Founders Doom

Oh my stars, it's been a over a month since we've done a review. Slackers? Indeed! Or, just life has gotten in the way. Regardless, we still have some stellar beers in our fridge, and within this last month, we came across a random bottle of Doom. Hell yeah. We missed out earlier in the year, so we're really excited about this. And tonight is the perfect night to celebrate by cracking open this amazing bottle of unobtainium, as we're celebrating some personal success. 

I've been discussing beer trades with a rather accomplished home brewer in Louisiana, and I can't wait to put this in my gullet any longer. The color is a beautiful, hazy medium golden orange color with a moderate white head that is leaving some lovely lacing on my glass. The aroma is heavenly: bready, piney, and whoa, there's some bourbon in the nose. In an IPA. My brain just got confused. My reaction upon taking a sip was literally, "Oh my gods." It's that good. Let's see if I can walk you through the wonderland that is my mouth right now. It starts out kind of piney, then warms into this beautiful, soft orange flavor, and then the malts lend their bready presence, and then the bourbon kicks in to remind you that this is a 10% brew, and all the while there's a lovely bourbon presence warming the aforementioned gullet. The mouthfeel is wonderfully round and soft, yet it's well-carbonated.

I was a little leery of this beer, as I don't usually think that bourbon barrels and IPA's go together well. Thank you, Founders, for proving me wrong on that. Now, if you could just send me some KBS, we'll be all good.

5/5 caps

-Jennie

As the intro to American Horror Story plays, this golden elixir sits in front of me. The flashbacks of chaos that was the past month race to the forefront of mind, but gazing upon this, they seem to vanish a quickly as they appeared.

It's had some time to warm up a bit, but still chilled. In the pint glass, it appears to be a nice golden orange color with some faint white head, holding on for dear life, but with a name like Doom, is there more to this 10% ABV beast? Guessing the IBUs are somewhere around 86, as this is a barrel aged version of Founder's Double Trouble (which surprisingly, we've not reviewed yet). A limited release, we were ecstatic to find this.

The aroma on this is... Wow... The aroma is pine, orange, some grapefruit, some biscuit, some caramel, and hints of booze... I'm entranced by the sheer amazing characteristics of this. This grips the olfactory senses and dancing around in joyous fervor, like gnomes, happily playing in fields of hops, holding hands and playing games where they smile gleefully.

Finally, after all this torture, I decide to press the pint against my lips and slowly let this nectar of Hopsus slide into my mouth. There's a lot going on here. Piney, orange, some tangy bitterness, then smooth caramel and a pungent bite of a smooth sipping bourbon. The second sip gives more way to the caramel and bourbon toward the front, but the bitterness of the hops peaks through, giving way to piney and orange and back to the bourbon. This is interesting, and the 10 % can be felt almost instantaneously. The finish is slightly sticky, still lightly carbonated, but a nice smooth mouthfeel.

Well played, Founders, as I laugh that American Horror Story just said "baby gravy" on TV.Was weary of BA IPAs until now, but apparently BA now stands for Bad Ass (instead of Barrel Aged).

5/5 caps

-Nathan-