Founders American Black Ale

Formerly brewed at Founders Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Grand Rapids, Michigan USA

Serve in English pint, Stem glass

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Outstanding. Deep black colored pour with a nice creamy tan head. Smooth light chocolate aroma with something more complex I cannot identify. Extra smooth palate. This was fantastic.

Amazingly dark beer bottle brown color, nearly black stout-like appearance, finger high head of creamed cocoa brown sits long before staying as a thin skim always present, lacing in large amounts of globs and ink blots. Smell is really nice, nothing faint here, all browns(black) ales need to smell like this. Some favorable soft bakers chocolate and richly roasted black malt sweetness make the top and hardy blackened bready biscuits takes the bottom. The malted sweetness adds a nice balance to the roasty/burnt breads. Taste has a nice black malt sweetness, chocolate breadyness, soft, yielding roastyness, then it takes a turn towards the finish where some nice leafy hop bitterneess comes through and ends late with leftover chocolatey dryness. Nice finish, subtle, complex, hop bittering mixed with the roastyness and dry chocolate. Feel is sweet, dry, roasty, just shy of medium body with a nice finish. Porter-like character overall. This brown ale thinks its a porter. A great attitude to have.

This bottled brew poured a medium sized head of frothy fine to large sized long lasting light brown colored bubbles that left behind a fair lacing. The body contained soft carbonation, was opaque and black in color. Its aroma contained notes of coffee molasses roasted sweet malts and was very nice. Its mouth feel is initially tingly with a hoppy coffee bite and dark beer brown malts. The finish is a lingering tingly thick palate and a malty smooth hoppy aftertaste. Its flavor contained coffee roasted malty hoppy and dark beer brown malty notes. It was very tasty. An excellent beer that I would buy again.

$1.39 for a 12-oz single. Really dark brown- nearly black, with a foamy head almost two inches high. Sweet roastedness in the nose; maybe spicy orange; Muy fantastico! Sweet roasted nuts and orange. Finishes bitter. Complex. Great beer, I'll have another!

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with Sully, thanks Mike) This Black Ale pours a very dark brown that is only a shade lighter than black, and there are deep mahogany highlights at the edges. It takes about five seconds for the small, wafer-thin head to materialize, and then it quickly fades back to a partial sheen. The nose is sweet yet tart, roasty, smoky, and very chocolaty with a modest aroma of berry, and is reminding me of a chocolate raspberry cake, albeit not as sweet. More of that cake when I first take a sip, but there’s also a clear and unmistakeable roastiness with a moderate bitterness that picks up potency within a second or two. The beer tastes less sweet than the aroma even when first taking a sip, and in fact, even that sweetness dies away quickly, being replaced by an obvious tartness. A solid smokiness joins the fun in the finish, as does a surprising grapefruit character. Body is quite light for such a dark beer, not that that is unheard of, but certainly goes against the norm. That’s not to say the body is light in general, rather, it’s more medium "plus" to me. Carbonation is fairly gentle, but seems perfect for this beer. Lacing is literally spotty. This is just an all-around great beer, extremely flavorful, very enjoyable and tasty, and wonderfully complex with a variety of flavors that are rarely tasted together in one beer. Excellent, excellent brew.

My buddy Hennes suggested that ratings would be all over for this, and they do range all over the 3s, but no greater. This has some real underlying quality, and for me it comes in a really deep inhalation. For this beer, the aroma tells the whole story! There’s dark chocolate notes to provide a tiny nuttiness, roasty bits, and a no-holds-barred hops infusion as well. Dry-stout-thin, kindling wood aroma and body. Wild. But quite good. Founder’s is sneaking up on me as a good solid Michigan brewer . Also...this thing is an almost rubyish-purple color. Wild again! As it warms, make sure to add the yeast at the bottom as it adds a real tanginess to the proceedings.

UPDATED: NOV 20, 2005 Bottle. Pours a dark brown color w/ a small light tanhead. Nose is light hops, some roasted notes and a bit of coffee like hues. Taste is hoppy with some light roasted notes, some coffee and overall pretty unimpressive. rerate. 12oz bottle.After darkelfs rating I had to try again, must have been wasted the first time cause it really is damn good. Pours a dark brown color with a creamy off white head. Nose is mocha, malty and some dark fruits. taste is slightly bitter up front, some maltiness, roastiness, dark chocolate, and a very smooth finish. I upped the aroma, appearance, palate up 1 point each, overall up 3 points.

Too bad this one is retired because it was very good. A dark brown appearane with a lasting head. A nice chocolate and caramel aroma. The flavor consists of coffee, licorice, and chocolate. A rather dry and bitter beer. Very good for a porter.

I probably would have never called this an ale, it reminds me of Dark Horse's Black Bier, more of stout/porter. Very dark color, almost black, opaque, with a moderate brown head. Sweet fig or prune like aroma, with hints of roast coffee. Flavor is slightly bitter, very roasty and coffeeish. Finish is somewhat bitter and sweet. Very good beer, I'm not sure about the name though.

Bottle. Poured a small tan head with sparse lacing, opaque, carbonated, black hue. Malty, roasted coffee, chocolate, and very light hoppy aroma. Malty, roasted coffee, and light caramel flavor. Medium bodied beer with a tingly mouthfeel.