REVIEW: Founders Porter

Time for my second review from the great Founders Brewing out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. I did a quick review of their new All Day IPA which I really enjoyed. If you missed that one, it can be found here. There's some debate in the craft beer community on the real difference between a porter and a stout. I'm not even really sure how to differentiate the two. The two styles both originated in England in the 18th century. Originally stouts were stronger versions of porters. Today those lines are often very blurred. There isn't really a discernible difference between a lot of stouts and porters. I've had plenty of big strong porters and plenty of lighter bodied stouts. All I know is that I quite enjoy drinking both. Enough of my yammering, to the beer!

From the label:

dark, rich & sexy

Founders Porter pours a very dark brown, nearly black, with no highlights when held to light. A good amount of tan head leaves some lacing along the top third of the glass.

I didn't even have to pour the beer to get aromas off of this one. As soon as I popped the top huge coffee aromas exploded of of the bottle. After I decanted it into a pint glass those big coffee notes were accented by aromas of dark chocolate and roasted malt.

The first thing that I noticed when drinking this beer was the body. It's much lighter and more easily drinkable that I thought it would be from the appearance and aroma. I was expecting a big kick in the teeth from this one but was rather pleasantly surprised to find a much more subdued, drinkable brew. That's not to say that this beer doesn't have much in the way of flavor, quite the contrary. Smooth chocolate and iced coffee flavors morph into a really nice smoky almost burnt toast flavor on the finish. Really, it tastes a lot better than how it might sound from my description. Very rich and complex. The hops are here in no small number. It's marked on the bottle at 45 IBUs and the assertive hoppiness ads a very nice bitterness that stands up quite nicely against all of that chocolate, coffee, roasted malt flavors. All in a very flavorful drinkable beer. Dark, rich and sexy indeed.

HD