Founders Brewing Co. Reviews

Not from the area. Bought their beer at Meijers quite often. Tastes just as good from the brewery as it does from the store speaks a lot towards how they maintain quality with shelf life. Server was amazing. I think she thought she offended me because I took my bill up to pay. Wasn't her fault I just didn't know if she took it or if I did. If you read this Ms.Server lady. I had the castro with no mustard no pickles and cheddar instead of swiss. You did a great job and hope you have a Merry Christmas. Beer prices on 6packs. 10$ amazing deal. I bought two as Christmas gifts

A must visit. Great beer, sandwiches and vibes. Live music sometimes.

Wow. Im a fan of wheaty lagers (the ones that leave that cereal after-taste) and their gold-something-or-other which is only available on tape was on the money. If i hadnt had so many of them, i might remember the name more accurately :)
Randy took good care of us, and also, the sandwiches we had were un-real.
not to be missed

It's Founders. You can't go wrong. Even when it gets busy there's plenty of room to mill around and hanging out on the patio in the summer with any icy IPA and some friends is definitely my idea of a good time. It's also a must-visit when friends are visiting from out of town.

Good prices, great beer, live music, and an awesome atmosphere.

Great service, great atmosphere, great food, great beer, great souvenirs! I really don't have anything bad to say.

Do you like really good beer from Michigan!? Do you like festivals, great atmosphere, good food, and lively music? It's time that you swing by Founders in downtown GR to experience a great time. Bring some good friends and sit outside next to the fire pits or stay warm on a cold night indoors to listen to some good music. In town for a sporting event or for Art Prize? Do yourself a favor and relax with a Dirty Bastard or a specialty Double Trouble. Don't forget to check out Founders Fest , their biggest party of the year, in June!

Founders is one my favorite places to go. I'm a mug club member, the beers are always top notch (although sometimes they get a bit interesting with the one-offs), and the sandwiches are the best sandwiches in town. The oatmeal stout on Nitro is one of my favorites in addition to the Centennial IPA, always a good standby. Love the free music Thursdays, and there's usually good live music on Saturdays, and Founders Fest in June is a must for incredible beer, music, and awesomeness!

Horrible people run this bar. They need to know WIC isn t allowed at bars

Get some great beer and delicious sandwiches. Sit outside if you can find a seat

Great place for beer that is known throughout America. Food is terrific, and they have some good vegetarian options.

Best sandwiches ever!! Great service and great food!

Not much that needs to be said about this place. Greatest brewery in the region. One of the best in the country. Their taproom looks amazing. They have a beautiful, huge, heated patio. There's a great selection of unique sandwiches. Just go here. Do it. Best place in Grand Rapids.

Fantastic atmosphere and obviously amazing drinks! Was SUPPPPER crowded, but that doesn't diminish stars as you should expect a place like this to be super popular.

ALL DAY IPA craft beer very aromatic, fruity, characteristic place, very "American"! To try!

Founders always has really good beers and a great diversity of beers. Sandwiches are good, but it is a great atmosphere and place to hang out.

This is one of Michigan's great breweries and everyone in town knows it. I've never been here when it isn't packed to the brim, but there's a good reason for that. Live music, a beautiful heated patio, and the friendly beer experts on staff make this a go-to of mine whenever I'm in town.

Walking up to the bar it has a nice appearance. It was a postive place, with many choices of drinks. The only thing I didn't like was it was a seat yourself in a busy establishment. I've walked around looking for a area for a good 10 minutes until finding a spot. Once we were seated the service was great and our waiter was patient with us. I would totally come back to this place, but at a non-busy hour.

The beer was fine. It certainly left something to be desired from the self-titled "Beer City USA." We were asked to leave the brewery at about 9:15 because of the presence of a sleeping 3 month old in our party that had no effect on anyone's well being. That policy is largely unheard of and very rare. It should be reconsidered by the management over in Spain.

Very warm and welcoming atmosphere. Not a beer drinker normally and my bartender found an amazing beer for me and the food was delicious too!! Great place!

Great beer but the whole seating situation could use some work.

My friends also had sandwiches and enjoyed both. We all got the Nitro Rubaeus, which is my favorite, and at $5 not a bad price, either. You're allowed to try 2 oz. tasters so we also tried the Blushing Monk, which was similar to Rubaeus but very delicious, and the White Russian-esque beer (forgetting the name now), which was too coffee-esque for me.

Great beer! Great service! Awesome patio! Food was ok.

Founder's always has something amazing on tap. Service was very attentive.bear in mind I visited on a Monday night. On a Friday you have to be aggressive to get a table. Their snacks are great. I've always liked their sandwiches. This is the flagship for one of the great breweries on planet earth and they rarely disappoint. I also appreciate how all of their staff will gladly chat with you about beer. They are definitely proud of their product.

This is one of my favorite places to go to in GR. Great beer and good beer cheese too!

