CulturAle Press

Sometimes We Just Stay Home and Drink: #5 – Founders Barrel Runner Rum Barrel IPA. Founders, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Date:  June 2, 2019  —

The Story— We first encountered Founders beers in 2002, only a year or two after they emerged from the edge of bankruptcy,   The brewed some good beers and some not so good beers.   You wouldn’t have bet your life savings on them.   But a change in direction to barrel aged and adventurous beers propelled them to one of the most respected breweries in the country.   They continue to brew beers that vary in compelling-ness, but instead of varying from oof to OK, they now vary from good to oh-my-goodness!!  If the brewery were a baseball player it would still strike out on occasion, but it would be among the league leaders in home runs.

We featured their Founders Dank Wood Imperial Red India Pale Ale in Bourbon Barrels last November.  Here we showcase another barrel aged triumph: a rum barrel IPA.   It shows off all the complex fruity and berry notes of the Mosaic hop and marries those flavors with rum in a way that only gifted brewers can.

The Beer–   Rum and Mosaic and wood on a very rich clean malt.  Some toffee and butterscotch. Herbal and sweet with Mosaic berries weaving in and out.  Brown sugar and toffee with a touch of nuttiness lasting long into the aftertaste.  Nicely complex.  Ellie found more even more rum than I did…but she really likes rum.

Value —  Very good.  Four packs aren’t cheap, but this is not a cheap beer to brew

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

Sometimes we just stay home and drink beer — hundreds of them over the course of the year as we hunt for a new favorite.  The searching for the beer of the day never stops, so for a while, there will be fewer travel-oriented posts and just some to-the-point descriptions of beers we’ve enjoyed.

We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers, and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”