Founders Blushing Monk

Brewed by Founders Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Grand Rapids, Michigan USA

22oz bottle. Ruby body, capped with a moderate-sized pink head. Aroma is sweet overall, with notes of wheat, yeast, and raspberry. Strong fresh raspberry flavor, sweet and a little tart, with some wheat in the background. Body is a bit syrupy. Long raspberry finish, with some warming alcohol.

Bottle. Deep copper red in color with a fluffy pinkish head. Caramel malty rasberry fruity aroma. Toffee notes. Fruity and sweet flavor. Chocolate and cherry notes. Tart. Smooth tasting. Finish is tart. Full bodied. Very nice beer. Wow.

summer 2007 bottle. Pours a warm mahogany tinted red with an average density pink grey-white head. The nose is sweet and malty, with some raspberry for sure, but far less than when fresh. A rounder caramel to toffee aspect accompanies a sharp raspberry fruitiness. Full thicker body, slightly lower than average carbonation, smooth. The flavor still shows lots of fruity raspberry. Sharp and slightly tart. Lots of not just residual sugar, but malt character. A bit of caramel and maybe even some chocolate. Small alcohol and fruity astringency, and that’s when some more chocolate pops up. The tongue is left a little raw by this. I’d have to say that age has been rather kind to this beer, and I’m glad I have another in the cellar!

Bottle. Wow, I expected a lot more from this beer based on the ratings. Pours a dark red with no real head. Aroma is quite pungent, of sweet raspberry (juice-like). Aroma of slightly tart raspberry sweetness (still juice-like), also some cranberry. Quite sweet and fruity. This is a little stronger than juice but it’s practically the same. I was hoping that such a reknown fruit beer would have a stronger malt background, but this is not the case. It’s alright to drink but it’s more like juice than beer. Are people rating this based on reputation?? All I know is that there are tons of fruit beers with quite low ratings that are more delicious than this beer. Another point of interest is that a full glass of this beer is a little hard to take (in comparison to those that rated off of a 2-4 oz. sample). I’d pass on this in the future...

Bottle. So just as I was coming to this page, it dawned on me that as my glass was going down, this beer was becoming harder and harder to drink because I was getting more and more of a cranberry-vodka cocktail feel. I then noticed that the last rater also picked up on that and gave it a 4.0. To each his own I guess, because cranberry-vodka cocktail is NOT what I’m going for in my beer. Aroma started out pretty strong, nice tart raspberry. But nothing else ever really materialized, maybe some medicinal cherry, but again, as the glass went down, more and more of that 12.3%, more and more of that alcohol. Flavor was mildly tart, but nowhere near what I would expect from such a big beer. It’s not that it was too sweet for me, it was just kinda blah with some tartness in the mouth. Full bodied, but the body didn’t do much to carry the flavor, just sort of sat in the mouth much the way a large gulp of water would. And this is all before that vodka-cranberry cocktail kicked in, making this all but unfinishable. I also now notice that a lot of the recent high ratings come from small sample sizes. Try a full glass of this stuff, you’ll regret it. 3.78? Seriously?

tasted with the phoenix crew. bomber courtesy of psprings. pours a fairly clear cranberry juice color with no head to speak of. aroma is most noticeably cooked raspberry puree, light tartness and a good amount of malty sweetness to back it up. the flavor reminds me of a vodka and cranberry cocktail... light tartness, lots of minerals, grass, sweet maltiness and raspberry liqueur. a little tartness on the finish just before a glimpse of the abv%. a bit on the too sweet side but it is well played and the payoff is worthwhile. full bodied. super smooth and surprisingly complex...

22oz bottle. Pleasant aroma of raspberry liqueur and apple juice. Poured a lovely clear garnet color. The head was fizzy, pinkish-white and short lived, but left some lace behind on the glass. Full bodied and sweet. Tasted of mixed fruit juices. Plenty of raspberry came out along with a fruit liqueur flavor. A bit of acidity emerged at the end. I tasted alcohol, but never would have guessed 12.3% prospectively. I’m not a huge fruity beer fan, but this was well done.

Sampled at Bockyhorsey’s Bocky Bash on 7-5-08. Raspberry aroma hits the nose. Raspberry flavor was good and thicker body texure for a fruit beer over the carbination that uasually is present. Good fruity brew.