Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale

Brewed by Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Style: English Pale Ale
Paso Robles, California USA

On tap at mel’s in santa barbara. Dark amber with off-white head. Light caramel aroma with slight oak and hop spice. Nice caramel and toffee flavor and med malt sweetness. Medium bodied and creamy. Very nice.

aroma and and taste is oaky very dark amber body with a medium head smooth finish nice enjoyable beer

Very nice crystal clear light amber color, with a little white foam that fades quickly. Aroma is clean malty grainy with suggestion of hop bitterness, a touch toasty. Taste is smooth and somewhat rich maltiness, a little sweet, round, a little apple-pear fruitiness and a nice hop bitterness that lingers. A little bit of mild smokiness. The overall impression is a mild, pleasant, unobjecionable but unexciting beer, I don’t think oak barrel brewing contrbuted anything positive to this beer, but rather softened and deadened a beer that was almost bland to begin with. I’m not a huge fan of the English style of pale ale and this one didn’t change my mind.

Rich and malty sweet. It complimented my thanksgiving turkey very nicely. Just a hint of hoppy overtone with just the faintest bitter finish. This is a very smooth and easy to drink beverage, but not as big or bold as I was expecting. Didn’t really get the oak barrel impact, but maybe I just don’t know what I should be tasting with that.

12oz bottle. Pours a deep, slightly hazy orange-copper with ruby and old gold highlights. The head pours thin and quickly dissipates to nothing more than a thin white layer of haze floating on the surface. The aroma is sticky with malts and caramel. There is also just a touch of grassy hops in the aroma. Overall it smells more like barleywine than a pale ale (minus the alcohol). The flavor starts off with a taste of flowery and earthy hops mixed with sweet malts and lots of toffee and caramel. The middle of the tongue detects some notes of wood and a subtle, earthy bitterness. The malt profile gets a little more complicated and a little less caramely towards the back of the tongue. The balance is still heavy towards the malts. The finish is a little more balanced, though still quite malty, with a touch of grapefruit and earthy bitterness. The mouthfeel is a bit heavy, and the carbonation level is just a bit too low. Were the beer a little lighter (more like a bitter) then the carbonation level would be right - but this beer needs a few more suds. Overall the beer is full-bodied but the finish is slightly dry. Overall, an interesting a drinkable beer, but not something particularly special. I would personally choose an everyday beer that was either a little lighter-bodied or a little hoppier - but then I’m a bona fide hophead...

Watery yellow color. Faint grainy nose. Light grainy body. Not a lot of hops. GABF2007

Bottle, Solvang, CA. Brown, fizzy head. Malty and fresh with some hoppiness, but nearly no bitterness. Smooth and refreshing.

Clear amber, moderate to small head, some lacing and retention. Aroma is toffee, caramel, light hops and a hint of oak. Medium bodied, almost no bitterness, slick but watery mouthfeel. Drinkable but kinda boring.