetness which was missing, perhaps due to an infection. That aside, this was a very drinkable, especially as a spiced porter for winter. Would really enjoy trying the barrel aged version.

6.5/10

Craft beer review of Buffalo Bayou Gingerbread Stout
Buffalo Bayou Gingerbread Stout
Date Published: 12/28/2014
6.5 / 10 stars

 

 

Founders Big Lushious

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THE BEER

Founders Backstage Series, perhaps most famous for bringing Canadian Breakfast Stout and Blushing Monk (amongst others) to large format bottles, returns with its latest offering to close out 2014. ‘Stout season’ is a marketing term the social media types at Founders love to use when the weather turns. They urge craft beer aficionados to start stocking up on what are perhaps their best offerings, Imperial Stout and Breakfast Stout. So it is no surprise that come December, Founders Big Lushious comes along as yet another dark beer option for the dark, cold winter.

The commercial description tells us what they are going for :

This deep, rich stout is packed with flavor: roasted malts, all-natural dark chocolate, a subtle suggestion of burnt coffee grounds and a kiss of tart raspberries. It’s big but balanced. At 7.8% ABV, Big Lushious is a sumptuous, extravagant dessert beer fit for enjoying with friends and family around the holidays or to celebrate a special occasion. But really, this beer can make any occasion special. Don’t worry; we won’t call you a lush.

I am reminded of a recent Founders ‘tap takeover’ where the brewery rep kept urging imbibers to get a pour of their raspberry beer Rubaeus and blend it with the KBS. It sounded sacrilegious to most of the Kentucky Breakfast Stout fans, but the raspberry sweetness did offer a nice element to the chocolate of the stout. So when they announced Big Lushious, I was hoping it would prove as delicious a blend.

TASTING NOTES

Founders Big LushiousPouring with active carbonation from the 22 ounce bottle, Founders Big Lushious fills the air with raspberry and hot chocolate notes. The head is the color of wet sand, huge with large bubbles and lingering for a time. When you taste Big Lushious, all that raspberry in the nose is there right up front, with a pleasant tartness, trailed by cocoa powder and roasted malts and sweetness that puts it well beyond other Founders stouts in that aspect. A very rich beer, some would qualify Big Lushious as a ‘dessert beer’, we had it with the addicting Destination Donuts from Columbus, Ohio without being cloying. Not a fan of super sweet brews like Southern Tier’s Creme Brulee, for me this is just tart enough that I was able to enjoy a large pour and wanted more. The body is thick enough for a stout, with the strong carbonation rushing the liquid to the finish. The last taste is still chocolate and tart raspberry with a warming note from the alcohol.

CONCLUSION

The scintillating bottle art promises dark chocolate and red fruit decadence. And without a doubt Founders Big Lushious delivers on that promise. In the same manner that their summer delight Rubaeus tastes of the true sweet/tart natural flavor of raspberry, the Big Lush wraps chocolate notes around a nicely balanced fruit flavor. A well crafted sweet stout with excellent adjuncts. If you like the combination in truffles or donuts, you will love the latest Founders Backstage release.

8.5/10

Craft beer review of Founders Big Lushious
Founders Big Lushious
Date Published: 12/06/2014
8.5 / 10 stars