Founders’ Cellar Raid Taps Rare Beers

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Founders Brewing Co.
Courtesy Founders Brewing Co.

If there’s an event that helps highlight why Founders Brewing Co. continues to be one of the most-respected and fast-growing breweries in the country, it’s the annual Cellar Raid.

Sure, All Day IPA is the horse fueling the 42 percent growth the brewery saw in 2017 — the session IPA grew 50.3 percent according to IRI data and continues to pop up across the globe, no matter where Grand Rapidians look.

Despite All Day IPA making up more than 60 percent of the brewery’s volume, Founders is most known for its big, boozy beers, most notably KBS and CBS.

Founders KBS
Founders KBS

At its core, Founders has been an experimentally driven brewery for most of its history –for 15 years it never really had a flagship beer until All Day showed up, a rarity at the time in beer.

Cellar Raid helps cut to the heart of why beer drinkers love Founders . . . the constant creativity and desire to craft unique beers for the flocks of beer lovers who live in and come to Grand Rapids.

Cellar Raid 2018 is a four-day event occurring this week, Wednesday through Saturday, showcasing rare and never-before-tapped Founders beers.

There’s no set schedule for the beers, so what a taproom visitor might have to drink is up to chance. In the past, Founders has tapped Barrel-aged Bock, Barrel-aged Nitro Frangelic Stout, Rum Barrel-Aged Mosaic Promise, Barrel-aged Curmudgeon, KBS aged in Blis hot sauce barrels and Eisbock.

The four days will be filled with vintage beers, barrel-aged beers, taproom exclusives and small-batch beers. No matter the time, it’s likely there’s a beer on the tap list a Founders’ regular has never had before. While the lists are a surprise, Founders has already promised vintages of KBS, CBS and Backwoods Bastard.

A beer lover or not, it’s still a fascinating trip to head to Founders during this annual event to see the experiments and creativity the brewery’s production team have stowed away and are now letting see the light of day.

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