Firestone Walker's Reserve Porter

Well it's officially November. Pumpkin beer season has come and gone, and for me, personally, it is high time to seriously get into the heavy stuff. I went to peruse the selection of beer at one of the grocery stores near my house called Berkott's Super Foods. They have a pretty solid selection of craft beer, so I knew I'd find something to tickle my fancy.

The selection ended up being as good as I had hoped. I had a hard time deciding on one thing, but I eventually went for a 22 oz. bottle of Firestone Walker's Reserve Porter for 7 bucks after tax. I am definitely more partial to porters over stouts, so I figured what better way to start of my own personal dark beer season than with this. This brew had a pretty high rating on beeradvocate.com and the cap boasts of multiple awards at the Great American Beer Festival. I try to avoid basing my decisions on other peoples ratings because no two people have the same tastes, but I was really having some trouble deciding on a beer so don't be too judgmental this go around...

Enough with this introduction business though, it's time to get into the good stuff. As I go about reviewing the various beers in this blog, I will talk about the aroma, color, mouthfeel, after taste, and my overall opinion of each beer. That's the standard format for reviewing beers, so I figured I'd stick with it since it works for everyone else. "Don't fix it if it ain't broke" as the old cliche goes:


This beer has a strong chocolatey and malty bouquet. The smell is actually really pleasant and sweet, and definitely translates into the first taste of this beer.

This beer pours a really nice, dark brown color and has a thick, tan colored head. The head itself disappeared fairly quickly, but there was a lot of lacing on the sides of the glass and a little head remained on the top of the beer throughout the tasting.

The first thing I tasted on my first sip of this beer was the chocolate malt. The roast of the chocolate malt was really well balanced with the caramel malt. It wasn't an overpowering roasted taste, but it didn't leave me wanting either. As I mentioned before, the aroma of the chocolate malt translated perfectly into the taste of this beer. You taste what you smell, and that's definitely not a bad thing. As per the nature of the style, this beer has only a mild hint of hops. I couldn't really place the exact hope flavors, and I attribute this to chocolate malt. There was a nice bitterness about halfway through each taste that combined well with the other flavors.

The beer had a relatively medium body. The carbonation was present and noticeable, but not overwhelming and it dissipated rather quickly after I let the beer sit in my mouth for a couple seconds. The aftertaste was really pleasant. Again, the chocolate malt is really prominent and it lingers long after you finish a sip.

Overall, I really enjoyed this beer. The prominence of the chocolate malt was really great, and there was also a good amount of sweetness from the caramel malt that helped balance out the roastiness from the chocolate malt. I really enjoyed this porter, and would definitely suggest picking up a bottle if you can find it, especially for the price.....



And there we have it folks! My first beer review is done! I'm heading to the Three Floyds brewery this Saturday to do a tour. I've been to the brew pub before, and I've drank loads of their beer so it's not really going to be a new experience but I will definitely be writing a post about my experiences there. Until then,

Cheers!