Founders Reds Rye P.A.

Pours firey orange with generous beige-white foam clinging. Aroma of salty, spicy rye and citrusy hops; pungent, earthy breadiness stricken with burnt garlic and fumes of florals and wild rice. A weird melting pot of rustic outdoorsy elements. Flavor is a pleasant, easy balance of citric bitterness and soft malty sweetness; oranges, wheatgrass, pear, pineapple, and pine. Caramel malts burst through with a delicate sweetness in the mid palate. Steadfast balance and soft touch. Palate is medium to full, rounded, chewy, smooth, leaning towards cloying richness but not overstepping. Finishes dusty with bitter pine and grapefruit and tropical fruits trumping a distant red spiciness. Disjointed hoppiness might have made this more complicated than it needed to be, but even in that context it’s a finely tuned and well presented effort.

Right from the first second I smelled a strong sharp hoppy aroma. Cloudy brown color with a moderate head. Quite strong rye flavor with a hoppy bite to it. Spicy, sour and a little sweet. This is a nice beer.

(12 oz bottle) deep copper with light copper head, nice lace. Lovely spicy hops aroma with some malt. Flavor is malt, rye, and a strong hop backbone. I’d love to try this one on cask.

Bottle, a bonus from pabobcat---man I’m glad I got to try this one. Thank you!

Pours a beautiful deep copper with a nice light-tan head. Great looking beer. And a splendid aroma as well: malts balancing well against deep robust hops that blend sweet citrus and plenty of resin, rich caramel notes coming through strong, ample spiciness from the rye. The flavor comes very close but doesn’t quite match the previous two. Plenty of malted rye driving this one, and points for the distinctive contributions from the yeast. Piney hops dance all around, strong and notable but never overbalancing the rye and other malts. If I were to complain about anything, it comes of just a notch to bready and just a notch underhopped to take it to the highest of planes. Must of that may have to do with the bottled condition of this one, I can speculate that fresh on cask or even draft would be absolutely divine. I’m now ISO this on tap or cask next time I visit Michigan. I’m tossing in a point to overall based on potential, but I suspect even that leaves me with a conservative 4.2.

I can see why this went so far in the recent DIPAC bracket. It’s excellent! This is another one of those "why I love beer" beers.

Dark red/copper colored beer with nice medium sized white head. Well balanced, a citrusey/floral aroma followed by a slightly sweet and bitter taste. It is quite rich in flavor, and the malted rye gives it a unique flavor that is impressive. I really, really enjoyed this beer.

Pours a reddish amber with a good sized off white head. The aroma has some caramel, a bit of spice and lots of rye. The flavor is a good balance of sweet and bitter. The caramel sweetness is balanced with a great hop bitterness and the added ry just gives it that uniqueness that helps this beer stand out. Good dry finish. Excellent

Dark bourbon, red hues, maple syrup. Small beige head. Malty spicy aroma. Good amount of hops, sweet, spicy, caramel. Very balanced unique and delicious.

From bottle : Pours a dark muddy brown color, with a HUGE offwhite rocky head that has big time staying power. Very thick lacing as well. Alot of hops come through the nose of this one. With also some underlying sweet malt smells. Taste is sweet, and slightly hoppy, Then mellows toward the end. Some sour mash and malts in there too, very interesting and good. Medium body that thins toward the back end, with a smooth feel. Aftertaste is kinda sour, but not to bad. Pretty good little brew.