Made us wait in line at 730 because they were at "capacity". Oh look it's exactly 8, you can go in but now there is a cover. Would have made more money in sales by letting people in. I'll have a Corona please. You're beer is not that great anyway

Kids are not welcomed and the lady at the food counter made that clear.

Great service, great beer. We will definitely have to come again when we have more time.

Its Founders... Expect the best and settle for nothing less.

Great beer and food, but way too many people. On most nights that I've been here, it looked I was sharing the bar with at least 1000 other people. There's no bar in GR that's even close to this busy. To the staff's credit, they maintain friendly service in the face of the mob, which is awesome. On the other hand, this is not the place to go if you want a quiet night out or want to talk without screaming. The noise level is out of control.

We drove 220 miles out of our way to see the taproom and have a pint or two. Checked to make sure they were open ahead of time but when we arrived they were posting a sign saying closed for renovation. The man posting the sign said it was all over social media but we found nothing saying it would be closed. Sooooo disappointed!

Fantastic beer and I had one of the greatest sandwiches of my life (the Devil Dancer). Highly recommend trying this place out if you re visiting.

Great beer in a great atmosphere! The sandwiches are huge but SOOO good.

The beer and food is amazing. Staff is friendly and did I mention the beer!

Founder's has been one of the places that has adapted very poorly to covid. The wait time is insane when there are plenty of open tables. Once they sit you you wait 15 min for a waiter to acknowledge your there. Bathrooms were dirty even when they claim they close them for clean up every hour. The service keeps going down hill, as a big fan and proud Grand Rapids resident it's very sad to see this decline. It took forever to be served and even to get a beer. Trully disappointed.

Founders has amazing beer, amazing food, and amazing service. The beer options range the entire spectrum of possibilities. I traveled 1,000 miles to visit this place for the second time. Visit it! You will enjoy it!

Great food and beer. Nice atmosphere. Friendly staff.

Eat beforehand . 45 minute wait n counting for a sandwich. Also if you rent upstairs...you can't take ordered food from downstairs up.

Great beer, great food, and outstanding wait staff every week. Love the ability to order from any server or the bar and keep it all on one tab. By far my favorite bar/brewery in GR.

This place is great. I love Founders beer and had to stop at the brewery for supper when I was in town. The atmosphere is great, the food is great, and there are plenty of beer options. I'll definitely stop here again if I ever make it back here. It's a must do for any one. I had my wife and 2 kids (10 & 7) and they all thought it was great too

Mr. Owner
We have emailed our concern to the company and Kristy Rushin forward our mail notoriously to Rick stating I have done my detective work now this problem is yours she consider herself as a detective not an admin assistant and now Mr. Rick (marketing analyst manager) responded very arrogantly start begin counting 100 cases for a year to be in allocation list sounds like stop bothering me im playing golf with Mr. Osco and I just got sponsor free grocery for a year.
Mr. Owner these kinds of irresponsible managers are drawing high salary? Got to be some kind of accountability here, these kinds of managers need to get fired to become an example for others.
For many many years these independed store helps founders to grow everyday and making you rich here what I m seeing is a discrimination and unethical business practice or Richer Makes Rich more Richer. You team forcing store to buy over 100 cases so they can get their big bonus or trip to Vegas or free grocery Got to stop
For an example if any store keep your 5 cores of brands or products will receive a case of special release, over 10 cores will get multiple new release. Everybody wins
Our concern is not to get a case of new release; it s about providing the exclusive beer to our regular customers who support us and you mr. owner on regular basis. We hope mr. owner, you agree on this?
If this will continue, founders may be in news or we will put founders in media attention.

Store Manager

Great beer, if the food was half as good as the beer would get 5 stars

Very uncool. I've been to many dozens of breweries across the country and this was the first that tried charging a cover. Fortunately there's a lot of real craft breweries in Grand Rapids to choose over this corporate one.

Great beer and food. Atmosphere pretty typical, nothing special. Service was average, bartenders seemed like they would rather be doing something else. Still a must if you're in GR.

Great beer, food and service. I drove 886 miles to be here for my birthday.

Excellent place with a great selection of beers and very good food.

Excellent food and beer styles. I recommend the Humus & Tapenade with a CBS beer. Open mic nights are very cool, and place is cozy. A must go in Grand Rapids. There's also a nice souvenir store

I believe they were bout by a Mexican company fairly recently. I'm not sure I will check on it but I think they have a brunch on Sundays.

Like so many other reviews I've read, the service in this place was so terrible. I get better service at McDonald's. When my friends and i had to find our own table we sat there for 20 min. Frustrated I went to the guy at the door and asked if there were any servers working. He called one over and when I told him I've been sitting here for 20 min he responded with " oh well passed by you like 4 times you just need to make eye contact with me". WHAT? I couldn't believe what this idiot just said. After some bad food witch I had to get myself ,"McDonald's" and listening to live music that i couldnt even understand because none if it was in english, we decided to bounce. The band was terrible, with a fan base of the most number of men I've ever seen with man buns. I had to stand up and yell at our server and tell him "I'm making eye contact give me my check so I can get on with my life and try to forget this place". The one star is for the beer I do like they're beer.

