Founders Bad Habit Quad

Brewed by Founders Brewing Company
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Grand Rapids, Michigan USA

12 oz bottle. Hardly a head when poured into a Rochefort glass. Color is more ruby than mahogany. Aroma is almost sickeningly sweet brown sugar and rubbing alcohol. Taste is like licking a hospital floor. Some dried fruit notes along with grapes and apple. This is bad beer and a surprise to me. Big and boozy and way too sweet. I respect Founders and am curious as to how they let this one go out the back door, so they get a few ticks off the rating for allowing it to happen.

12 oz. bottle - from NolanKowal, thanks! Pours a hazy dark toffee color with a small head that diminishes quickly. Honey and molasses, dark brown bread and a light fruitiness in the aroma, with figs, brown sugar and floral perfume. Fruity, yeasty flavor, with big alcohol character, prunes, brandy, coffee notes and spice. Medium to full body with gentle carbonation. Some people are trashing this brew, but I find it quite interesting and pretty good overall - though the alcohol was a little prominent.

Cloudy red/orange with a large but quickly dispersing head. Pungent nose, quite sweet, with some musty notes, hints of marzipan and orange, and a metallic tinge. Flavor is a bit oversweet. Tastes an awful lot like pears, with some apples, must, and a dry, nutty bitterness.

Personal Milestone: Michigan Rating #100 (out of 2901)!!!!!
And an Abt, to boot! Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a let down from this otherwise fine brewer. Not that it’s a bad ale; I was expecting more. It pours a caramel (I needed to include that word, for <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?UserID=1 sake) colored body with a tightly bubbled film in lieu of an actual head. In the aroma you’ll find sweet malt, alcohol, plums, cherries, and some soapy yeast. Pretty smooth mouthfeel. The flavor is fruity, slightly soured, with alcohol, and remnants of toffee past. It finishes on a sticky sweet note with a low alcohol burn. Nice, but I was wanting more.

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Clear amber body with a small tan head. The aroma is banana, clove, alcohol, candi sugar and toffee. The flavor is spicey alcohol, dark fruits, caramel, and banana. Medium/full body, sticky with a warm finish.

Served at about 60F Bright amber color. No head. Sweet,fruity,very over ripe banana and yes bubble gum aroma. Navens observation of Juicy Fruit gum is pretty close. However the flavor is pretty much one dimensional. Somewhat sweet,caramelly but the body was thin for the style. ABV somewhat masked. Avery’s Reverand is similar but much better with a thicker mouth feel. Disappointing from a pretty good brewer. 2-07 update. After having a couple more,this stuff grew on me. I should learn to go by actual taste than expectations.

12 oz bottle from Rileys Wines of the World in Madison, WI (October 2006) poured at cellar temperature into a Chimay glass. No "pop" to the bottle and a pour with virtually no head atop the translucent cherry-juice body....sweet/sour cherries, pineapple and just a bit of caramelized malt in the weak aroma, no real notice taken of alcohol but that would be welcome as there’s so little else to grab onto.....still, there’s some life in the body, a reasonably interesting balance of sweet fruit, soft caramel, and sour mash, sourdough bread and a bit of grape/raisiny flavor.....but it’s not enough altogether, this is very low-powered, indistinct and bland, something a quad should definitely not be, right?....low carbonation, somewhat gritty mouthfeel, I don’t want to score this so badly, it’s hard to believe that a beer from this solid brewery could be so lifeless, dull, lacking in all expressive qualities.....increasingly syrupy and mushy as it warms, wow can it be this bad? But there you have it -- the Mich Ultra of quads.

Smells like a stick of Juicy fruit gum. Lots of bubble gum and banana in the flavor. Almost too much. I got alot of alcohol burn on this one. Not one of my favorites from this brewery.