Founders Devil Dancer - Founders Brewing Company

Pahn

New York

4.1/5  rDev +3.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

12oz bottle into Duvel tulip. Thanks to BA morningthief for picking me up a bottle in Boston. 2011 release.

Appearance: Free pour leaves a short-lasting, 3/4 inch frothy white head that leaves a tight lacing ring. Pours an almost translucent red orange. Leaves occasional swatches of lacing, mostly pulled down to the surface of the liquid on the beer's big legs.

Smell: From the bottle: lots of tropical fruit hops. In the glass: same tropical fruit hops, then some pine, then a huge, pungent aroma of dank weed. Some pastry underneath. Thick, giant hop aroma. Maybe some grapefruit underneath, and some persistent mango and passion fruit notes, but dominant is pine and savory Summit hops (weed / onion / garlic).

Some hoppy beers' aroma puts you in the green house... This beer places you *deep* in the green house, and the gardener is up to some weird shit to boot. If I could imagine the smell of a "triple IPA" dry hopped with are-you-serious? 10 hop varieties for about twice as long as most (serious) IPAs are dry hopped made by an expert brewery like Founders, it would smell like this.

I think the bouquet could have a little more balance and be a bit more enticing, but the sheer force of the hop aroma (with some mild booziness and welcome malt backbone somehow showing through) pushes the beer close to a 5.0.

Taste:

(Mildly amusing anecdote: a drop or two of beer got on my hand when I was opening and pouring the bottle. Licking that drop was like eating a pine needle)

Follows the nose, but much less fruit, even more onion/weed, and a nice biscuity malt presence. Each sip delivers maximum bitterness from start to finish, beginning with pine, weed, and green onion up front, some biscuit and toast in the middle, leading to a resiny, pungent, piney finish that leads to a long aftertaste of alcohol and pine.

This is a serious IPA. Alas, as with Oskar Blues GUBNA, I want to be on board with these flavors, but I am not convinced all the way to Devil Dancer's point of view. Straight punch to the face bitterness, I like it. Resiny feel that perfectly compliments the pine and heavily pungent hop flavor, I love it. However, at the end of the day, I want the grapefruit and tropical fruit to show through and soften up this rugged brawler of a beer.

This beer tastes good, maybe even great, and it's loaded with hop flavor and bitterness (and still balanced out by biscuity malt and supported by a very complimentary mouthfeel). The heat is extreme, yet forgivable (*everything* about the flavor is extreme)... but in the end the flavor is too savory for me to go above a 4.0. I'm not laughing at it like I was GUBNA, but for better or worse, even if I acknowledge the truly amazing amount of hop flavor the brewers packed into this beer, it just isn't the hop bomb of my dreams.

Mouthfeel: Full side of medium bodied, giving a very thick and creamy impression up front. Segues to a slightly dry but kind of bland and very hot finish. Love the first three quarters, lukewarm on the last. Just enough carbonation.

Overall: I feel a real affection for this beer. It's rugged and serious; if you're even remotely "casual" in your appreciation of hops, this beer wants nothing to do with you. I admire its rough, uncompromising character just as much as I admire the brewers for miraculously keeping so much hop flavor in the final product.

Nonetheless, I can't deny that such Olympian heights of hops, good (enough) mouthfeel, and improbably well-balancing malt backbone serve largely to highlight the fact that I would be totally in love with the flavor of this beer if certain other hop flavors were as well incorporated as the savory Summit-ish flavors and pine. As it stands, I like the beer, but I would rather love it.

Serving type: bottle

07-31-2011 02:43:00 | More by Pahn

erialbill

New Jersey

4.5/5  rDev +13.9%

06-20-2013 00:54:20 | More by erialbill

geocool

Massachusetts

4/5  rDev +1.3%

06-20-2013 00:50:58 | More by geocool

skaboom420

Pennsylvania

3.75/5  rDev -5.1%

06-20-2013 00:06:14 | More by skaboom420

Jacob007

New Hampshire

4.5/5  rDev +13.9%

06-19-2013 23:49:49 | More by Jacob007

King_KongDCO93

Minnesota

4.25/5  rDev +7.6%

06-19-2013 23:12:50 | More by King_KongDCO93

KYGunner

Kentucky

3.74/5  rDev -5.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

Poured a very nice dark orange to red grapefruit coloring with a reasonably thick bubbly head.

I get huge piney resin and floral scent here. No fruit to speak of but an underlining of malty, tea leaves.

I get alcohol, piney, floral alcohol. If you sip it slow it mitigates a piney, metallic alcohol taste but can't fight the burn. As I drink it slower, it begins to grow on me. The initial shock is gone and the taste is piney hops but it has a certain sweetness and a certain character.

This beer gives the feel of over the top, in your face, Bam...hops! It succeeds but the alcohol taste and burn ruins it a bit for me.

