Walker's Reserve Porter

Beer Name: Walker's Reserve Porter
Brewery: Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
ABV: 5.8%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a tumbler
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Bottled 4/21/11

I really need to start looking more carefully at bottles before I buy them. Although if this beer has been treated properly, that ancient bottling date is not going to make that much of a difference. Someday I aspire to have a dedicated area for storing beers in the cellar, or possibly even a large refrigerator for dedicated long-term storage. That would be pretty sweet.

Walker's Reserve Porter is a very dark beer, but not that dark for a porter. It's dark brown with some reddish and ruby highlights around the edges, and it seems a little thin. It poured with about 2 fingers of head, and then left a good lacing pattern behind. There wasn't much of an aroma at first, but as the beer warmed up, some muted hop aromas came through along with expected roasted malt notes, mostly dark chocolate. It's a fairly pleasant smell.

There's a good mix of hops and malt in the flavor of this beer, and a little more hoppiness than a standard porter, I think. It adds a little bitterness to the end of each sip and keeps my tongue on its toes. The hops are not citrusy and not piney, but they're noticeable, and the maltiness has a nice taste of chocolate. The beer has some carbonation, and it finishes slight bitter with a malty aftertaste. The mouthfeel is a little thin, but the flavor tries to make up for that.

Final thought - This was a pretty good beer. I was a little nervous after finding that old date on the neck of the bottle, but it turned out that I was worrying for nothing. Another enjoyable beer from California, e.g. the state we'll someday randomly pack up all our stuff and move to.

-Jon