Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale
Photo courtesy The Gordons
Beer No: 58
Page No: 101
Category: Amber
Today was my first visit to the Blind Lady Ale House down in San Diego. As American Craft Beer Week concludes, I felt it would be a shame to not visit at least one new "landmark" on the craft beer scene. So down to Normal Heights I traveled, struggled to find parking (the lot behind Blind Lady is not for customers), and then waited to find a seat in the packed house. Luckily, while waiting to find a seat, there are MANY amazing beers to try on tap. I started with a Russian River Supplication which was more sour than I remembered it, but still pretty much sour beer perfection from the masters of sours. And after finally finding a seat and ordering a pizza that was downright extraordinary, I went back to try the cask - a keg conditioned Firestone Walker DBA. It was very good. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from Firestone Walker. I am a huge fan of theirs (excepting their Solace wheat beer) and this keg conditioned DBA did not disappoint.
As for Blind Lady Ale House (or BLAH as they call it), I did not take pictures, so I am using a nice picture from Flickr in today's post. I promise to be better about my beer picture takings, but I had gone to BLAH to just enjoy the beer and pizza and not really to get through another beer in my 1001. But, as it turns out, both Supplication and DBA are in the book, but I'm going to save the Russian River offerings for another time and see if I can do all their sours back to back to back (I already reviewed Pliny the Elder). Oh yeah, back to BLAH. I absolutely loved this place. The atmosphere is fun and inviting, the other customers all seemed to be having a great time, and the beers on tap were awesome. The only problem I had with the place was the loud music they were playing. With a full house, you almost have to yell over the crowd anyways, and the music just added more noise pollution and was completely unnecessary. Due to the loudness of the room, we couldn't even make out what was playing and it just forced everyone to talk louder, and then everyone else around them needs to talk louder, and it was just a loud scene. But other than that, I found it to be perfection. It's pretty much exactly what I would want for my own place. Awesome, pseudo-gourmet thin crust (maybe wood fired?) pizzas with ingredients that really stand out and a tap list that cannot be rivaled. I most definitely will be going back to BLAH and wished I had something close to me that was nearly as cool. But...maybe that's for me to open.
My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:
Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale from Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20
Rating: 3.9 / 5.0
Had on tap at Blind Lady Ale House - on cask - keg conditioned. Poured a deep brown / amber color with good head, got to love the Blind Lady perfect pours. Aroma is both hops and malts, with the hops dominating a little bit. Flavor is the same, a perfect balance of malty sweetness and hoppy citrus flavors. The keg conditioning seemed to bring out the hops a bit more and provided an extra layer of complexity and the perfect carbonation. Thank you American Craft Beer Week.
