Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale

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

Clear amber color with thin tan head. Aroma is malty, slighty sour, and a bit hoppy. Flavor is nice. Carmel malts produce a decent sweetness. Sour malt presence seems to have more lasting impact than any hop. Crisp and mostly clean with a bit of a tany malt based lingering.

Draft. Stopped by a local pizza parlor and they had it on tap. Gave it a try, and I’m happy I did. Nice dark amber color with a medium off white head. The aroma was malty, with some caramel coming through. Nice and malty flavor as well with some light hops. I enjoyed this one a lot. I’m going to buy some bottles and see if I enjoy it as much as I did on tap.

Surprisingly nice brew. I had seen it at local stores but just hadn’t grabbed any. Nice malty flavor with hints of butterscotch. I’ll grab more of this one.

Generally the beers I get from my beer club are mediocre at best but this one turned out to be a real gem. Now only if it was regularly available in my area. Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a caramel color with a small creamy tan head. The aroma is sweet and fruity hops. The flavor is sweet with an almost brown sugar quality and has strong notes of caramel and nut. There are nice fruity hops underlying. There is a light sour malty finish and caramel lingers on the tongue. I fell in love with this one right quick.

Copper colored with an off-white head. Sweet malt, woody. Thin, a bit tinny, woody. Some sweetness in the follow, a slightly bitter aftertaste. Fair but IMO, overrated.

On cask at Real Ale Festival 2005. I was searching out all the non-IPAs at the fest, since it was dominated by them, but I didn’t need to try this one. I’m thinking that it’s probably better not on cask, since it’s got quite a respectable rating. When I had it, it was watery and very grainy in a bad way. There was corn all over the flavor and corn sugar in the finish. The aroma was dominated by a burnt Indian corn smell. Semi-hazy amber orange in the glass. Beige foam head that looked like soap foam. Underneath all the corn and maybe rye there was some amber fruitiness that might have been light watery cherry or white grapes.

Nice clear copper with an off-white head. Aroma of caramel, light hops and a hint of biscuit. Flavor has notes of caramel, toasted malt, toffee, wood and some floral hops. Malty sweet and a touch of bitterness. Medium body, smooth texture with subtle carbonation. Not much lacing left on the glass, ok head retention. I had higher expectations for this one.

Highly aromatic hopped style. Dark amber / caramel brown with poor head retention. Nice mouthfeel. Sweet malts early but really it’s more about the amooth, faintly herbal drive through the mid palate. Certaintly not an over style but will appeal with its subtle nature.