Founders Brewing Co. Backwoods Bastard

Backwoods Bastard

 

Founders Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States 🇺🇸

  Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy Regular
Score
7.81
ABV: 11.0% IBU: 50 Ticks: 341
The Kick-Back Sipper

Expect lovely, warm smells of, oaky bourbon barrels, sweet caramel and roasted malts, a bit of earthy spice and scintilla of dark fruit. It’s a kick-back sipper made to excite the palate.

Distribution Note: Now available year-round beginning April of 2018.
 

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8/10
Well hello!
Tried on 13 Dec 2024 at 18:33

6.4/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 6 Texture 8 Overall 5.5
Notes from April 2011 Bottle courtesy of the ugly duckling a year or so back. Been settling in my fridge for most of that time. Still managed to deposit all sorts of nasty in my glass though. Spritzy pour, though not much residual head after the first few seconds. Beer is brown with a cherry tone to it. Slightly hazy, even after everything dropped out of suspension. Nose is very penetrating. Rich malt, more scotch then bourbon. Anise, rawhide, & a sharp, slightly charred base ale. Leather & a twiggy bitterness are the most upfront flavors. Licorice, oak, ink, scotch. Feel is heavy, with decent carbonation, but oh so boozy. Beer is too overloaded to be enjoyed as more then a novelty.
Tried from Bottle on 01 Nov 2024 at 01:12

7.5/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 7.5 Flavor 7.5 Texture 8 Overall 7
2024 bottle from Livonia Liquor. Been a while since I've had this one. Pours a clear dark amber to brown with a finger of beige foam that dissipates. Bourbon feels a bit lighter than previous years, but nice caramel, toasted malt and dark fruit notes. Balanced with a smooth finish...not as much vanilla as older vintages.
Tried from Bottle from Livonia Liquor & Fine Wine on 07 Sep 2024 at 01:57

8.2/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 9 Texture 8 Overall 8
Old review from a number of years ago. Pours clear and deep mahogany / brown with dark tan head. The icy and layered aroma and flavor. Rich malt, oak and cherries.
Tried on 25 Jul 2024 at 14:37

7.5/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 6 Overall 8
bottle from meny, toftegårds plads, valby. aroma is nutty, malty, woody, faint bourbon. not at all powerful for the abv, so that could be better. what there is, though is pretty good. flavor is caramelly, nutty, quite a lot of caramel and vanilla, also a lot of malts a'la werders echte, the barrellig is perfectly balanced and adds nuances, still, not as interesting as I had expected.
Tried from Bottle on 06 Jun 2024 at 17:23

7.8/10
Big sweet smooth, dried fruit. Lots of booze on the nose
Tried from Bottle on 13 Nov 2023 at 18:17

8.1/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 8.5
This review was imported from my RateBeer ratings.

12 oz. bottle, 11.0% ABV, Bottled On: 04.10.23

AROMA: I'm first hit with strong scents of scotch, caramel, and dark fruit. Which is then followed by hints of smoke and chocolate. All-in-all, it is a very sweet scent that does its job in enticing your other senses to dive in and experience the beer too.

APPEARANCE: Pours an opaque dark-brown with a medium-tall, dirty tan head, that dissipates slowly and has moderate lacing.

TASTE: Sweet with predominant flavors of chocolate, scotch, coffee, and rum raisins. On the backend there are notes of black cherries and caramel. The finish is a bit on the dry side and has a hint of scotch flavor.

MOUTHFEEL: Full bodied with a somewhat creamy, smooth texture, and slightly above-average carbonation.

OVERALL: Over the years, I've tried many high-alcohol, barrel-aged, beers, and almost all of them are so over-the-top, cloyingly sweet. that I find it difficult to enjoy drinking an entire beer. Usually, I greatly enjoy the first half of the beer. Then my palate gets fatigued by all of the sweetness and I end up forcing myself to finish the rest of the beer, even though I'm not really enjoying it. However, while this beer is certainly sweet, I find that the scotch "bite" is just enough to cut through a lot of that sweetness. Which allows me to continue to enjoy the beer all the way to the end of the bottle.
Tried from Bottle on 03 Sep 2023 at 19:01

9/10
Absolutely fabulous.
Tried on 20 Aug 2023 at 03:31

9/10
Tried on 14 Jun 2023 at 15:27

8/10
Tried on 13 May 2023 at 15:55