Founders Curmudgeon Old Ale

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

Bottle 355ml.
Unclear medium amber orange color with a average, frothy - creamy, good lacing, mostly lasting, beige head. Aroma is moderate malty, roasted, caramel, light hoppy, orange, moderate yeasty. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and moderate bitter with a average to long duration. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. [20081122]

Bottles from a couple of kind folks. This one has a nice nose of wood, vanilla, green apple, brown sugar, earthy hops and more sweet malty goodness. Pours a murky orange amber with a thin head. Lots of malts in the flavor, toffee, green apple, softer light fruity notes, brown sugar, and woody earthy bitterness that rounds out the finish. The alcohol becomes a little warming towards the end of the brew. Soft carb, smooth drinking, pleasant finish.

i really liked this one. pours nice amber/copper with a nice malty aroma with a little hop cutting through with a little smoke on the end. nice malt sweetness with a good bite from the hops. finishes sweet with dark fruits and smoke on the end. very nice

Amber colored pour with not much head. Weak aroma of alcohol, spices and citrus. It was almost like watered down whiskey with just about the same burn in the belly. Softened a bit as it warmed up but that almost made it worse. Some definite fruits an malt flavor in there as well. I think if the liquor taste was not so prevalent this would be much better.

Got this as an extra from an excellent trade with GCurlow on the other site. Thanks, Grant! Pours a nice clear amber, much lighter than I expected with a very minimal head. Has a powerful aroma, malt, peat, apricot and orange. Palate is medium bodied with a lot of sugar in the front. Very very malty and sugary with a light fruit flavor. Not my favorite style, but pretty damn tasty all the same.

Beautiful sunset amber pour displaying an ephemeral white cover. This version bought in September 2008 was actually labeled as 9.8% and it makes for a very heady aroma. No wonder the ratings are so high, this is high octane stuff. Fortunately, the malt base is solid with its deep mango/apricot duo thick pancakes bathing in maple syrup rich, toasty, bready cereal profile. As it even begins to warm up though, massive amounts of diacetyl emanates. I’m usually not all that disturbed by butteriness, especially not in beers like scotch ales, old ales or barleywines, but this surpasses my generous threshold. Liquid alcoholic toffee, rather chewy and thick besides for the overly biting carbonation that removes any English aspiration. It has its strong points with this type of malt richness, but were it a delicate offering, its ’integrated’ flaws would make me rate it under 3. I will not go so low as I still find it pleasant, but can’t call it a great beer and would never consider going as high as its current 3.8 average.

Interesting red amber, even orange and brown, ok hard to describe the color. Every whiff brings something else. Maybe like smelling a warm piece of fruit cake. The flavor was better than I remember of any fruitcake. Deep, spicy, drinkable flavor, with all the flavors of a fruitcake as it was meant to be.

This poured a mahogany color with an off white head. Aroma was of dark fruits caramel, sweet malts and some leather. Flavor was a but toffe/caramel scotch flavor with noters of burnt malts and alcohol. Althoguh flavor isnt quite breathetaking, it is almost overwhelming