Firestone Walker 11 (XI Quercus Alba)

Formerly brewed at Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Style: American Strong Ale
Paso Robles, California USA

Shared with jarspag for the final brew that we managed to transport to Whistler. Pours dark brown with a near black center, with just slight microbubbles and beige swirls, kind of a watery thickness. Very pleasing aroma that improves as the beer reaches room temperature. Oak barrel is truly all over the nose, lots of charred wood and bourbon, with vanilla extract and molasses. Flavor follows up the aroma nicely, with smoky malt, more vanilla and bourbon barrel galore. Mostly burnt wood and earth with a touch of chocolate cake batter. The palate lingers with oak and ash. A bit of a thin body but the flavors compensate for it. Definitely intriguing how they managed to balance it all out between multiple brews.

Another bottle graciously shared by hapjydeuce on the last night of Whistler doom. This was a great finisher to a great trip...a perfect cold weather sipper. Aroma was bourbon, oak, caramel, boysenberry, and a ’vanilla covered banana’. Tasted of plum, ashy smoke, charred wood, lots of lingering bourbon barrel, vanilla. Full bodied and palate coating mouthfeel - but missing that last bit of depth to push it to a 5. Overall, an outstanding beer, but it lacks that "wow" factor . . . nonetheless, an amazing concoction.

Shared with Naven. Not sure what the big gold rush was with this particular beer. It’s tasty as all, get out, but I liked the ten a little more. Nice, subtle oak flavoring with an easy drinking backbone. Great, but nowhere near justifying all the hooplah Naven had to go through to get it. To all you assholes sitting on cases of this, thanks for representing and reminding me about everything I hate about craft beer. Fkn dorks.

Bomber. Shared with Bartzilla. I searched all over the county trying to find this one, and this beer helped me understand the greed and self serving nature of beer geeks. But, I wont go there, instead, I will say, this beer is pretty nice, although it’s not quite as nice as the 10th was. In fact, it wasn’t even close. Still good though. Firestone manages to do their barrel aging nearly perfectly, with just the right amount of bourbon to mix with the blend of beers. Unfortunately, this one was a little sour and a little hot. Low carbonation. A damn fine beer, but not worth the work I put in to get it. Lessons learned though.

Bomber from Odeed. Darkish brown or mahogany pour with a wispy, off white head. Aroma of booze, oak, fruit, yeast and nutty. Flavor is a bit hot. Has spice and pepper. Dry and leathery. Medium bodied and pretty smooth.

Bottle… VBWT2008… This beer rocks!… Hazy, very dark, ruby ale with a small, creamy, khaki head. Good retention. The nose is chock full of chocolate and caramel with a hefty bourbon presence and lesser notes of cinnamon, brown sugar and oak. Full-bodied with a whole-milk mouthfeel and soft carbonation. Hearty caramel, crystal and chocolate malts stand firmly alongside heavy bourbon and woodsy earthiness. Moderately hot with alcohol bitterness. Rich, boozy, caramel-sweet finish. Cheers to mgumby10 for sharing his bottle of this world class brew!

Dark burgundy pour, very flat with a faint set of bubbles. Aroma is bourbon and brandy, lots of raisens. Flavor is bourbon all the way, lots of oak, cocounut and straight wood. Raisens, prunes, some chocolate with a touch of roastiness. Hot, boozy and on the flat side.

bottle thanks to joey from southbay drugs and shared with sprinkle.....poured a semi-transparent cola/caramel brown with ligter brownish red hues toward the edges. a thin wispy, soapy ivory head came with it and diminished as it warmed....nose was made up of coconut, vanilla, brown sugar, bourbon, and oak....flavors of coconut, brandy, maple syrup, and sugary sweet malt....i liked it overall but thought that it could have offered a little more in the flavor department 8/4/7/4/15<P> revisited on 05/25/08....flavors were more assertive and robunst this time around with more of the sweet brandy presence. hard to pick out each of the components but it all came together rather nicely 8/4/8/4/16