Weekend Brews - Week 49 - No More Turkey, But Plenty of Beer

(photo from firestonebeer.com)

Happy weekend to ya folks. I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving, and now that everyone is sick of turkey, let's do the right thing and turn our thoughts to beer. Hooray for beer!

I'd like to tell you about an appetizing beer I picked up the other day. It comes from Paso Robles, California, and it's packed with flavor.

The beer is the Double Barrel Ale from the Firestone Walker Brewing Company. After being named the mid-sized brewery of the year at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival, I have a feeling they brew some pretty damn good beer over there. Let's check it out ...

The beer pours a perfectly clear amber into my pint glass, and forms a creamy, dreamy head fit for a milkshake. There's some light lacing on the walls of the glass as the head dies down, but there's still a little foam on top waiting to be enjoyed. The slight smell of a pine needles from the hops and caramel from the malt fill my nostrils.

So, who wants to try it? I DO!

Interesting flavors indeed. The beer goes down smoothly with a slightly dry finish. I detect some vanilla and caramel hiding in there, with just enough bitterness from the hops to round it out. According to the brewery's website, this beer is brewed in the style of an English pale ale, and finished in oak barrels, and that's what adds that vanilla I'm tasting. The Double Barrel Ale, or DBA, is a welcome change from the usually über-hopped west coast pale ales. I'm looking forward to trying more from the talented folks at Firestone Walker.

Give it a go if you can find it, and let me know what you think.

Cheers!

Overall score of the Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale: 3.75 out 5.0