Founders goes tropical with new tiki-inspired beer aged in rum barrels

Robert Allen | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption We tasted Founders' new Barrel Runner beer Beer columnist Robert Allen and HopCat beer program manager Jay Poljanac are tasting a new Founders tiki-inspired beer called Barrel Runner at HopCat Royal Oak‘s third-floor balcony.

Summertime beers don't have to be easy-drinking. Here's one loaded with hops and soaked in used rum barrels.

Barrel Runner by Founders Brewing Co., at 11.1% alcohol by volume, is meant to be sipped – perhaps, like a Mai Tai or Pina Colada. Its flavors, as tasted Wednesday from a 750-milliliter bottle, are tropical-fruit-forward (think pineapple, mango) with a smooth intermingling of rum barrel and just a little boozy heat. When hops and liquor barrels mix, you can get some gnarly results, but this beer is pretty seamlessly balanced.

It's brewed with Mosaic hops, known for a complexity of flavors as varied as blueberry, floral, earthy, citrus and yes, tropical.

“I drink tiki cocktails probably more than I should, and looked to them for inspiration when creating Barrel Runer,” Founders Brewmaster Jeremy Kosmicki said in a news release. “You get a lot of bright, tropical character from the abundance of Mosaic hops plus a nice kick of oak and rum from the barrels. Add a tiny umbrella and you got yourself a beer perfect for enjoying poolside.”

Barrel Runner will be available Friday at the brewery's taprooms in Detroit and Grand Rapids. Starting a short time later, its distributed release will include four-packs of 12-ounce bottles (suggested retail price, $14.99) and single, 750-milliliter bottles ($11.99) from June through August.

Tiki drinks in general are on the rise, and Detroit now has two tiki bars: Mutiny Bar in southwest and Lost River on the east side.

Barrel Runner is Founders first rum-barrel-aged beer to be packaged, and it's the latest of the brewery's Barrel-Aged Series. Released earlier this year were Dankwood (12.2% ABV), a bourbon-barrel-aged imperial red ale; the year-round debut of Backwoods Bastard (11% ABV), a bourbon-barrel-aged scotch ale; and the acclaimed Kentucky Breakfast Stout (12.3% ABV), a bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout made with chocolate and coffee.

Two more installments of the series are expected later this year. They're an experimental treat for people who enjoy big, bold, complex beers.

Read more:

Meanwhile, most of the beer made by Founders, Michigan's largest brewery, is not so heavy: All Day IPA (4.7% ABV) session IPA accounted for 62 percent of Founders' output in 2017. It was also the No. 1 most popular beer on beer-tracking app Untappd. It's on the more crushable side of the summer-beer spectrum, but either it or Barrel Runner is worth a try on a hot day – just be a little more careful with the latter.

Spirits of Detroit columnist Robert Allen covers craft alcohol for the Free Press. Contact him: rallen@freepress.com or on Untappd, raDetroit and Twitter, @rallenMI.