We just got Founder’s here in town and i decided to pick up a six pack of the Porter (and IPA) last night since I’ve heard so much about them.
i had a bottle of the porter, and since I just recently tapped my porter, i figured i’d do a little side x side tasting.
Founders bottled 7/31/13 - high hop aroma of a citrusy, lemony quality, high roasted malt aroma with hints of espresso type coffee aromatics, no noticeable caramel and only moderate to light malt aromas - roast and hop dominate. the same continues into the flavor with a very present hop flavor of an american type, with a firm bitterness and borderline acrid roasted malt finish. medium body.
Mine - kegged 8/6/13 - faint earthy hop aroma, loads of toffee and caramel accompanied by rich malt. light roasted malt aroma. low to no hop flavor, mostly caramel and malty flavor, with enough bitterness to balance and keep the flavor from being sweet - slightly drying finish from the roasted malts. medium - medium light finish.
anyway, I loved the Founders, but it really tasted almost more like an American Stout than what I think of porter, particularly when placed next to mine, although mine could maybe, maybe be faulted for being closer to a brown porter I guess, since it is not aggressively hopped or bitter.
Has anyone else thought this of the Founders? really trying to dial in my recipe, albeit shooting more for something in the vein of Edmund Fitzgerald, which i think I have, just curious.
I love Founder’s Porter, but agree with the American Stout comparison. BTW if your porter is in the vein of Edmund Fitzgerald then it’s mighty good - that is a great beer.
Since you now have Founders in your area, be sure to get Breakfast Stout now that it’s back out on its 6 month rotation. This might actually be my favorite beer… Coming from a hop head
I grew up on Founders (from Michigan and lived in Grand Rapids) and they are fantastic. They have grown at a tremendous rate both in space and popularity. Their porter is fantastic as is some of their IPAs. Their Centennial IPA was one of my favorites but lately has been tasting really under-attentuated to me…for some reason. I agree with fmader…get some of their oatmeal stout. Fantastic!
Founder is always what family brings me when they visit…since I can’t get it in Colorado. Great brewery and beer.
Robust porter is a very broad style that means many different things to different people. At one end it blurs the lines against American stout and “black IPA”. At the other end it is simply a stronger brown porter or less coffee-like stout. Historically, porter was pretty strong in the malt complexity department and had a broad range of hopping but was mostly English hops that are very mild in character. Americans in recent history have of course blown the hop contribution way out of proportion in many cases. However the truth remains that porter has always been a style where you could use as much or as little hops as you wanted and still call it a porter as long as it was dark and roasty. So… do what you like. Porter is such a terribly broad style that you can make it pretty much however you like it. You can make it like a sweet or dry stout, you can make it like a “black IPA”, or anywhere in between. It’s all good.
That’s right on the money, Dave.
And really, the same can be said (in varying degrees) for most other “styles”.
Interpretations will vary according to who’s doing the brewing.
Historically, that’s really what brewing’s always been about.
Although I will admit that if someone handed me a “pale stout” I might look askance at them for a moment (and then of course probably drink it with gusto).
;D
The local beer store where I shop recently started carrying Founders beers. I used to drink them when I lived in North Carolina and really enjoyed them. Their porter is very good, a little too hoppy for my impression of a porter. (I know, heresy!). My favorites are Dirty Bastard and Backwoods Bastard.
LOL. That was strange. Not sure how that happened, or why the system logged me in with the lower case name (with my regular password, no less!) I don’t recall ever setting up a second ID.
If you are able to, you can go ahead and delete the one that is all lower case (“the professor”)…I won’t be using it. I don’t even know I wound up posting under that to begin with!!
Maybe you should log in as the professor and change the password, then log out and log back in as The Professor. The different password should make sure you don’t log in as the professor accidentally.
