Founders Backwoods Bastard

Beer: Founders Backwoods Bastard
Brewery Location: Grand Rapids, MI
Beer Style: Wee Heavy Scotch Ale
ABV: 10.2%




Founders is just relentless in the amount of new beer coming out from them right now, and it is hard to keep up with everything, and then in the next few months four or five more offerings are coming out as well. I know Kentucky Breakfast Stout will be coming out in February, and I am not sure on the exact dates, but they will be releasing their porter for the first time in a very long time, imperial stout, and I am sure there is something more that I am missing. This beer just hit Indiana a few weeks ago and I just have not had time to review it recently.

I also like that Founder has not gone to bombers, and they continue to make their beer in 12 oz bottles. Many brewers are putting all of their high gravity beer in nothing but bombers. The 12 oz bottle is just a little more convenient for me. That is more of an observation than anything else.

This beer pours a dark rustic hue with a thin tan head. The nose is loaded with vanilla, wood, bourbon, cherry, and a slight hint of peat. The flavor profile is pretty intense with initial flavors of vanilla, oak, and dark cherries. The alcohol burn from the bourbon though really took away from this beer for me. It does not meld with the beer and overtook from most of the flavors that I was tasting. I let the beer warm for about thirty minutes and the flavor profile did sweeten a little bit, but the alcohol burn was still quite harsh I think. I really enjoy dirty bastard (the non-barrel aged version) because of the rich caramel malt base, but I never found that in this beer. The mouthfeel is full bodied with plenty of alcohol on the mouthfeel. The drinkabilility wasn't really there for me. I hope with some age on this beer it will settle down a bit.

I was really looking forward to this beer, but the alcohol and vanilla was just overwhelming and made this beer a miss for me. I am going to age my remaining bottles for a while and see if the flavor backs off a bit. Has anyone aged one of these before?

Cheers!
Matt