Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale Batch 1000

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

Cloudy bronze with a bubbly, light beige cover. Smells and tastes like a hybrid pale ale / chardonnay. Nice vanilla and butterscotch oak flavours, though the oakiness got annoying after a while. It’s nice to experience these flavours in a smaller beer for a change. Smooth with low bitterness and only detectable hops flavour. Medium to light with moderate carbonation and lingering oakiness.

(22 oz bottle: $5.99 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) Okay, a side-by-side of Batch 1000 against the standard Double Barrel release, and I’m using tulip glasses. I’m a beer geek, but also a long-time cork dork too, so this special release beer is quite interesting to me. I admit that my first reaction to the news that a special oaked version of Double Barrel would be produced was a disappointment. I didn’t think it was a suitable beer for oaking because it is such a lightly flavored beer in comparison to what most brewers release in a special oaked version. Double Barrel Ale is a pretty dry, lightly roasty and moderately bitter beer, but there are no strong flavors, no dominant flavors, and I only pick up trace amounts of wood in it. So here, a 100% American oaked version really allows one to see the subtleties that can be introduced by skillful fermentation in oak because the base beer isn’t in any way overpowering; the oak aging doesn’t have to be extreme to break through the flavor of the underlying beer. Many California wineries overdo the American oak, bash you over the head with it, so the skill and finesse on exhibit in this beer is very educational. What I’m getting the most out of drinking this beer side-by-side against the regular Double Barrel is discovering exactly what American oak tastes like, and for a cork dork like myself, this is simply a wonderful experience, even if the beer geek in me doesn’t find the beer to be especially flavorful or enjoyable. I should quickly describe the other characteristics of this beer, just to be thorough. The beer itself essentially tastes nearly exactly as I described Double Barrel earlier -- balanced, dry, lightly roasty and moderately bitter, but the hops seems just slightly subdued here, which only helps to focus the attention on the oaking. The American oak imparts a very light and sweet vanilla and maple character to an otherwise uneventful, dry, and lightly roasty nose. Light-medium bodied, nicely carbonated, still fairly dry and clean on the palate. Medium amber in color and slightly hazy in appearance, the beer looks identical in color to Double Barrel. The off-white head is quite small, however, barely rousing more than a filmy layer. Some folks think this beer is boring; if you’re expecting a big, bad-ass, oaky beer, just because it’s barrel aged, look elsewhere. But I must admit to being slightly perplexed by people who think the oak is overpowering as I find it perfect until the beer reaches 70 plus degrees, and only then does the oak begin to take over. So I’d say, drink this beer chilled to cellar temperature. But overall, this is a beer I would expect a skillful winemaker to craft; it seems more a beer for cork dorks than beer geeks. I can’t say I love this beer relative to other beers, but I really do love the way it’s made me think about it from the perspective of a wine lover, and that deserves bonus points.

Well, I paid $5.99. There’s a cabernet character - maybe added by the oak, but the wine doesn’t get it from oak, so? I think this ale is just getting started. I can see it headed towards Old Suffolk from Green King. There’s a hint that a bit of sour is on its way (and this is bottle conditioned!). If I can get another, I’ll age it in a wine cooler for 5 years. The bitter stays. There is some floral component that ties to the sides of the tongue. Geez, this has got to be one of the top 20 or 30 ales I have ever had. Please, please do this again. I think I can get it again at BevMo; I hope.

22oz. bottle. Slightly hazy red-brown color with a small light tan head. Mild lemony vegetal hops, sweet malt, and heavy tannins in the aroma. Appley esters meld with mellow malt flavors. Heavy oak bite manifests in the finish, almost astringent. Mouthfeel is light medium, contrasting smoothness and tannic astringency.

Bottle. Rich reddish-copper color with a whitish head. Grassy, slightly citrus aroma with a bit of malt. Malt flavor and then -WHAM- tons of oak. Some sweet malt, but I can’t get past the oak. Your pallete starts to get used to the oak, but it’s still there and there’s a better beer underneath it all.

22 oz bottle from BevMo. Pours hazy orange-chestnut color with a nice sized white head that leaves some spotty lacing. Toasty malts and a distinct young oak aroma and floral hops. Flavor is dominated by the tannic oak with moderately sweet, lightly fruity molts and a prominent floral hoppiness. Medium body and gentle carbonation. This one is pretty good, but I think it’s overly oaked as the tannins and woodiness overpower the other flavors.

Bomber. Pours amber with a medium tan head. Aroma of malts, yeast, and oak. The taste is awful. The only thing I can compare it to is armpit sweat. Yeasty, stinky, armpit sweat. To add insult to injury, this bottle costs over $10. Damn you, FIrestone.

Bottled. Pours an amber/ copper color with a small white head. No lacing. Very malty aroma with some yeasty notes. Lively carbonation. Clean and understated flavors of malt and fruit. I don’t taste any oak or vanilla. A great session beer but nothing out of the ordinary.