Founder's Backstage Series Vertical

Alright, so we had this tasting last night....here are some quick thoughts:

Not many surprises across the board from what our initial impressions of these beers were vs. what they are today.

We had a "general consensus" of how these beers ranked...so we put them in "tiers" as follows.

Tier 1: Blushing Monk, CBS
Tier 2: Smoked Porter, Sweet Repute, Dissenter
Tier 3: Bolt Cutter, Mango Magnifico, Frangelic Mountain
Tier 4: Curmudgeon's Better Half, Doom


-The Blushing Monk has held up remarkably well. Tons of raspberry jam/jelly. Probably top of the class.

-CBS is still a very good beer, in my opinion. While, the maple sweetness has been muted by the way of chocolates, anise, coffee and roasted malt...the bourbon rounds out the finish nicely along with the maple.

-CBH was pretty bad, honestly. Lots of diacetyl/butter flavors and aromas. The last 5-6 ounces was mostly sediment as well. Thin bodied and boozy as all get out.

-Frangelic Mountain had plenty of the artificial hazelnut coffee flavor left. (Still can't believe they used artificial flavoring extract). While it wasn't bad necessarily, we found it to be cloying at times...tasting like a thin bodied coffee with lots of Coffeemate added.

-Bolt Cutter was just okay. Still very boozy...not as cloying with the maple...but the malt bill does not stack up to the booze on this one.

-Doom was last place in all of our books. Very thin bodied and all barrel character.

-Mango Magnifico was another middle of the road beer for us...had nice sweetness upfront...and the heat comes on slowly, but very firmly. It just started to wear on us after a few sips. Wanted more rounding out of the edges on this...but, it at least had a nice body left on it.

-Sweet Repute was a nice surprise. Tasted very balanced and full bodied. Nice wheat wine backbone with the maple and bourbon hitting a nice harmony. Drink up!!

-Smoked Porter found it's way into the upper part of the class with it's well rounded edges. If you don't like smoke, you will probably still not like this....but, being a fan of charred s'mores...I really like this and think it has held up well. Full bodied roasted malts and hints of dry chocolate/cocoa powder give this a nice and smooth finish.

-Dissenter is a good IPL. It masks the alcohol well for the ABV, but seems one dimensional to me. Very solid beer, but was hoping for more of a nose and more of a bouquet in the middle. Still, it finishes nice and crisp.