Founders Bad Habit Quad

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

Very strange brew...and not even remotely to style. Pours a coppery red with a huge and quickly dissapating tan head. The nose is just unappealing...solvent like and off-putting. The flavors are similarly odd...fruits, vaporous solvents, funky esters. yeast sediment and sweet affey tapple. I’m done.

a bottle obtained from <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?UserID=1 cornfield . thanks, but it turns out i had this one in my cellar already. this is not the bottle you gave me.

pours cloudy translucent apricot color, almost no head, some little bubbles. the nose is sweet fruity hints. the flavor continues with sweet fruitiness, to finish with a kind of bubbly, sweet fruitiness (at least the sweet fruitiness is not cloying. i knocked a point off for this beer’s lack of complexity, but an interesting attempt nonetheless. i detected no alcohol in this brew, so the 9.8% abv was hidden very well.

Jan. 2007 - This wasn’t good at all. Poured a lighter colored brown akin to an amber ale, a decent head but little lacing. No aroma. None. I even got my nose wet trying to get something. Flavor was like sugar and alcohol and maybe some fruity esters. Really hot and astringent...tasted like some sort of household cleaner. Hard to drink. Bad surprise from a normally solid brewer.

The look of this beer was quite impressive, a nice deep dark red/rust coloration. The smell was also not bad, but not very distinctive. I took a sip and at first I thought well this is ok, then I got hit by the alcohol backbite...it initiated an instant gag reflex. I’d rather take a shot of anything at least it would be over. Not with this... there was more ..much more in the bottle. I let it sit for awhile , cleansed the old palate and tried again...same effect. Two drinks and this one was determined to be drain a pour. What made this beer even worse was the fact that I just had Hopslam which hid the ABV very well. This beer was just crap. However, it is fair to say I haven’t been a fan of any Abt/Quad so take that into account.

12oz 2006 bottle. About 15 months of age. Poured into a brandy snifter, the color is a bright cranberry with thin head of white swirling cream. Aroma is a little alcoholic and estery. There’s a little bit of fruit, but even after several sips its overwhelming alcohol esters. Extremely disappointed in this otherwise great brewery.

Smooth brew. Lots of alcohol. Not much head but didn’t need it. Potent aroma. A light sour bite but still very hoppy and sweet. Sour and sweet of dark fruits, plums, dates and caramel.

Bottle: Poured a cloudy amber color ale with a small foamy head with minimal retention and some lacing. Aroma of sweet Belgian style malt with some nice notes of toffee. Taste is a nice enough mix between some sweet malt with some toffee and dry fruits characteristics. Body is quite full with some medium carbonation and no alcohol was discernable. Well done overall but lacking some complexities to be on par with the best of the style and maybe a tad too sweet.

12-oz. Thanks, Kim! Pours bright burnished copper with no head to speak of and less lace. Strange aluminum and toasted marshmallows nose. Thick but not too syrupy body, very still. Gummy sweet bubble gum, white sugar, aluminum, and marshmallow mid-palate. Fairly unsticky finish, considering. Not Founders’ finest hour.