Founders Imperial Stout

Brewed by Founders Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Grand Rapids, Michigan USA

Extremly dark pour with medium brown thin head. Hot malt aroma, roasted grain and astringent hints of coffee. Wonderful balance of oak and smoke with a healthy hop bitter, deep and warm with a complexity of loam and old growth forest at the center. Very well balanced malt and hop characteristics with a long, satisfying bitter finish.

Pours a thick motor oil like near black super dark brown with a dark tan fine creamy thin froth on top. Dark roasty aroma, licorice, and varnish. First taste is very similar to the porter but with a more soy/vegetable syrupy sweetness. Dark deeply roasted coffee, way more one dimensional than the porter, the initial attack of the hops and chocolate/coffee is really nice but it fades quickly into a syrupy dull mess. This beer has a nice warming quality. 8.5.7.4.15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [rerate 10.3.09] mmmm I suppose it’s a little better =p still kinda burnt though 8.5.8.4.15

Had this on draft.Chocolate dominates the palate.Big at 10 percent but not present. Smooth creamy with a tanish head expected from a stout that maintains a slight topping throughout the pint.Thick but not overwhelmingly so . I recommend ordering a pint if you get the chance! Recommend

On Tap at the brewery. Big, gorgeous pour with a big dark brown head. Aroma of chocolate, dark malt, coffee, vanilla, licorice. Flavor is full of chocolate, rich and warming. Absolutely delicious. Big, creamy mouthfeel. Bitter finish, and a great beer. Sampled out of bottle on 1/6/09. Bitter chocolate notes much more apparent and a much more bitter hop presence in the flavor, with hints of anise and licorice in the finish. The warmer temperature helps bring this one out. Not sure why they serve it so cold at the brew pub

Fresh 12oz stubby. Pours pretty darn dark black with a foamy dense dark brown ocean of a head. Heavily aromatics evident from pouring the bottle feet away. A closer inspection shows notes of candied chocolate, sugar, oats, baker’s chocolate, cocoa powder. Smells relatively young, similar in profile to a fresh Expedition. The chocolate is nice in the aroma, nice and rounded. Some vanilla might sneak in there too. Dessert like, cake-like. Flavor is nice, rich, and uber smooth chocolate. Does not taste harsh or green or overly fresh as the nose kind of did. Palate is super smooth and coating, thick and rich and chewy and slick. This is surprisingly kind of great. Certainly the best of the stouts I’ve had from this company, though admittedly I’ve been a little let down by the others. Perhaps their best beer?

Bottle courtesy Eithcubes. Pours oily black with no head. Huge roasted grain, chocolate malt, vanilla and dark fruit aroma. Taste is thick and oily with lots of dark fruit, roasted grains and very complex. Finishes with a nice roasty grain and dark fruit finish. Every bit as good as Dark Lord.

Courtesy of cigarcitybrew. Pours pitch black, brownish head. Aroma, lots of coffee. Taste, roasted, torrified coffee, grainy (oat), lot of coffee in the aftertaste. Filled with some chocolat malts. Mouthfeel is thick and coffeeish, alcohol slowly engulfs the mouth with a warming feel. This is one awesome beer. A little above the Kentucky Bfast and under Kentucky Bourbon.

On draft and in bottles. Pours a black body with a tan head. Very malty, warm etoh, lightly bitter with coffee, some chocolately malt and caramel. Lightly toasted a great stout.