Founders Cerise

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

Serve in Flute

I was a little skeptical about ordering this fruit beer over at Union Jack’s, but it’s Founders. And I have yet to taste a Founders beer I have been disappointed with. That trend will continue! I sampled the Cerise on draft, and it was incredibly delicious! The beer pours a very dark red color with a purple hue. There wasn’t a whole lot of head, though. The nose was full of cherries and a light bready malt. The flavors were fairly sweet, with the cherries dominating the show. I also tasted a little bread, earth, light alcohol and a subtle hint of yeast. The finish was again pretty sweet, with even more cherries and a hint of light malt.

Pours orange with a pinkish head. Aroma is cherries and almond. Flavour is malt and sour cherries. Not my kind of beer.

(Bottled, sampled 2010-02-08) Clear rose wine color with a small, quickly fading, white head. Aroma of mild, tart cherries, slightly sweet strawberries, and not much else. Acidic cherry flavor with strawberries and slight tartness. Almost medium body with medium carbonation. A bland, almost diluted-feeling fruit beer. On the positive side, it’s not very sweet.

On tap at MBGSF 2010. Pours red amber with a white head. Cherry and caramel aromas. Cherry and caramel follow into the flavor along with biscuit, but the strongest sensation is honey sweetness. Nice.

Clear golden with a fizzy white head. Sweet candy cherry and malt aroma and taste. Decent.

Dull fruit nose, some cherry, some sugary malts. Taste is moderately sweet, not really any tartness of note, nor bitterness. Lots of cherry, some sugar, not much else. Very sad that this replaced the Rubeus.

From bottle. Mild cherry aroma, a bit sweet with fruity notes and light hop character. Nice reddish-light brown color, hazy, with thin off-white head. Medium watery body with vigorous carbonation. Starts tart with nice sour cherry flavor. Some fruity and malt sweetness. Finishes with fruit tartness and light bitterness. Decent lasting cherry flavor with smooth cherry after.

Pours a bright reddish amber with a small white head. Nose is unmistakably of cherries, but not sour cherries. I grew up on a farm in the midwest, and we always had cherry trees that produced fruit of two varieties: the mouth-puckering, small, lightly colored cherries my family used for baking, and the larger, plumper, darker cherries that were fleshy and sweet. This beer definitely reminds me of the latter sort. I really enjoy a well-made fruit beer in the summer from time to time. Those that I would characterize as "well-made" are such because of how fresh and natural the flavors present themselves, as opposed to the artificiality you often get with a poorly made beer of the style. This beer tastes incredibly fresh, clean, natural and refreshing. It is one dimensional, but then so are most fruit beers. Still, this beer fits a seasonal need well, and I will continue to buy it when available.