Review 197: Founders Sweet Repute

Review 197

1/6/14

Founders Sweet Repute: 12.6% abv

Background: We should all be familiar with Founders at this point, being one of the more prolific breweries in Michigan. Founders has had major success with their Backstage Series, which is a series of experimental beers which have been bottled in 750 mL bottles for public consumption. This is a great way to promote new beers and experimental styles. The last review we did of an experimental beer was Bolt Cutter, Founders’ 15^th Anniversary Barleywine. This time around, we are reviewing Sweet Repute, a wheatwine aged in ex-bourbon ex-maple syrup barrels. That sentence alone should raise your eyebrows. Needless to say, the combination sounds like a recipe for syrupy sweet disaster. There is only one way to find out!

Nose: The nose starts off with a strong presence of wheat, oak, and bourbon. That does a pretty good job of describing this beer. This definitely has some notes of fruitiness, with sweet orange citrus, melon, and tropical fruits right off the bat. There is a subtlety of raisons that comes across, with an even more compelling sense of dry vermouth. The nose is rather tangy. There was noticeable pineapple, with some hoppy bitterness as well. Honey adds some sweetness to the nose. As the beer warms up, the yeasty, bready character becomes more dominant. Overall, the nose is dominantly sweet and fruity, with a definite callout to its grassroots.

Arrival: The arrival is a great introduction into this beer, with a mixture of flavors which play as montage to the aforementioned nose. There is a large number of different sensations, including the bready, wheat-like character, along with a complex fruitiness as well. The arrival shows off a unique taste of lemon-lime soda, with a crisp refreshing mouth-feel.

Body: The body has a thicker mouth-feel, with a sense of honey and fruits dominating the body. The bourbon oak really comes through here. There is a lot of honey and sweetness in the body, in a very sugary, syrupy texture. There is a substantial amount of malt in the body as well.

Finish: The finish concludes with multiple complexities. There is a dry hoppiness that dominates, with a sweet bourbon and honey in the finish. There is a little bit maple in the finish, but it really doesn’t shine through, which we feel is a good thing. Instead, there is slightly more molasses to be found in the finish. There is a good amount of fruitiness in the finish, but it does not over-dominate the beer. There is also a strange taste of bubble gum noticeable from the body into the finish.

Final Comments:  Sweet Repute dances a line of sweetness and complexity, offering a ton of full, thick flavors, but never providing an over-dominance of sweet flavors. Between the wheat malt, the maple/bourbon barrels, and the high proof, it seemed inevitable that this would be overbearingly sweet. Instead, it mixes thick, sweet flavors with a balanced, interesting hoppiness and dryness. Don’t get us wrong, this is no IPA. It just handles itself in a very composed manner. KCM thoroughly enjoyed this beer, even though the maple got lost in the cluster of flavors for most of the event. It is also worth mentioning that although this and New Holland Pilgrim’s Dole (R #7) are distinctively different, you would not lose much by going with New Holland’s wheatwine.

Why you’d buy it: You like limited release beers of a sweeter style and high proof.

Why you wouldn’t: You can’t find it, and it is more expensive than Pilgrim’s Dole.

Score: 9.25/10

Review 141: Bell's Black Note Stout

Review 141

2/21/13

Bell’s Black Note Stout: 11.8% abv

Background: Bell’s Black Note Stout. This is a sought after beer in some parts, and for a moment, I lost the review for it. Silly mistake. Bell’s is a pretty big company, and as far as microbreweries goes, this one is an old one; Bell’s has been around since 1983. Back then, Bell’s was called the Kalamazoo Brewing Company and was founded by Larry Bell. In 1996, Bell’s changed its flagship summer beer’s name to Oberon and in 2005 Bell’s changed their name to Bell’s. What’s most impressive is Bell’s 500,000 barrel capacity as of last year, and the availability. Bell’s is available in 14 different states and the District of Columbia. This makes Bell’s huge, taking tons of money into the market. Now, Bell’s provides us with a unique stout offering. Black Note Stout combines the Expedition Stout and Double Cream Stout and throws it in a refill bourbon cask to let it age. That’s the story behind this brewing beast, and now the results. Is it worth the high price tag?

