Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown Beer Review

After the relative disappointment that was my previous review of New Holland's White Hatter, I'm hoping that this review will restore my ever so slightly shaken faith in Michigan breweries. I picked this bottle up from The Party Source in Bellevue, KY and while there, Greg in the beer department took me in the backroom to get me my bottle (thanks for the hookup, Greg!) and while there, he named me The Party Source's customer of the week! Check it out on Facebook. Anyway, I'm excited about this beer because it is the fourth and latest installment in Founders wildly successful Backstage Series, a line of one-time production beers that have previously been taproom/brewery exclusives. To get these beers out into Founders distribution footprint is a big deal in the beer world; we've been longing for these beers for quite some time. This series also marks the first time that Founders has bottled beer in large format bottles, in this case 750ml bottles. The previous releases were Blushing Monk, Canadian Breakfast Stout (insanely hard to get but one of the best beers I've ever had), and Curmudgeon's Better Half. As I said, these are all special, highly prized beers and Frangelic Mountain Brown is no exception.

The beer could broadly be called a brown ale, but the label indicates an abv of 9%, which is far outside the range of your typical brown ale (Newcastle is the best known example). The brown ale originates in England and dates back centuries but has fallen out of popularity in recent years. Besides Newcastle, there aren't a ton of brown ales being made. There are notable exceptions being produced such as Dogfish Head's Indian Brown Ale and Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar, but even these are variations on the classic. I guess the style doesn't typically inspire people. Founders has produced their own twist with this beer. Frangelic Mountain Brown is the 16th iteration of their Mountain Brown Ale, which is itself a taproom exclusive. For this particular incarnation, the Founders team brewed it with actual hazelnut coffee. I'm excited to see how this beer turns out because I enjoyed Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar, brewed with hazelnut, and will be interested to note how the added coffee component affects the finished product. The brown ale style lends itself well to the hazelnut flavor, as the style tends to be a robust, ruby-brown colored ale with sweet notes of caramel and nuttiness. Let's dive in!

The beer is very nicely presented in a 750ml bottle with a beautiful mountain landscape and a nifty retro-ish label. An unabashed pour into my Libbey Poco Grande glass shows off a medium brown beer with plenty of ruby, garnet, and mahogany highlights. This pretty little beer is topped off by a cream colored half inch head that fades back into a ring and some interspersed foam after a few minutes. Looks promising so far. Appearance: 14/15

Holy hazelnut coffee, Batman! Right off the bat, my nose is inundated, and I'm not using the word lightly either, absolutely inundated with hazelnut coffee. I've never smelled a beer that so nearly approximates the smell of a coffeehouse. Wow. Luckily, I love hazelnut and coffee and combining the two in beer is kind of magical for me. It is very difficult to get past the hazelnut coffee smell. Maybe some caramel? Tough to say. The beer smells so delicious my mouth is watering and my olfactory sense memory is rushing me back to cozy memories of even cozier coffeehouses with good drinks, good friends, good music, and good conversation. But seriously, if you dislike hazelnut or coffee, stop reading now. You will hate this beer. Nose: 22/25

And the coffee just keeps coming! Straight through the palate, across every inch of my tongue and to the back of my mouth, nothing but hazelnut coffee. I mean yikes! There's a great creamy flavor in there too and I'm really getting into this beer as its beginning to warm so all the flavors are out and in full stride. The alcohol is remarkably well hidden. I have a high threshold for tasting booze, but this tastes a lot like plain old hazelnut coffee. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad thing; its great, because despite all of the flavors that we don't typically associate with beer, it still drinks and feels like a beer. So its pretty cool drinking a hazelnut coffee that constantly reminds me of its beery goodness at every turn. Palate: 47/50


The mouthfeel here might be my favorite aspect of the beer. Creamy, medium-full (way fuller than expected) and just enough pop of carbonation to let you know its a beer and not actual Frangelico. Awesome and different. Mouthfeel: 10/10


OVERALL: 94/100


I liked this beer from the outset but I ended up rating it higher than I expected. Sometimes my own ratings surprise me because I'm so focused on each segment during evaluation that I don't always see the big picture until I add up the total. I think I ended up liking this beer more than some others because A. I love the flavors that so dominate the nose and palate and B. I have an affinity for beers that can completely surprise me and do something I never would've expected. I almost want to get another bottle and drink it with breakfast. It would go great with sausage and biscuits. What can I say, I loved this beer! Cheers!