Beer Review: Founders Dirty Bastard

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 8.5 percent

Appearance: The initial appearance of Dirty Bastard is that it's an extremely thick beer. It's a very dark shade of maroon, with an off-white head. Depending on the angle in which you look at the beer's body, you can see some glowing spots of reds and browns.

Smell: The first smell is very sweet. I also picked up notes of malts, toffee and caramel. Given this beer's ABV, I figured I'd be fighting a strong scent of booze. Surprisingly there wasn't much alcohol in the aroma.

Taste: This beer was an interesting adventure until I took a few sips of it. The sweet and malty notes I discovered in the smell didn't translate as well to the taste and the alcohol that wasn't present in the smell hit me like a wall. The strong taste of alcohol and the thickness of the body made this beer a bit of a struggle. It was easier to drink once it got closer to room temperature though.

Overall Rating: 

I think that if there was less of an alcohol presence and more of the sweet and malty notes in the taste of this beer, that it would be a much more pleasant drink. This is the flagship beer of Founders Brewing, but personally I'd choose quite a few other beers by this company over this one.