Founders Porter

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

Pours almost black with a very thin tan head. Aroma is coffee up front followed by chocolate, and plenty of great roasted malts. Taste is coffee, milk chocolate, nuttiness, with a hop presence.

On tap at the brewpub. Opaque black with small burnt tan head. Nice dirty chocolate, cold coffee, dry bakers chocolate, nice. Big cold coffee flavor with dry roast, a little milk chocolate, a little smoke, tasty. Medium to full, creamy body. Nice and dry with excelent coffee/roast characteristics.

The smell is nutty, milk chocolate, coffee, and roasted malts, The look is black in color, dark, and has a good tan colored head. The taste is roasty, chocolate, nutty, coffee, and malts.

Bottle. Bottled: 03/31/09. Jet-black pour with a very thin chestnut head. Rich, chocolate cake-like aroma with tons of cocoa, roasty coffee, toasty malts, vanilla, some caramel, and brown sugar. Medium to full-bodied and fairly smooth. Lots of caramel and semi-sweet chocolate start things off taste-wise. Cocoa and toasty malts follow. Finishes with a roasty black coffee bitterness and burnt sugary malty flavors. Very solid porter.

bottle. Entirely opaque black pour even when held to light. Half inch of creamy coffee colored head that clears, but leaves a nice ring and layer. Big, thick roasty aroma with some notes of coffee and acrid smoke. Sexy? Flavor is indeed dripping with hot lovin. Big, heavy, chewy roasted malts. Light floral bitterness with some similar hop character behind it. Some faint toasty sweetness in the background. Brew becomes even smoother as it warms- very nice evolution in a single pour. Notes of cocoa and bittersweet bakers chocolate, espresso, and some boozy liquor. Incredibly deep, flavorful, and inviting. Palate is full, thick, and creamy, thought with little if any slickness or oilyness. Mildly bitter finish. Overall, a damn superb porter and a damn superb all around beer.

Near black body. Thin head. Preliminary (cold) aroma is hoppy and roasty. More coffee notes emerge as it warms. The body is creamy, with a little bit of fudgeyness. Long, dry finish. A very hoppy brew. Overall, an intense black beer that eschews the traditional concept of a porter by a wide margin. Taken for what it is, I think I’d prefer a little sweetness to round out the harsher edges of the hops.

Bottle thanks to Daknole! Thick viscous black with small brown tight head. Rich mocha aroma is fudgy with some delicious chicory smoke in there too. Great silken mouthfeel is smooth. Fudge beer. Total dark chocolate mocha fudge in a glass. Lingering chocolate aftertaste, lovely balance of sweet and roasty.

12 oz. bottle (2009) in a shaker. Pours a rich, opaque black w/ an incredibly beautiful pillowy mottled chocolate head that rapidly diminishes into some sparking bubbles/surf. Aroma is dominated by coffee w/ undertones of milk chocolate and light brandy; flavor ir again heavy w/ coffee, chocolate, roasted malts and the teeniest hint of vanilla; thin-medium bodied, finishing very much like black coffee (coffee/chicory bitterness) and a little dry. Probably the best porter I have had thus far- yummy.