Serving type: bottle

06-19-2013 19:26:46 | More by KYGunner

firstlighthiker

Tennessee

4.25/5  rDev +7.6%

06-19-2013 18:10:10 | More by firstlighthiker

jono0101

Missouri

3.75/5  rDev -5.1%

06-19-2013 15:48:12 | More by jono0101

TravisR

New Jersey

3.5/5  rDev -11.4%

06-19-2013 04:34:07 | More by TravisR

ajtorres311

Florida

2.5/5  rDev -36.7%

06-18-2013 14:51:08 | More by ajtorres311

headyhopzhead

Indiana

4/5  rDev +1.3%

06-18-2013 12:43:52 | More by headyhopzhead

DanGeo

Michigan

3.75/5  rDev -5.1%

06-18-2013 12:40:27 | More by DanGeo

Hamburgers

California

4/5  rDev +1.3%

06-18-2013 06:33:12 | More by Hamburgers

IronCity1822

Missouri

3.75/5  rDev -5.1%

06-18-2013 02:36:21 | More by IronCity1822

nUgZ

North Carolina

4.25/5  rDev +7.6%

06-18-2013 01:40:05 | More by nUgZ

HisBoyElroy

Michigan

4.25/5  rDev +7.6%

06-18-2013 01:22:37 | More by HisBoyElroy

sennin

Michigan

4.15/5  rDev +5.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4

Poured into a Tulip glass on 17 June 2013.

A: A small white head develops on the pour, but dissipates throughout the drinking session. Amber colored with some nice bubbling. Lacing definitely prevalent, but decreases throughout the drinking session.

S: Very interesting, I'm getting something like raspberry jelly, as well as blackberry and raspberry currants. Huge red fruit presence in the the smell. Pine resin is especially dominant though. It has both a bitter and sweet smell and has a very intriguing balance.

T: Bitter, goddamn bitter. Ruination bitter, but I obviously mean that in the best way possible. Very piney, lots and lots and lots of glorious hops. There is an underlying presence of orange and obviously grapefruit as well. Alcohol is definitely present as well but doesn't overwhelm considering the percentage. It is worth noting though that the taste is a bit unbalanced and the bitterness can get to be a bit much throughout the drinking session. This is a slow drinker obviously, but more in the vein of a bourbon or scotch simply because of the outright intensity that it embodies. Still, very good and one of my favorite brews.

M: Caramel like and smooth on the first sip. After the swallow, there is a definite chalky dry feeling on the tongue, probably from the large alcohol percentage. It's bubbly and pleasant though, pretty perfect mouth feel honestly, one of the best I have tried.

Overall, this is a very slow drinker, but it's one of those that you need to try. Especially if you are a hop-head. This beer has some very interesting stuff going on in it and I commend Founders for it. Stay away if you can't handle beers like Stone's Ruination though, this one isn't as good, but it's definitely in the same league as that devilish bastard.

Cheers.

Serving type: bottle

06-17-2013 06:16:45 | More by sennin

PEIhop

Massachusetts

3.75/5  rDev -5.1%

06-16-2013 12:51:14 | More by PEIhop

megamass

New Jersey

4/5  rDev +1.3%

06-16-2013 05:41:26 | More by megamass

MLaVioletteJr

Massachusetts

4.25/5  rDev +7.6%

06-16-2013 04:31:20 | More by MLaVioletteJr

CMUbrew

Michigan

3.56/5  rDev -9.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

A: Looks somewhat thick and syrupy on the pour. Head never manages to form, so we'll settle for a thin ring of foam here. Color is fairly dark, but shows some bright red orange directly in the light.

S: Extremely piney and resinous. That's really about it.

T: Huge raw bitterness from start to finish. Bitter citrus rind and resinous pine flavors are there. Seriously, this is bitter. I was expecting a lot of malt sweetness to balance the 100+ IBU, but that is not happening. I'm a hophead, but damn. The lack of balance and increased alcohol presence with warming makes this a sipper for sure.

M: Being a 12% beer this seems about right. A little thick, and a little slick and oily. Carbonation is on the lower side.

O: This is a really unbalanced beer and seems a little extreme, even with what's out there today in the IPA DIPA market. That being said, it is drinkable. However, I think Founders needs to brew up a good replacement for this next year in my opinion.

Serving type: bottle

06-16-2013 00:31:34 | More by CMUbrew

Powderhornphil

Minnesota

3.5/5  rDev -11.4%

06-16-2013 00:29:20 | More by Powderhornphil

roostor07

Minnesota

3/5  rDev -24.1%

06-15-2013 18:03:06 | More by roostor07

Broanoke

Virginia

2.89/5  rDev -26.8%
look: 4.75 | smell: 2 | taste: 3 | feel: 4 | overall: 2.5

Pored a beautiful red/copper. very clear

Huge burst of hops on the nose. Tropical fruits, citrus and pine. Then followed by a yeast smell. Like a bread dough yeast. Awful

Hops in the taste and no hint of alcohol. But then there is this underling yeast flavor and smell. Cant get it out of my head now.

Mouthfeel was medium. Decent carbonation on the tongue.

I would have been way more into this had it not been for the yeast smell/flavor. Maybe my palate was off, maybe a bad bottle. I dont know. It was very off putting.

Serving type: bottle

06-15-2013 04:06:54 | More by Broanoke