Ranking Founder's BSs

Based on the initialism in the thread title, I honestly thought this was going to be a thread that ranked the bulls***t from Founders.

 

Ranking cbs as last may be blasphemy to many ba’s.
Prepare for torches and pitchforks with good reason.

 

Of the ones I have drank, I would rate KBS far above CBS and FBS.

 

I never saw espresso in Denver. I enjoy FBS first and foremost as the barrel competes with the coffee. I feel the same about tweak. Og was better than the barrel aged one in bottles.

 

1. Maple Mackinac Fudge KBS
2. CBS
3. Espresso KBS
4. KBS
5. FBS

 

I’m just patiently waiting for that Mackinac to hit my distribution....

 

Espresso
Mackinac
KBS
CBS
FBS

 

Of the three I've tried:

1. FBS
2. KBS
3. ???
4. ???
5. CBS

CBS sort of half sucks. I will say after cellaring some in my fridge for 10 months, aged bottle No. 2 was much better than fresh bottle No. 1. I'm guessing the espresso version has to be better than CBS (I love coffee); not sure about the Mackinacky whatever it is, but again ... it has to be better than fresh CBS.

Cheers!

 

Mackinac KBS is full of a chocolate fudge flavor.
With subtle hints of coffee and barrel.

 

I just had the Mackinac variant and I was very impressed. One of the best beers I've had this year actually. With a strong love for maple, my list goes

1. CBS - Actually my highest rated beer of all time. I had it at about 14 months and it was just incredible, total maple bomb with a very complex and balanced flavor. I have another bottle that I'm saving for the end of my semester. 4.69/5, rDev -0.2%
   
2. KBS Maple Mackinac Fudge - I'm currently finishing off my pour of this, and I'm loving every last sip, cherishing every last sip as the first beer of my birthday. Number 5 of all time for me. 4.64/5, rDev +1.3%
3. KBS Espresso. Very similar to the OG, but heavily dosed with coffee. Tastes similar to a chocolate covered coffee bean. Number 9 of all time. 4.61/5, rDev +4.3%
4. OG KBS - Where it started for me. It was a treat but I wasn't particularly mind blown either time I had it. That being said, it was still a very good beer, landing at number 74 of all time. 4.22/5, rDev -9.2%
5. FBS - A good beer, but nothing very impressive. I love oats in beer, especially used in IPAs, but this just didn't wow me. Number 112 of all time. 4.11/5, rDev -9.7%

Given all of this, it's clear that I have a pretty strong love for Founder's, especially this series. While I haven't rated too many beers (377) compared to many of you on this site, I still know what I like. It's cool for me to see 3 of these being in my top 10 of all time, which is fairly varied style-wise other than these

 

Beat me to it - maybe I've been reading too much about Stone lately!

 

411 rating wasn't a wow beer?

 

To clarify, I was impressed, but I think I was just expecting more from it, just hype I built up inside my head. But it was still damn well made!

 

My ranking as well, though I very much enjoy all of them. I, and my wife will vouch for this, actually choked up a bit the first time I tried CBS. I had been after it for a long time and it was just smooth, maple filled perfection. Still have a bunch of last year's in the cellar; stocked up after hearing that was the last batch for a while. It's very close between Mackinac and Espresso but I give Mackinac a slight edge for the extra complexity.

 

Exactly, it's hard to coax such sweet flavors out of a beer without overdoing the hell out of it like some tend to do

 

1&2. CBS (and nitro)
3&4. KBS (and Mackinac Fudge)
5. KBS Espreso (coffee is lack of personal taste)
6. Imperial Stout
7. Breakfast Stout

on the lookout for BA Imperial Stout

YMMV!

 

You've got it right, although I might put 3 and 4 at a tie. But you're the Master on stouts and I can't disagree with you.

 

Guess I'm in the minority when I say that regular KBS is my favourite. I love coffee (generally, and in stouts), but the Espresso KBS was a little one dimensional for me. CBS when I had it on tap a couple of times 9-10 years ago before it was bottled/distroed, was a special experience for sure - I don't know whether it's a case of looking at the past with rose-tinted glasses, my horrific total palate recall skills, the generally large format, or legitimate recipe change, but the bottled ones I've had subsequently were too mapley/cloying for me. A little unfair to rank FBS with its BA brethren; it will always be a special beer for me, despite not having it as often as I used to.

It's weird - seems on here KBS is the frontrunner when it comes to "stouts wot were special, which are now considered subpar vs original/earlier batches" - to me I've always found it to be remarkably consistent.

 

KBS, CBS, and “regular” FBS are all elite in my opinion. Looking back at my reviews I rated them in that order. I was somewhat surprised to see that, because subjectively I would have said I liked CBS the most, but maybe because at least up until recentlt it was much much more difficult to obtain and thus was thought of as an “extra special treat”. I do also think there’s been more batch to batch variability with CBS than the other 2.

I guess if you told me I could only have 1 for the rest of my life, I’d probably go with CBS but man it would be a tough call.

I thought Espresso wasn’t really all that much different than KBS and thus not really necessarily. I would clearly rank that fourth. I have not had the new fudge variant yet but will update the rankings when I do.