Top five Founders beers

1. CBS
2. KBS
3. FBS
4. Panther Cub
5a. BA Curmudgeon
5b. Spike Cutlass

Doh, I forgot backwoods. I guess you can replace BA Curmudgeon with it.

Tough to pick just 5. It's like trying to pick your favorite kid

 

1. Sumatra Mountain Brown - Sipping one now and it is soooo fucking good. Perhaps my favorite beer period.

2. Backwoods Bastard - Another personal favorite. I await the release of this gem the way a child awaits Christmas morning.

3. Breakfast Stout - And yet another personal favorite. I've drank enough of this stuff to float a boat.

4. Centennial IPA - My go-to pale ale.

5. Porter - Very underrated, IMO. Seemingly every brewery on the planet can produce a decent porter. This one, however, is a cut above.

Absolutely love this brewery. They're running neck & neck with Lagunitas from where I sit.

 

1.KBS
2.Backwoods bastard
3.Breakfast stout
4.All day IPA
5.Frootwood

 

What, no love for Bolt Cutter around here? Harsh! I just had Mango Magnifico and was floored too.
Besides those two, FBS (KBS has let me down the last 2 years), Backwoods Bastard, and Dark Pennance as a good dark horse option. But these guys are for sure one of my top breweries. Saw Sumatra the other day and will have to pick it up next time, based on all the love.

 

No order here, but:

Backwoods
Sumatra
KBS
FIS
Porter

Never been a huge fan of FBS honestly. I think it was built up too much when I finally got to try it. Same with KBS, was VERY excited to try it when I finally got that chance and I felt a bit let down. This year's KBS however completely reversed my opinion if it, it's fantastic.

If I really had to pick one favorite it would probably be Sumatra, working my way through a four pack right now. That and Palo Santo Maron are perfect examples of some great things that can be done when you tinker with the brown ale category.

 

Project Pam (no fan of this one?)
Sumatra
Backwoods
FIS
KBS

 

According to my ratings
1. KBS
2. Breakfast Stout
3. Backwoods Bastard
4. Sumatra Mountain Brown
5. FIS

I believe that Founders is really good at brewing dark beers, I really enjoy them.

 

I have not tried CBS yet...

1. Backwoods Bastard
2. Imperial Stout
3. KBS
4. Dirty Bastard
5. Breakfast Stout

 

1. KBS
2. Backwood's Bastard
3. FBS
4. Old Curmudgeon
5. Dirty Bastard
Also rate Re-DANKulous and Sumatra Mountain Brown

Never seen CBS for sale in Australia ...

 

There's almost certainly better out there or in their tap room that I've yet to find and try, but out of what I have had. . .

1. KBS
2. Breakfast Stout
3. Imperial Stout
4. Sumatra Mountain Brown
5. Porter
   

HM: Frootwood, Backwoods Bastard

 

Absolutely - anyone judging KBS on 2016 really needs to try 2017, particularly if they like chocolate. Finished off my last two 2016's and they were underwhelming, then the next day had my first KBS 2017 and it is incredibly improved.

I agree on Sumatra also, excellent.

 

Out of boredom, here are the standings from this thread thus far, MVP ballot-style. I counted anyone who had no more or less than five, and if they didn't rank them, I just split the points evenly across all five listed.

Results are pretty unsurprising.

1. Kentucky Breakfast Stout (240)
2. Breakfast Stout (226)
3. Backwoods Bastard (191)
4. Imperial Stout (161)
5. Sumatra Mountain Brown (101)
6. Canadian Breakfast Stout (94)
7. Porter (85)
8. Curmudgeon (44)
9. Mosaic Promise (38)
10. All Day IPA (33)
11. Harvest Ale (30)
12. Dirty Bastard (27)
13. Centennial IPA (25)
14. Redy's Rye (22)
15. Azacca IPA (16)
16. PC Pils (14)
17. Panther Cub (12)
18. Rubaeus (10)
19. Dark Penance (9)
20. Devil Dancer (9)
21. Sweet Repute (8)
22. Doom (6)
23. Pale Joe (6)
24. Palm Reader (6)
25. Big Lushious (6)
26. Blushing Monk (6)
27. Boltcutter (6)
28. Curmudgeon's Better Half (5)
29. Lizard of Koz (4)
30. MF Donkey Stout (4)
31. Double Trouble (4)
32. BA Redankulous (3)
33. Nitro Oatmeal Stout (3)
34. Dissenter (3)
35. BA Honey Stuff (3)
36. Bad Habit (3)
37. Black Rye (3)
38. Mango Magnifico (3)
39. Project Pam (3)
40. BA Curmudgeon (2)
41. Nemesis (2)
42. Frootwood (1)

 

Most of my favorites have been taproom only specials. It's always worth seeking those out at the brewery.

1. Walter Melon - a thick watermelon milkshake of an ale with no artificial flavor, just clean juicy goodness. It's set the standard of fruit beers for me and few have come close. Unfortunately, it appears to be a one-off and was brewed 5 years ago. Haven't been able to find anything about it since, and no one at the brewery has been able to tell me more.

2. Dirty Bastard cask with maple syrup, vanilla beans, and cinnamon. Boozy french toast awesomeness.

3. Hot-sauce Barrel aged All Day IPA. I had three of these in a row and came back the next day for more. Spicy beers are a personal favorite and this was done really well.

4. Cerise. Loved it both fresh and aged for up to 2 years. Never found it sweet or syrup-y like some of their other fruit beers.

5. KBS. I prefer it to CBS, honestly. It really is a great beer, both fresh and aged a few years.

 

Pretty cool you did this. I wonder how different results would be if the Top 5 rule was followed strictly, but whatever. Also, totally forgot about Devil Dancer, but man, I loved that stuff with about 6-12 months on it!

 

Regular distro:
KBS
Imperial
Backwoods Bastard
Porter
Sumatra
One off: Draft of BA Curmudgeon was amazing!

 

Damn, forgot Devil Dancer! Replace porter, i guess??

 

And Double Trouble!!! I suck at this!

 

CBS
KBS
Red's Rye
Harvest Ale
Old Backwoods

Funny thing about Red's--hard to get in these parts but when fresh, just magic to me.

 

By ratngs:

Project PAM
Sumatra Brown
Backwoods
ReDankulous
FIS

 

Dirty Bastard
Imperial Stout
Harvest Ale
Red's Rye
All Day
Backwoods Bastard

Had to settle with an extra hah