Founders Backwoods Bastard

Brewed by Founders Brewing Company
Style: Scotch Ale
Grand Rapids, Michigan USA

Serve in Thistle

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Good aroma of oak and bourbon. Pours a very dark red/brown with very little head. Smooth beer, with just a hint of bourbon that isn’t over powering. Solid brew.

A very nice Scots Ale (and thanks to the fine folks at Crown #15, Fishers, Indiana, for seeking out this stock!). Pours a very dark, reddish brown, with thin head. Aroma is malt and spice. Flavor is the same, but very rich. Has an almost barley wine quality to it, with noticeable alcohol, but not unpleasantly so. A very good beer!

Chestnut color with a garnet hue when held to the light. Diminished taupe head with a thin lid adrift atop. Strong aromas of bourbon oak, earthy vanilla, peat, milk chocolate, butterscotch and a hint of alcohol. Very strong bourbon flavors, nearly to the point of shuttering (the shake you get after slamming a shot of bad whiskey). Sweet and fruity in the start, with black cherries and and plums. Middle is full frontal bourbon including the burn that follows. Some hints of toffee on the finish, but my guts are really starting to burn. The bourbon is really overpowering in this one. While I like bourbon, I like beer more and this one is doused with too much booze.

UPDATED: JAN 27, 2008 12oz bottle, no date. My bottle claims 8.7%. Clear copper brown with a small beige head, fading to a ring before long. Nose has plenty of bourbon, vanilla, wood, and brown sugar. There is some smoky peated malt and toffee as well as some light alcohol. Flavor is much the same--no surprises. Lotsa toffee, almost buttery. Full smooth body, low carbonation. Very good. This doesn’t quite taste like what I remember at the Great Taste--if I can find my notes, at the Great Taste it was less peaty and I didn’t pick up on any bourbon--maybe they gave me the wrong beer. Notes from GTMW 8/11/07. Clear reddish brown with a small beige head. Aroma of light bourbon, light peated malt, and caramel malts. Flavor was the same with a little bourbon and no peated malt. Medium body with moderate carbonation. Good, but not enough peat.-----I don’t know if this was the same beer or not, but there is definitely a difference between my two different samples. 7-3-7-3-14--3.4

Bottle. Sweet aroma, slightly smoky with strong overtones of whiskey [more bourbon, really], a bit of caramel and wood. Some vanilla. Richly malty. Muddled mahogany body with a tanned bubbly head. Very sweet and lightly bitter taste, faint smoke and bread, slight woody [oaken] smoke carrying through the aftertaste. Vanilla, faint cherry, blended dark fruits, butterscotch, toasted toffee. Lots of complex malt here, but also has some alcohol fumes from the whiskey. Medium body a bit lighter than liked at times, but still to style, and the taste is extremely robust. Creamy smooth feel. Complex and satisfying, well-integrated alcohol but still definitely a sipper. Really, really good - but can be better!

An almost still, dark brown beer, this has a profoundly oaky nose, with the tannic and uric notes I associate with oak barrel aging over a rather sweet, cookie-like nose. The flavor is quite sweet and a bit chocolatey, almost like a tootsie role. There is certainly a good dose of oak there, but it’s not offensively tannic, and there are a number of pleasant hints in there as well of tobacco, almonds, and cherry wood smoke. Fantastic.

oaky and vanilla aroma.... slightly bourbon aroma. Very nice malty aroma... but not overly, just enough to smell yummy. Taste is initially a creamy bourbon followed by a smooth oak flavor and a slight vanilla extract. VERY GOOD. Very well done. Fuck.

UPDATED: NOV 2, 2007 12oz, recently bottled. pours clear dense mahogany with small fizzy tan head around the rim. nose is big with vanilla, oak, bourbon, not much else, lots of vanilla. flavor has loads of sweet caramel and bourbon, lots of vanilla here, licorice, slight hint of chocolate. alcohol is well hidden but some sips are harsh and others just warming the throat. the nose and taste leads me to believe it is going to burn but it finishes quite smooth. body is a bit watery, carbonation is surprisingly low, as it looks fizzy at first. in the end the flavor just isn’t that complex for a BA beer sort of leaving the palate with a huh, is that it? feeling. tasty though.

This was a good scotch ale but a little overwhelming in the bourbon area.I like my BA beers but this was a little to bourbany for me.CHEERS!

12oz bottle poured in a shaker. FBB pours ruby mahogany with little to no head. It is neither atractive nor ugly. The nose is mostly bourbon, wood, molasses and an unfortuate reminesce of a bad camping trip involving too much Southern Comfort. I’m not a bourbon fan by any means. It tastes like bourbon, and thus is not my cup of tea. I can’t fairly rate this beer due to my dislike of bourbon. The beer seems a bit flat. Maybe some more hops would be good. Putting the bourbon aside there is a definite butterscotch taste as well.