Founders Reds Rye P.A.

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

Had this on draught at the "Founders at Dilly Deli" night on 9/21/2006... Beautiful ruby color with a nice beige head and moderate carbonation. Aroma is mostly caramel and toffee along with citrus and pine hops. Flavor is intially sweet and much like the aroma and finishes a little dry with a wonderful rye and pine/grapefruit hoppiness. Moderate bitterness and medium body It’s really well balanced between the slightly sweet caramel and toffee malt and the dry rye and hoppy bitterness (almost zesty in a way) that dances on your tongue at the end tapping out Morse code to your brain to keep drinking more! This is an excellent ale and a really great beer to drink! This is one that is really difficult to stop drinking once you start. 16 oz draught (6.4% alchohol), $4.00 from Dilly Deli.

Blooming red in color, hazy appearance, nice slab of creamy-toned foam sits above. Nice hops, rich maltiness, very bright and vibrant, lively and luscious. Taste: big buckets of yum. tingly, delcious hops on the palate, warm, full, jam-packed with flavor. Very nice, full of fruit and malt. Incredibly smooth. doesn’t taste like any rye beer I’ve ever had, the hops are on the top, and the malt is so ...so, everything. this is damned nice, and would be an a shoo-in as a regular in my fridge, were I able to purchase it locally...full-bodied, with a soft, lush fruity finish. silky. And I think I said "yum" already...I’ll say it three times, then you know it’s true. Yum.

Big thanks to BBB63 for sending me this one! Reddish orange appearance, faint haze, nice tan head that lasts well, an attractive brew. Hoppy aroma, with notes of grapefruit and faint spice. Inviting. Hops hit you first, with notes of grapefruit and an invigorating shot of pineapple. Fades into a sparing pepper flavor (rye speaking up here?), and bit of a paprika finish that goes dry. I really liked this one, quite quaffable as well. Under-rated.

Aroma is tricky and not as boistrous as I’d like initially. Piney hoppiness comes through with some caramel and sweet notes. The aroma improes with time. Mostly transparent amber-red color with a light tan head. Lots of cherry-sweet roasted caramel maltiness in the start, turning increasingly bitter with the rye really hitting you. This is s little too bitter for me and it’s a little over-carbonated as well.

20090315 12oz bottle, readily available. Dark red-bronze, lightly hazed, with small, fading white head, briefly lacing. Rich malty aroma, bready, cookie dough, caramel, and black tea, with light pine and earthy hop notes. Flavor adds a bit of rye, grassy, astringent, and more light earthiness. Medium bodied with heft appropriate for its strength, light peppery spice, and even finishing a touch sticky. Nice stuff, but perhaps a stretch for the eleven dollar price tag.

Bright reddish-brown body with a creamy off-white head. Spicy rye, caramel malt, fig, and cinnamon aroma. Nice toasty, warm and spicy malt qualities marry nicely with the hop varieties. Great aftertaste and medium, palatable texture. This is like Arrogant Bastard with refinement. I dig it.

Thanks to Joebrew for sharing. Carmal brown color with citrus hop nose. Faint hop finish with rye character on it.

Bottle. Strange perfumed scent...perfume is key. Also has a generous dose of hop musk, florality, and fruitiness that leans toward raspberry. And a dash of grapefruit. Pours red with hefty carbonation and a rocky beige head. Very dry - rubber glove and cotton ball dry - with above-noted flavors and a bit of wood/pine to go along with the fruit. Very hoppy. Medium body is a bit too prickly for me. Finishes with a rush of dry spiciness and lasts, dryly, for what seems like minutes. This is very interesting but ... das ist nicht mein Bier! [3.0]

Update: Months later, same batch. I’m much more appreciative of the heavy dollop of piney hops this time around, and the very long, hoppy, brutally dry finish also fares better. Floral touch seems to have melded a bit better. [3.4]