Founders Curmudgeon Old Ale

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

12 oz bottle from Founders. I love founders so its fitting that this is my 100 beer rating. Pours a dark orange color, almost brown. Aroma is very good I smell the alcohol, some barley, and some fruit hints. Taste sweet yet spicy. I’m feeling the alcohol in this one. It is very good.

Wonderful nose -- bold and vibrant, with hints of rum and fresh-cut coconut. Cloudy, deep amber. Super smooth with a milkshake-like texture; mild carb. Malts exuded with sugar water-soaked wood and vanilla, with lesser hints of caramel and powdered cocoa. Moderate bitterness. Curious background aromas of perfume, seaweed and mysterious spices. Alcohol was hidden well on the front end, but it was affectionately warming on the back end. Curiously enough, it tastes more like this beer was aged in rum barrels rather than bourbon barrels. Nevertheless, it’s a nice sweet-sour addition.

12oz. bottle, 2006 bourbon barrel-aged version. Richly malty and sweet aroma, complex and enticing, plenty of bourbon character to be found here alongside notes of toffee, vanilla, cherry, oak, dark brown sugar, raisin, fig, dried flowers and slight medicinal alcohol, even some very faint smoke detected. Deep, dark copper color, somewhat hazy, with a fully subsiding head. Flavor is utterly dominated by the powerful malt presence from beginning to end, with more sweet toffee, cherry, vanilla and dried, dark fruits, shot through with oaked bourbon and finishing with a gentle, earthy bitterness and lingering alcoholic warmth. Palate is smooth, sticky and nearly still, with a body that’s full as can be. This is excellent. Seemingly very complimented by the barrel aging process, and one I’d had on my wishlist for some time. Thanks a lot to boboski for the opportunity.

Pours a very hazy brown, with a great off-white head. Big aroma, lots of peat, caramel, sweet malts. A classic Founders complexity, lots of varting fruit tastes underlying behind the main malt character. Sweet, but not cloying, strong, but not boozy. Nutty finish... pick it up, if you can find it!

Bottle courtesy of Ughsmash, sampled in mid-June ’06: Pours a clear mahogany with orange hues and a thin, light tan head. Rich, complex, big bourbony oaky and lightly fruity aroma has a hint of coconut. Body starts with sweet caramel malt and lots of fresh bourbon oak and a smooth complex, nicely-balanced finish that covers the alcohol well. Well done and enjoyable.

Pours a clear deep copper with a thin off white head. Aroma is bourbon, oak, smokey, light herbal spice, phenolics and light fruity esters mixed with spiced rum- tons of sticky sweet caramel malts. More sweet spiced rum flavor- alcohol is apparent, pepper, hot, bourbon and more wood. Very smooth, but the body is a bit light for such a strong old ale. Nice and complex though.

Pale, cloudy brown color with practically no head. I know this is the way the beer is supposed to look, but I’m taking points off anyway. Aroma of toffee, vanilla, molasses and dried fruit. The vanillin from the oak really comes through on the flavor with tons of toffee and molasses. Nice sticky mouthfeel. Sweet on the palate, but not cloying. A fantastic beer.

Sweet and though I often don’t like sweet/malty beers, this just rises above. While many or most beers diminish with oxidation, there’s something in this that makes me think it would survive. Old ale indeed. Guess I should get one and see if I’m right or not, but I can at least say that I really enjoyed this one fully.