Founders All Day IPA

Founders All Day IPA 4.7% ABV
American IPA
Founders Brewing Company

It happened. In January, I bought enough beer of whatever styles without paying attention to the price where my wife said the most dreaded words for a craft beer lover: “You spent too much money on beer this month.”

Alas, true. It was only a bottle or two each time I went to the store… which might have been a few times a week. For February, I needed to up my game.

The next time I was at the store, I spotted a Founders 15-pack of their All Day IPA.  A session IPA that’s meant to easily throw back a couple without an issue and would be great for a gathering. A 15-pack though? I haven’t bought a single beer in that count since, I suppose, college.  Actually, I never bought those huge packs in college, so this was the largest single-beer purchase meant for my personal consumption I’ve ever undertaken.

The price was right—per ounce, it ended up being cheaper than any other beer that I was checking out that day. But 15? All within roughly a month.

I discovered there are phases to drinking a single beer over long stretches of time.

The First Phase: This is good!

The first phase is actually attempting to get a feel for the beer, notice the nuances of it, decide if you like it or not. Is it too hoppy? How’s the aftertaste? This is a fine beer. It has a bit of a kick to it; not as smooth as, say, the Lagunitas IPA, but still a fine one.

This quickly gives way to the next phase…

The Second Phase: Make it stop!

Untappd doesn’t expect someone to drink one beer over and over…

This is nothing against the beer. It’s still a good beer. While I’m relatively a novice compared to many of my friends in the craft beer world, I’ve still had almost 500 unique beers according to Untappd. Even when I do buy a six-pack, which is rare, it gets spread out over a long period of time. The last two six packs I purchased—Real Ale Oyster Stout and Shiner’s Holiday Cheer—were purchased in December and I still have one of each in the fridge.

But 15 of one type? In a row? My only variance from this beer this month has been a shot of Austin Beerworks Peacemaker Anytime Ale¹ (do read this footnote, it is a good one, but I digress) that was provided while running the Austin Half-Marathon.

For me, this was the hard part. It became a chore. I didn’t want to do it. I needed some variety. Again, this is a beer I’d buy again, but I just have to mix it up a bit.

Thankfully, that gave way to…

The Third Phase: Acceptance

Our normal, everyday, All-American beer drinks are in this phase with their macrobeers. The All Day IPA became simply how beer tastes to me. I didn’t notice or try to notice anything about the beer. It simply was the beer I drink now. If I want a beer, it will taste like this beer. That’s all there is to it.

The Fourth Phase?

I’m excited about what’s next. This was an experiment to see if going for numbers would help the budget while still fulfilling my love of craft beer. It was a partial success. I can see myself going toward the six-packs again to save over single-bottles, but a 12- or 15-pack? I don’t think I’ll do that again, not just for me.

If I didn’t make it clear enough, I did enjoy this beer. Nothing in this should be seen as a negative toward Founders. 🙂

What efforts have you done to keep the beer budget balanced?

---

1. It is comical that the beer I have a shot of to take a break from a marathon 15-pack would be the Austin Beerworks Peacemaker. This is better known to the broader beer world as the beer whose initial release included 99 packs. No. Seriously. Really. A 99-pack. ↩

Advertisement