Founders Reds Rye P.A.

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

12oz shorty bottle. Unfiltered orange-brown color. Sweet, thick bitter aroma. Malty and rich, with a serious earthy hop profile. Some amber malt notes collide with the hops, almost peppery. Bitter finish. Quite a well done beer, rich, but balanced. Great.

aroma of rye bread, yeast, orange zest, brown sugar, dark belgian candi sugar, and a little spice. a lot going on with this one, and a very good rye beer.

Bottle: Beautiful ruby color with a small, creamy tan head that slowly fades to a ring around the outside of the glass. Aroma is strong hops - citrus, grapefruit, floral grass, orange, light caramel. Taste is initially sweet grapefruit, flowery hops, then steeped malts, caramel, pine, and spices with a nice sweetness towards the middle. Finishes mildly spicy, dry, with notes of floral hops and bitter malt. Medium bodied, but nice creamy, full mouth feel. Nicely balanced throughout.

Thanks to kryptic for this bottle. Deep amber-orange pour with initial two inch head that settles into a thinness with great lacing. Noticed a very piney, floral nose right away...and not much else, which is fine by me. Flavor is hops right up front (POW!) with that great rye to tone it down a bit near the finish. Finish is dry and bitter...just lovely. Thanks kryptic...loved this.

Bottle, a bonus from pabobcat---man I’m glad I got to try this one. Thank you!

Pours a beautiful deep copper with a nice light-tan head. Great looking beer. And a splendid aroma as well: malts balancing well against deep robust hops that blend sweet citrus and plenty of resin, rich caramel notes coming through strong, ample spiciness from the rye. The flavor comes very close but doesn’t quite match the previous two. Plenty of malted rye driving this one, and points for the distinctive contributions from the yeast. Piney hops dance all around, strong and notable but never overbalancing the rye and other malts. If I were to complain about anything, it comes of just a notch to bready and just a notch underhopped to take it to the highest of planes. Must of that may have to do with the bottled condition of this one, I can speculate that fresh on cask or even draft would be absolutely divine. I’m now ISO this on tap or cask next time I visit Michigan. I’m tossing in a point to overall based on potential, but I suspect even that leaves me with a conservative 4.2.

I can see why this went so far in the recent DIPAC bracket. It’s excellent! This is another one of those "why I love beer" beers.

Draught at Woodys in downtown raleigh. Pours red/tan with a frothy off-white head. Has a stong hop aroma of citrus and pine, and some grains. Flavor is quite malty, very dry, with a strong hop presence. Nice beer.

Pours a hazy red with an off-white head. Nose is spice, rye, and some honey sweetness. Flavor is refreshing- spicy rye with a bit of a twang. Very enjoyable, refreshing beer, reminscent of Terrapin RPA.

Pours a slightly hazy dark amber with orange tints. The head is massive and dense and hardly recedes at all leaving gobs of clumpy lacing. This is a damn fine looking beer. Smell starts with a decent kick of citrus hops with grapefruit leading the way, but the rye presence is very evident in the nose on top of the sweet caramel malt backbone. Taste also starts with citrus hops, and gives way to the sweet malts and rye. The finish actually has a pine hop bitterness that was not as evident in the aroma. The mouthfeel is super smooth and creamy with really strong carbonation that brings out the hops and spices on the palate. This is probably the best rye beer I’ve had and an extremely unique and tasty brew from Founders. Highly recommended.