Founders Devil Dancer Triple IPA

2007 12oz bottle. sampled from a very recently bottled vintage. pours dense hazy red with small off-white head. nose is bursting with grassy and grapefruity hops while the malt/sugars isn’t going to let you ignore the huge caramel and cotton candy causing 13%abv. other aroma notes are bubblegum and some alcohol too. flavor notes of grapefruits, cotton candy, brown sugar, and caramel. finish is long and sweet. alcohol is very well hidden, i can’t believe it’s 13%. this beer is massive but in an insane way it’s actually balanced quite well. to bad it was a little to much for me to finish.7/4/7/4/14=3.6.

12/5/07, early 2006 bottle, aged close to 2 years now. pours dense caramel color with no head. nose has cotton candy, caramel, tobacco, and citrus. flavors are still quite bitter with some piney and grapefruit hops notes but the hops have really dropped off from what it once was, there’s some nice aged malt notes of tobacco, along with some cotton candy and caramel. I really like how this has aged but most Founders beers don’t hold up after a few years and I think any longer the hop flavors will be mostly gone. no signs of 13% but it was well hidden when it was fresh. I like this beer with the hops toned down a bit as I thought they were too brash and unbalanced when fresh.8/4/8/4/16=4.0.

2/24/08, sampled another bottle from an early 2006 batch and this one seemed a bit too oxidized and vegetal but i still thought the hops added nice bitterness to the aged malt even though others said it was way past its prime, whatever, it was tasty.3.8.

Bottled. Deep orange/brown.. small rapidly disappearing head. Mega hops jumps out in both aroma and flavor. Bitter finish with enjoyable lengthy aftertaste. Alcohol hidden very well. Nice Imperial IPA.

whoa bitter. this had some aromas of hay and dirty socks with some apple, rye, whisley, clovers, parsley, and burnt hops. this was so bitter it was hard to drink. but still enjoyable. lots of grassy and earthy kinds of hops and malts.

Dark orange in colour with a bit of haze. Booze and citrus fruit are the most apparent aromas, along with notes of grassy hops and a bit of toasted malts. About as heavy in the mouth as you’d expect from a 13% beer, which is to say "it’s pretty heavy". Loads of fat pale malt flavors without a lot of caramel character. Some notes of vanilla cream chocolates, oranges, black pepper, earth, and some alcohol heat. Not nearly as hoppy or bitter as advertized. This is a pretty mellow and vaguely syrupy beer. This is more like barleywine than a double IPA in my opinion, and not really a very good one at that.

Matt, thank you for letting me in on this special 4 pack. This beer did not disappoint on the price tag. Wonderful flavor and the hoppiness wasn’t not over powering but it was very strong. Give me another.

Bottle from Ross. Thanks! Pours a dark orange amber with hardly any head retention. Smell is sweet and malty, with hops definitely present, but kind of taking a backseat to the heavy booze and sweet, caramelly malt flavors. A little reminiscent of DFH Burton Baton in both taste and smell. Flavor is equally explosive with alcohol, especially as it warms, and the hops seem to get lost in big malt punch. I wouldnt go as far as to call this a barleywine, but it certainly shares some of its characteristics. Not sure how fresh this bottle was, but I would like to try one I know is fresh and see if it tastes any different. A year ago I may have really loved this, but last night it was just too much, too fast. And I was drinking it slowly.

Not really sure what to think about this beer. The beer is a deep burnt orange color, clear with a very small head. Aroma is incredibly strong with alcohol and a huge hop attack of grapefruit and pine. Buried underneath all that hops is some sweetness. Flavor is really strong in the alcohol dept. and I thought it was almost what rubbing alcohol would taste like if you were to down it. It also had a unexpected smoky character which I don’t know where the hell that came from. Hops are huge on the taste also, but it’s extremely ragged. Nothing refined about this beer at all, and perhaps that’s the way it’s meant to be. So far it’s one of the better 3IPA’s out there, just not too sure I enjoy the style enough yet.

very dark amber/red, very small off white head that didn’t last very long. Aroma is very hoppy, and quite malty also, with some caramel in there. flavour is quite hoppy, and a big caramel finish. the bitterness is not as extreme as i would have thought. The alcohol is masked extremely well. This is more or a barely wine than an IIPA if you ask me.