Canal Street Brewing Co., LLC,[2] doing business as Founders Brewing Company,[3] is a brewery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, known for producing several highly rated and award-winning craft-style ales, including KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout), Centennial IPA, Dirty Bastard, and Founders Porter.

[9][10] They took that name from the historical name of the Grand Rapids street (now Monroe Avenue) where they had set up operations, in an area where several 19th-century breweries once stood.

[11] In December 2014, Founders announced that Spanish brewing company Mahou San Miguel had purchased a 30% minority stake in the business.

[20] For several years, KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) was highly sought-after during its annual release in April,[17][21][22][5] but went to year-around production in 2020.

[23] It is an American Imperial Stout with a high ABV (11.2%), brewed with coffee and chocolate, and aged in bourbon barrels in nearby former gypsum mines.

CBS (Canadian Breakfast Stout) was released irregularly with gaps of years in between,[24] and as of 2019[update] Founders has no plans to brew it again.

Past acts have included Mustard Plug, Blues Traveler, Umphrey's McGee, Nahko and Medicine for the People, Soulive, Toubab Krewe, That 1 Guy, Galactic, Chicago AfroBeat Project, and The Crane Wives.

[37] In 2018, former employee Tracy Evans, who is African-American, sued Founders for racial discrimination, alleging that the company had allowed a hostile work environment, passed him over for a promotion in favor of less qualified white co-workers, and fired him for complaining about it.

[39] In a sworn deposition leaked to the media in October 2019, his former manager Dominic Ryan stated that he could not definitively conclude whether Evans is black or not,[40] a position Engbers disavowed.