Firestone Walker Double Jack IPA

Brewed by Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Paso Robles, California USA

16 ounce sample at the Davis Graduate. Significant orange-lemon-pine nose with some bright sugary sweetness. Smells like Apple Jacks cereal in a way. Transparent orange body with a smallish off-yellow head. Sweet, citrus orange/tangerine hop flavors to start, before this becomes sticky and malty in the middle. Finishes with a catty, metallic, spicy hop bitterness. No ethanol.. Extremely balanced. This is a hell of a beer!!

On tap at Brouwers Cafe. Pours a clear copper golden color with a small creamy off white head. Aroma is fresh and intensely hoppy, mostly citrus and pine with some hints of caramel. Flavor is strong and hoppy with a perfectly balanced malt backbone. Finishes dry with moderate bitterness. Full bodied with nice moderate carbonation.

Wow! Beautiful clear orange color with a moderate-light pale head. Heavy citrus aroma, and a really hoppy, fruity, citrus flavor. Quite drinkable for the high ABV, and very well balance. Excellent.

On Tap. White head clear bronze body. Hoppy goodness aroma, mango, exotic fruits, caramel and table sugar. Taste is mango and exotic hops (no other way to describe it; it is a jungle of hops!) nicely balanced out caramel malt backing. Medium carbonation. Great.

On-Tap @ Bailey’s Taproom poured into Snifter glass. Pours a brilliant reddish-orange that radiates from the glass and has a bubbly off-white head that dissolves into a swirly fine layer around the glass. The aroma is fresh citrus hops with some toasted malt in the background. The flavor is piney and citrusy hops upfront and is accompanied by some a nice touch of malt and finishes with a grapefruit bitterness. Its full-medium bodied and has a nice amount of carbonation. This beer absolutely blew me away. The aroma smells like a basket of hops and the flavor doesn’t let you down. In my opinion this is far superior to my encounters with Pliny. This just has a nice malt backbone to accompany the delicious bouquet of hops.

Fantastic DIPA that deserves regular rotation. First, let’s get the Union Jack comparison out of the way. Double Jack is smoother with more sweet caramel malt and hoppier with quite a bit more fruit flavor. On to the review... Double Jack pours a bright orange-yellow without much in the way of head, but it’s always difficult to judge head when the beer is too cold and on tap. The aroma is simply wonderful. It’s a blast of candied pine, tangerines and grapefruit rind. The sweet malt is noticeable, but the hops are clearly the focus. The flavor is rich with hops, much like the aroma. The malt backbone provides good sweetness. It’s well-balanced on my scale of DIPAs, anyway, which is to say not balanced but not quite as bitter as some. The flavor also imparts some other fruit flavors, apricots, peaches, other lighter stone fruits. I found the fruit flavors more varied and fuller than nearly any other DIPA I’ve tried. The feel is round and strong without any cloying sweetness or bitter astringency. Drinkability is quite good for the size and style.

On tap. Clear amber golden with a yellowish beige head. Intense aroma hops in the nose - peach in particular - with loads of caramel. Quite full-bodied, lots of caramel and fruit with great hoppy peach accents. Yum. 090709

On tap at Naja’s in Redondo Beach, Ca. Big floral aroma. Flavors are gloriously mango and pineapple summer fruits. Very balanced and way easy to drink. I hope this beer makes the regular rotation from Firestone.