Firestone Walker is a fantastic little brewery based in the Central Coast region of California. Paso Robles serves as the headquarters for this family owned craft brewery. They have a nice tasting room that was recently remodeled – @tweeterhold and I visited with the wifeys a little over a year ago. Scenic place, nice people, even better beer. The tasting room rooms pours 14 beers and the tasting taps are constantly rotating between FW’s beers
They brew a variety of beers and all are very good – but I am particular fan of their Reserve Series. This series tends to focus on a few of their bigger and bolder beers.
Tonight – I dug one of the Reserve series out of the cellar – Wookey Jack. Wookey Jack is a big, dark Black Rye IPA.
The beer pours a rich inky black with a couple of fingers of chocolate milk colored head. When held up to the light – the beer takes on a dark mahogany color with the very little light that it lets through. This is a dark beer.
The aroma of the beer is very sharp and smokey – some burnt brown sugar and molasses hit you first. Then the hops come at you with a smokey citrus.
When sipped – the beer has a big hop bite up front and then a large smokey malt taste – very complex. The rye really comes out towards the end but doesn’t overpower anything like some rye IPAs that I have had lately. This beer is really an IPA – the hops play a huge role here. But they are not in the driver’s seat – just doing enough backseat driving to let you know they are in the car.
All in all – I really like this beer. It’s a real, proper IPA in the American craft style. The hops are there, not like some other “Black” IPAs that I have tried – which are really just a black ale and forget why an IPA is an IPA – it needs hops people!
You can find out more about Firestone Walker on their website.
Up and Adam 