In this blog, we are going to check out another brewery from Michigan called Founders Brewing.  The beer we are going to talk about is their Cerise Cherry Fermented Ale.  This is one of their four pack seasonal beers.  Here is a little history on this brewery.  The brewery was founded in 1997.

Here is a little history straight from their website (www.foundersbrewing.com):

Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers both had steady jobs when they decided to chase their dreams and open a brewery–which meant writing a business plan, quitting their jobs, and taking out giant loans. They figured if you’re going to live life, you ought to live it hard, without regrets.

After some initial challenges, due to making well-balanced but unremarkable beers, we were on the verge of bankruptcy. It was at this point that the original Founders team decided to brew the kind of beer that got them excited about brewing in the first place: complex, in-your-face ales, with huge aromatics, bigger body, and tons of flavor.

The Founders Family, a group of passionate beer enthusiasts, has grown around this simple philosophy: “We don’t brew beer for the masses. Instead, our beers are crafted for a chosen few, a small cadre of renegades and rebels who enjoy a beer that pushes the limits of what is commonly accepted as taste. In short, we make beer for people like us.”

We at Founders Brewing Company have been lucky to evolve into one of the highest recognized breweries in the United States. Since 2011, Ratebeer.com has ranked us as the 2nd best brewery in the world (we were 4th best in 2010), and we have several beers listed in the top one hundred beers of the world on Beeradvocate.com. We were the winner of four medals at the 2010 World Beer Cup, two medals at the 2010 Great American Beer Festival, and one medal at the 2012 World Beer Cup.

We are proud to be doing what we are doing, and we give great thanks to our many customers and credit to our staff for whom we continually work to reinvent and provide world-class beers.

The website had a better explanation than what I could have ever wrote on this brewery.  I found that straight from their website.  Let us get into the brew that I checked out from this brewery.

Founders Cerise has a nice red cherry color without a head on it.  It has a nice fresh pick cherry smell to it.  This fruit beer has a sweet heavy cherry taste with a little carbonation to it. The aftertaste is a heavy cherry to it. It is drinkable beer.

Here is a description from their website about the beer (www.foundersbrewing.com):

You’ll have a soft spot for this one. Using only fresh Michigan tart cherries, this beauty tantalizes with intense flavors combined with a no-hesitation malt bill. Adding fresh cherries at five separate stages of fermentation achieves the ultimate balance between tartness and sweetness.

• ABV: 6.5%
• IBUs: 15
• Availability: Jun – Aug

Here is their website and twitter addresses:

Website:  www.foundersbrewing.com

Twitter:  @foundersbrewing

In closing, I did not know how I would react to this beer.  I am not a huge fan of this beer style of fruit in beer.  I have tried several Belgian and Belgian Fruit Beer Style and they all pretty much came off the wrong to me.  Some were too sweet or not any fruit taste in them.  With all that said, I really like this beer.  It kind of remind me of Liefman’s Fruitesse but with just Cherry in it.  Liefmans has every berries you can think of in the world in it.  It is extremely drinkable and dangerous for an ABV 6.5%.  Go find this beer before the season is over.  Go get some!  Drink it!  Enjoy it!  Metal it!  \m/

Cheers!

Bill DJ Weiser

Email:  djweiser13@comcast.net

Twitter:  @djweiser