Nose: Yeast, slight must, chocolate, cocoa, coffee, butterscotch, oatmeal, vanilla, rich caramel, raisons, oak, molasses, nutty, and slight malt influence

Arrival: Wood, bourbon notes late in arrival, roasted almonds, vanilla, lemon-lime citrus, bitter rind, spicy, coffee, cocoa, slightly hot

Body: Caramel, thin mouthfeel, wood, slight earthiness, bit of hops, touch of cinnamon, chocolate, hot spice, Rock N’ Rye soda, molasses

Finish: Caramel, wood, vanilla, lingering spice, butterscotch, dark cherry, sweet wheat flavors, malt and rye, medium length

Final Comments: This is a complex beer. There is no arguing with that. We enjoy the complexity of this beer, but there is a caveat. This beer is not dynamic. We don’t know what it is we are missing, but everything seems pretty flat, and there isn’t a great progression from the arrival to the finish. It is a dry and sweet beer, with rich, unique character to it. Our one reservation is that the beer doesn’t have a dynamic taste to it. We are nit-picking because this is an expensive, limited beer.

Why you’d buy it: You want to experience a bourbon-barrel aged beer that is complex and unique, and hard to get.

Why you wouldn’t: There are much more available bourbon-barrel aged stouts which have similar quality.

Score: 9.25/10

Review 112: Founder's Backwoods Bastard

Review 112

12/6/12

Founder’s Backwoods Bastard: 10.2% abv

Here we go with another review. Backwoods Bastard. Might ring a bell, even if you haven’t heard of it. Why? Well, this is a bourbon-barrel aged Scotch Ale. I’ve done some small research on Scotch Ales, because there is a bit of contention about this term in our minds. If you go to Founder’s website, they will tell you Backwoods Bastard is reminiscent of a Single Malt. I will clarify to you that this is not the case. It contains malt flavors, but in this sense it reminds us of malted barley, as is a prominent flavor in TONS of beers. The problem we have with saying this is reminiscent of Single Malt Scotch is that it really won’t remind you of that, and eludes to some intrinsic quality in the beer. This beer has no real affiliation with the spirit itself, so far as we can tell. 

Anyway, now let’s talk about the beer itself. The nose has malt in it for sure, but you get the classic bourbon dominant flavors like caramel, oak, large butterscotch, toffee, vanilla, and wheat. There is even the presence of raisons, cream, plain yogurt, molasses, and slight starfruit. That makes this a fairly unique, interesting nose. The arrival reflects the smell pretty accurately, but with a little less to it. Prominent flavors include vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, and dried fruits. The body contains the same sort of flavors, with butterscotch, malt, vanilla, caramel, weak coffee, milk chocolate, creaminess, and even slight ginger. The finish contains cinnamon, malt, vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, slight grapefruit and apple. 

We can comment that is a pretty bourbon-dominated beer, and if you want to understand the influence bourbon has on beer, this is a great combination of two beers to try it out, with Dirty Bastard and Backwoods Bastard. On the other hand, we think this bourbon influence was a little overdone. A unique quality that bourbon brings out in beer is a creamy butterscotch flavor, which isn’t necessarily huge in bourbon itself, but time and time again we see it in these beers to varying degrees. Overall, the complexity wasn’t earth shattering, and neither was the balance. We like Dirty Bastard better and this could use a little less of its oak time. 

Score: 8.25/10

Review 78: Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale

Review 78

6/28/12

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale: 8.19% abv

You might notice that we have a slight bias towards beers aged in bourbon barrels. This is simply not true...well yeah it is, but it’s for good reason. Bourbon is a fantastic statement of whiskey and it adds great character to beer. This particular one is not very extravagantly named, but we aren’t worried about that. You can’t get this spirit in Michigan, but it is available in other parts of the world (namely Kentucky). So what does bourbon do to this beer that makes it so much better? 

Well when we start with the “schnauze”, as one of our notetakers designated, there is overwhelming sweet, rich notes of honey, caramel, and chocolate, but also being contributed to by other dark notes like oak, molasses, malt, and grainy wheat. Couple this with a creamy nose and some slight earthiness and smokiness, and you have yourself one Hell of an intriguing nose. The nose by itself is fairly rich, but the richness continues into the taste. The taste will scream that good ole butterscotch note to you, which definitely stands as the champion taste in this beer, keeping with it vanilla, malt, lots of caramel, chocolate fudge, and a slightly light citrus on the arrival. 

The taste is rich and thick, but not the most complex of all. The finish won’t disappoint though, keeping the butterscotch, vanilla, and caramel notes. Overall, the finish is medium-long and fades softly as it dissipates. There is malt, corn and wheat which also contribute to this finish, with an interesting apple fruitiness which trails along with the finish. In the end, we didn’t really recognize this as an ale, but it was still enjoyable, and very different. It’s worth a try if you ever find it. It won’t disappoint your curiosity, but it’s certainly not for everybody. 

Score: 9.0/10