Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown

Brewed By: Founders Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Purchased: Giant 750ml bomber from Friar Tucks in Urbana, IL; 2012
Style/ABV: American Brown Ale/Strong Ale, 9.0%
Reported IBUs: ?

I was browsing for some beer while visiting my girlfriend's family in Urbana, and I happened across one of the always sexy, 750ml Founders bottles. The bottle calls this a "Brown Ale brewed with Hazelnut Coffee." How could I say no? About Founders:

Founders is the holy grail of Michigan brewing. Based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Founders was founded in 1997 and produce some of the best beer in the world.

This beer is, I believe, a one-off, much like their CBS. Founders doesn't have any information about this beer on their main site, but they did talk about it in this blog post and this blog post. This beer uses hazelnut coffee in the brewing process, and is described as being "sweet and nutty." This beer was available on draft at Founders' Grand Rapids taproom, and is part of the brewery's "Backstage Series."

 Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown 

The beer pours a lovely dark brown color, with 2 fingers of thick head. The head is made up of super densely packed bubbles, and has a real thickness; the head has a nice tan/sandy-beach color to it. When held to a bright light, this beer takes on a murky brown/orange color on the edges. You cannot see through this murky beer, but you can see quite a bit of carbonation (in the form of tiny bubbles) rising upwards. The head is hanging around, leaving some nice lacing, and there are some legs.

Wow! The aroma on this...this reminds me of Founders' Breakfast Stout, only with a kick of hazelnut goodness. I'm getting big coffee on this: spent coffee in the filter, ground coffee. And the coffee has a distinct hazelnut profile. I'm also getting huge nutty aromas on this, as well as big earthy profiles from the coffee and nut. There's some sweetness in the nose as well, and maybe a hint of booze? Overall: big sweet malts, HUGE hazelnut coffee, and a touch of alcohol.

Do you like coffee? Do you like hazelnut? Do you like hazelnut coffee? If you answered yes to any of the above, then odds are you will enjoy this beer. This beer just wallops the palate with huge coffee notes. I'm getting giant hazelnut coffee, sweet caramel, sugars, nuttiness, slight coffee-bitterness, and some really nice alcohol complexity on the back end. You pick up the booze as a lovely character in the palate, and it almost drops a raisin-caramel-sugar thing in the back-palate. 

I'm a coffee whore, and a hazelnut coffee whore too. So, consider that my bias...Having said that, this is delicios-o. This beer accomplishes exactly what it set out to accomplish, which is to fuse coffee into a Brown Ale. This is a medium-full to full-bodied beer, with a slightly oily mouthfeel, that drinks incredibly smooth thanks to gentle carbonation. Palate depth is superb, and complexity is moderate. Up front are sweet malts that give way to big nuttiness, hazelnut, and then hazelnut coffee; mid-palate is more hazelnut coffee, along with some coffee bitterness; back palate is lingering coffee, along with a hint of complex booze (raisin/caramel). 

Rating: Above-Average

I'm feeling a Decent to Strong Above-Average on this. This isn't exactly blowing me away in terms of complexity, much like Bell's Java Stout, for example. But, for what this beer is...it's really fucking good. Like, better than any of the competition. In some ways, I'd prefer this to Founders' Breakfast Stout. It's sort of a shame that this is a one-off. Food pairings? Breakfast, any type of chocolate, cream, or coconut pie, pork chops, country fried steak, or even fried chicken. This is just a really fun beer, and something you should pick up if you enjoy breakfast beers. Recommended....even at the steep price of 14 bucks a 750ml bottle. 

Random Thought: I don't understand how Founders' distribution works in Illinois. I can't find their beer anywhere in the Chicago-land area, but when I travel 100 miles south to Urbana, I can find their rare beer. What is up with that?