Beer Review: Firestone Walker's Reserve Porter

Hello all! My name is Meg, and I am a bit of a voyeur of this whole DC Beer Journey Experience. Since Eric, Dan, and Casey don't seem to mind the fact that I lurk about, observe their activities, and bask in the glory that is craft beer tasting and brewing, I've also started contributing to this blog to chronicle my lurking and quaffing adventures. You can follow me on Twitter at @TheDCBeerGal.

After a long Monday at the office, a couple hours of shopping with Eric for a beer refrigerator with which to brew lager (more on that later), and a particularly intriguing episode of House, it just felt so right to crack open a bottle of beer. But not just any beer. A bottle of Firestone Walker's Reserve porter that Eric's friend Matt had just bestowed upon him just this last Saturday.

After carefully divvying up the brew excruciatingly equally between two identical glasses (we've had serious disputes in the past over who got more beer when the glasses are different shapes), the porter was ready for consumption.

Appearance: Extremely dark brown with a bit of amber and about three inches of light brown head. The beer doesn't look thick at all, in fact it even looks a bit watery...

Smell: The first thing I think of when smelling the beer is coffee, although that was a lot easier to smell out of the bottle than out of the glass. It's in a Kolsch glass though; perhaps a goblet would have been a better choice, but I'm hyperventilating a little at this point trying to get a better whiff of this beer and that seems a bit too extreme.

Taste: This is definitely a smoky beer. Starts with a roasty coffee taste, moves to the smoke, and I get a little bit of a watery undertone before I reach the dry, bitter finish.

Mouthfeel: The right amount of carbonation that does a fair job of neutralizing the smokiness of the beer, but it doesn't quite balance it out completely.

Overall: I'm glad I tried it, but I don't know that I'll be drinking it again. As a caveat, I'm not the biggest porter fan, and it's hard for me to get excited about smoky beers. I find that I gravitate more toward ambers, a good kolsch, or perhaps a nice funky wild ale. I think I was looking for a little more balance in this porter and a smoother tasting experience. Instead I got four very distinctive beers within one sip: roasty, then smokey, then watery, then bitter, without much transition in between.

Grade: B-

Now that I have written my review, I took some time to look at other online reviews to see how I fared in comparison. The guy at Sixpacktech.com and his wife like it better than I do, but the guys at J Street Beer seem to agree with my lackluster rating.

Guess it depends on your preferences. If you're looking for a dark beer with a lighter taste, then the Walker's reserve is for you. But if you're looking for something a little more intense, keep moving.

Image from Walknboston on Flickr.