Visit every time I'm in Grand Rapids. Great beer selection with exclusive taproom offerings and good pub style food. Beautiful outdoor patio overlooking downtown Grand Rapids. Very busy most days which can make getting a table difficult but worth the wait.

Nice relaxing atmosphere, clean space and very welcoming staff. Some of the best locally brewed Michigan beer and ale.

Due to unfair practice of distribution between local and big box store .we can no longer support your product. It would much better for me if you can pick up your products from my liquor store.
We are 200+ liquor stores. we maybe small as individuals but together we have a huge power of business.

we are AARA MIDWEST

The beer is really the only positive experience about my dining experience here. When asking a bar tender what the soup of the day was he just shrugged his shoulders I donno then after an awkward couple of seconds he offered to find out...a couple minutes later someone else told me what it was. After placing my food order about 45 minutes later my wings were ready and arrived like warm. At that point I was hungry and didn t want to wait to get other food. The beer cheese and chips were great, but the experience over all wasn t awesome. Probably won t come back, gonna keep buying the beer though...

The service was amazing. Was right at the start of the dinner rush. Nearly every person that walked by, or stood at the bar, checked in to see if we'd been helped.

Food is always great. We got the Beer Cheese Dip today, and it was awesome with the Green Zebra.

The employees made the house! They were so polite so happy doing their jobs that everybody had to be happy around them!! You have a find crew good job and you're pretty good too!

First impression when I walked in was, not much direction? You have to order your food at a window. Come back to pick it up. No wait staff. very hipster people working. One good thing going is the beer! Amazing.

We really enjoyed our visit here. In fact we went twice in our couple days in Grand Rapids. It was very busy on Friday night so when we got our food, which you go up to a window and order then pickup, the only seating available was outside and it was winter. Although there were heaters everywhere you really couldn't feel any warmth from them and it wasn't particularly windy. The food was some top notch bar food. I had the Backwoods Bastard, very tasty! We also had the beer cheese dip with bread and chips for dipping which I really enjoyed as well. Meal price was fair. We did a beer sampler which ranges from $1.50 to about $3 a sample depending on the type of beer. My favorite was the honey wheat. I'm not much for dark or bitter beers but if you are they have plenty. We returned on Saturday around lunch time for a couple beers and picked up some "to go" 6 packs to bring home. It was much less crowded during lunch time but still pretty busy. I'd say that this is a must stop at place if you're in the area. I'll definitely visit them again the next time I'm in Grand Rapids!

Very busy and difficult to find a spot to sit. Beer is great! Sometimes has awesome bands.

This is a very bad practice to support only big box store regarding your new release. Please come pick up your products ASAP from our store. Until you come with ethical business practice.

...a member of AARA Midwest

If you are looking at this post you must like beer. Founders is awesome! All I can say is you gotta go!

Just bought a 15 pack of Centennial IPA every single can exploded upon pulling the tab. Some of them even sat for over a day. What a disappointment. If this is the quality of product you make...not a fan. Now my carpet smells like a stale brewery!!!

Beer was decent. Food wasn't the best. I forgot to close my tab out and they charged me for two drinks plus tip. I only bought 1. Called manager and she was willing to refund me for the second drink, but not the tip on the second drink. I can live without the 1.40 but that wasn't the most ethical way to handle the situation.

Food is as great as the beer! Lots of Founder options and some "specialities" only available in tap here. The beer garden is great in the summer. Highly recommended.

This place is the best.so popular..sometimes hard getting a table. I am a big fan of founders beer.The food here is very good also!

A Grand Rapids classic and perhaps the best brewery in Michigan, Founders brewhouse offers a perfect trifecta of great beer, great food, and great staff.

Great food. Shared the Philly Cheesesteak. Veey good. Ordered Cheese dip w/ bread and chips. Alot of food.

Excellent experience with both the craft beer and food choices, including vegan options. Live entertainment is available several nights a week an weekends.

Beer is great, but it's always busy! Always a crowd, but staff at Friendly and courteous.

Founders beers are great to taste. Unfortunately their hospitality, is not the same as it was on Monroe. Founders is now a place to be seen, not for the art of craft beer.

This is an awesome brewery! So many selections for food, so many selections for beer! If you are into beer and want a great experience this is the place to go in Grand Rapids.

I highly recommend not coming here during COVID-19. It's one thing to enforce the rules and it's an entirely other thing to be extremely rude about how you do it. As a collective group absent a few nice staff, they were mean, rude, and unpleasant. It feels like you are visiting a detention center instead of a brewery.