Founders Barrel Aged Porter

Brewed by Founders Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
Grand Rapids, Michigan USA

Great Taste 2008 sample. Bourbon heavy, but with a milk chocolate shake like taste. Creamy mouthfeel. Good stuff!

Great Taste 2008. A solid way to start the festival with this 1:00 pour. This is a very good beer, but I was a bit underwhelmed -- which is not to say this doesn’t merit a rating in the high 3s. Perhaps it’s that I’ve come to expect too much from Founders. But onto the beer: Notes of chocolate and soy blend with vanilla and toffee. The bourbon is more on the finish, nothing like the other BA porter I had -- the Dark Knight Returns -- where bourbon is everywhere. Solid, and hides its alcohol well.

GTMW 2008. The beer pours to a pitch black body with a tan head. The aroma is milk chocolate and vanilla. Sweet. The flavor is roasted black patent, light licorice, sweet milk chocolate and dark chocolate chips. Vanilla and oak. Rich sweet palate with a full body and nice texture and great coating.

Great Taste of the Midwest 2008

Initially I was going to pass on this until I got a sniff of someone else’s glass. At that point I knew that I had to give it a try. An early special tap the extra aging seems to have improved the already solid porter. Unlike some beers which end up unbalanced this had a nice blend of base beer and barrel aging.

Aroma / Appearance - The black body had the tan lacing you would expect of a thick porter or stout. The bourbon and vanilla notes stand out first but do not dominate the underlying dark chocolate. Very balanced this was a delight to savor.

Flavor / Palate - The first sip was a blend of peanut butter and chocolate. It then morphed into a woody rye aftertaste with dryness in the finish. Founder’s has improved on a alreadty solid beer by laying it down.

Small sample, on tap at Great Taste of the Midwest. Consumed on 8-9-2008. Pours dark brown with tan head. Sweet, bourbony, milky aroma features corn, coffee, and milk chocolate scents. Nice, tart, tangy, oaky, bourbony taste. Good, roasted malt flavor with a dry finish. Medium body. Lively and a little oily in the palate.

Good rich chocolaty bourbon flavored porter. Not too heavy on the palate but even and well balanced. Very enjoyable.

On tap at GTMW. Poured black with a creamy, deep brown head.. nice. The aroma picked up rich dark chocolate and vanilla upfront.. toasty oak and sweet bourbon joined the chocolate on the back-end. The flavor had dark chocolate all over with a very good bourbon/barrel impression (sweet vanilla and tasty bourbon were quite well integrated and let the malts do their thing).. drier finish picked up some coffee bitterness. Medium-bodied and well-balanced on the palate with spicy oak on the memorable finish. Excellent brew!

On tap at MIBGSF 08. Pours black with a tiny tan colored head. Aroma is oak, bourbon, chocolate, caramel. Flavor is nice hint of oak, bourbon, and vanilla, on top of the chocolate, caramel, roast, coffee notes of the original beer. Palate is full bodied, mild carbonation, finished sweet and mildly warming. This is fantastic use of Woodford barrels, the bourbon just supurbly compliments an already fantastic beer! Hopefully this gets bottled one day as I know the porter is scheduled to be released for the first time in a long time this year. Terrific stuff!!