The Kuhnhenn Brewing Company is a small microbrewery, winery and meadery in Warren, Michigan, United States. They have several beers rated in the top 100 in the world on beeradvocate.com and ratebeer.com. The business was established in 1998, but did not open its doors until 2001, by owners and brewers, the brothers Bret and Eric Kuhnhenn.
The brewery sits on the corner of Mound and Chicago Road in the old Lutz hardware store which is owned by the Kuhnhenn family. The brothers started homebrewing when Eric went to college and was introduced to it. He brought the hobby home and introduced it to his brother Bret. Bret started selling homebrewing supplies from the hardware store and soon it became more profitable than selling hardware. The hardware component of the establishment did not disappear from the brewery until mid-2006.
The brewery uses converted equipment, the lauter tun was a peanut butter hopper from Quaker Oats cereal, the mash/boil kettle was a yeast starter for a sour dough bread company, their pilot system’s kettle was a 100-gallon coffee maker. They have a six kettle brew on the premises that allows them to make experimental beers.
The beers include Raspberry Eisbock, Winter Wonder Lager, Fourth Dementia, DRIPA and Simcoe Silly. The brothers brew about 80 different beers; most of these beers are small batches made for annual events. Kuhnhenn’s is also known for brewing seasonal and experimental strong beers.
Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. won a gold medal at the a World a Beer Cup for DRIPA (Double Rice IPA).
A satellite brewery (larger than the original, and with increased bottling capacity) has opened at 36000 Groesbeck Highway Clinton Township, Michigan 48035.
Bottle, at share, thanks to me. Pours dark brown. Chocolate, dark chocolate, raspberry, jam, fudge, biscuit, caramel, booze. Nice oily body. Very good.
2022 vintage. 12.7 oz bottle, pours a fairly clear dark burgundy with a small beige head. Aroma has a subtle blueberry jam character, along with some booze, and surprisingly not much else given the ABV. Flavour is full of booze and blueberry juice -- hard to really come up with other adjectives. There's some light perfumey notes, maybe light phenolic character. How is this 100th percentile? Yeah, it's drinkable for a blueberry boozebock, but it's not got much complexity.
Poured from 375mL bottle (2022 vintage). Lightly hazed purple brown with small off white head. Boozy, blueberry, on par with the raspberry and strawberry eisbocks I've tried.
Can. Pours a clean light gold with a thin head of fizzy bubbles (more like soda fizz than foamy head). Aromas are crisp - a bit of sweetness (almost apple juice), a touch of floral and lemon, and maybe a little booze. First sip is a bit abrasive, both in terms of hop profile (jagged peppery and resinous notes with some lemon peel) and in terms of a bit of hot alcohol. It calms down considerably after that first punch, but it was a lot. The sharp edges never smooth entirely, however, and this one is just an edgy little punk.
Almost black beer and without head. Aroma has caramel maltyness, wood, herbs, liquorice. Taste has caramel, raisin, wood. Full bodied. Strenght is there. Maybe too simple and could be more complex. Anyway, very good beer, of course.
A very dark brown beer, a head is very small and beige. Aroma has dried fruitness, prune, light caramel, also ripe banana, hint of barrel. Taste has dried fruitness of prune, caramel, some herbal bitterness. Almost full bodied. Smooth and very nicely balanced. Very tasteful.
Bottle picked up from Beer Republic webshop Breda Netherlands (I think) and consumed at dad and Paulines Monday 1st April 2024 listening to a random selection of tunes. Pours dark brown with a fast disappearing head, agree with Loz and dad this has a really beefy nose, but there is also bourbon. Thick in the mouth, boozy but some chocolate combines, quite zappy but really heavy, good.
Bottle, 355 ml, shared with MiroB, Luka, Tomi and Zec. Black with beige head. Chocolate, coffee, some caramel, toffee, some bourbon, nice bitter finish. Alcohol well hidden.