Firestone Walker Walkers Reserve
A singularly distinctive beer that represents our finest brewing efforts, Walker’s Reserve is a elegant dark ale featuring robust flavors of toffee, caramel and bittersweet chocolate. This brew employs five specialty malts, as well as oat and barley flakes, for added complexity and flavor.
3.7
875 reviews
Paso Robles, United States
Community reviews
Bomber from Papago. Pours near black with a 2 finger foamy light tan head. The nose is ash, light metallic and coffee. The taste is lacto, bitter coffee, dark chocolate, ashy cocoa and some hops in the finish. Medium semi-cream mouthfeel. 7/3/8/4/16
Bottleshare thanks to dan. Pours dark brown, borderline black. Aroma is malty, toffee, not much chocolate. Taste is light, mildly roasty, drinkable.
Bottle. Pours a cloudy amber with medium beige head that lasts. The aroma is roast chocolate, vanilla. Thin mouthfeel with a sweet roasted malt, dark chocolate, caramel, and nutty finish. Good.
(bottle - 22 oz) Dark brown pour with a tan head. Light chocolate coffee aroma. Big roasted chocolate and coffee flavor. Smooth and chocolatey finish with a lingering roasty aftertaste.
Reviewed from notes.
This was poured into a pint glass and a snifter. There was barely any difference in both glasses for the smell and the appearance.
The appearance was basically black in color and it had a nice one finger white to off white foamy head that dissipated within about a minute. There was some light speckled foamy lacing that ended up sliding down into the beer after a while.
The smell had a decent amount of light to medium bitter arrangement of milk and dark chocolates that allow a nice roasty bitter coffee under my nose.
The taste had a nice roasty to sweet blend blessing my taste buds and allowing a nice gentle dry finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a medium on the body with a decent sessionability about it. The carbonation was semi - sharp and good to me.
Overall, this was a pretty good beer I’d have again.
From a bomber. Pours cola brown with a fizzy off white head. Tastes smooth, sweet, smokey, earthy, light peat, light booze. Light body and low carbonation. Smells like booze, nutty, light raisin, earth.
Bottle. Pours dark cola brown with creamy beige head. Aroma is roasted and chocolate malts, earthy notes, light espresso, light prunes, and faint raisins. Flavor is roast malts, dark chocolate, light coffee, medium bitterness, and some dark fruit esters; smooth with a dry finish. Medium body and carbonation.
Bottle shared by sonnycheeba. Pours a dark cola with thin tan head. Aroma of coffee and roasted malts. Taste of roasted goodness and coffee/chocolates.
22 oz bomber. The pour is a dark dark brown/black with a nice garnet or ruby note around the edges with a nice light tan head and some minimal lacing. The aroma is nicely balanced with a good roast and hop profile. There is some light coffee and a touch of chocolate. The flavor is much of the same. I love the roasted malt in the flavor. There is a light addition from the cocoa, but it's so balanced. The mouthfeel is a thin, with a light carbonation. The aftertaste is roasty, and lingers nicely
American Craft Beer Week! Firestone Tap Takeover at the Common Table. Poured a dark brown with a thin khaki top. Taste of chocolate, slight roast and malty. Medium carbonation, medium-thick body.
Aroma and flavor full of roasty malt, chocolate, and significant emergent vanilla, but nicely balanced with aromatic hopping, which is floral and bitter yet smooth citrus. The fine balance makes the brew easy on the palate, in spite of being so flavorful. Very nicely done.
Poured from a bottle. Dark brown color, medium tan head. Chocolate malt aroma. Mild chocolate malt flavor slightly watery with a light finish.
Aroma of chocolate malt. Dark brown colour with a rich creamy head. Taste of chocolate and malt. A watery finish.
Excellent from the pour. Dark brew with a light head. Surprisingly light (doesn’t leave you bloated) for being so dark. Sweet smooth taste with a hint of coffee. Moderate APV so that first sip doesn’t sting like some. A very tasty porter.
A classic British porter - nothing too crazy, very moderate ABV. The malt backbone has roasted, toasted, and toffee flavors. A little on the sweet side. Tasty and complex.
Dark brown with a tan head. Aroma is chocolate, coffee, vanilla and roasted. Flavor is roasted in the end with a more present coffee flavor in the begining and somewhat chocolate. A favorite one.
22oz bottle pours dark brown with light edges, 1 finger head. Nose is coffee bean, almond, nutty, vanilla. Taste is french vanilla coffee, roasty almond, vanilla bean, earthy. Finish is mildly bitter roasty coffee, vanilla, nuts.
Pours a great dark brown color with a tremendous amount of tan foam. Smells very light and malty, not a lot of hops going on in the aroma. Taste is also light. Coffee with cream, malt and a bit of spice at the end. Great palate, velvety and rich with a good aftertaste. Very drinkable but a bit basic. Not what I have come to expect from FW.
650ml Bottle from Brewdog Glasgow (£11, 5.8%):
Slightly sweet with some light coffee & some chocolate coming through on top of some dark malts and a sugar base. The aroma seemed like a creamy one and was very enjoyable on the nose.
Dark brown to black a 1.5cm, foamy, light brown head that settles as a nice, thick lacing after a minute.
Dark malts & faint coffee with some sweetness from some caramel malts. There is a very faint hop bitterness to the beer that accompanies the chocolate and nutty taste of this one, & the beer is rounded off with some faint, background spice at the end.
Ridiculously smooth and creamy with a medium body and light medium carbonation on top of that. The drink proved a fast and easy on to finish with a lot of flavour on the palate and some touches of smoke along with a dry finish helps this one to end perfectly.
Such a good beer & more than worth the steep price with an amazing taste & great mouthfeel. A pleasure to drink from the start & refreshingly enjoyable given the fact the beer was a good session offering with the alcohol content remaining fairly low, particularly for an American craft beer.
Beautiful pour with a creamy head. Robust aroma and seems to have a strong hint of chocolate Does not seem to be as heavy as other porters which I prefer. Nice little after taste on the palate. Definitely a good brew I can see why it has some nice ratings
Pours a very dark brown, even black, with off white head and average lacing. The beer is very creamy, with aromas of coffee and chocolate. Taste like roasted coffee beans , caramel, vanilla, and chocolate. An exceptional beer from Firestone Walker. One of the best porters I’ve had.
This is the best beer I’ve had from Firestone Walker, very impressive. A 22 oz. bomber from a local gas station, it was the last one. Nice, very dark brown/black pour with a creamy off-white head that leaves mottled lacing, similar to Guinness stout. Aroma of chocolate syrup, coffee, and roasted grain. Taste is superb, well balanced with sweet, bitter, and toasty. What is so great about this beer is it’s simplicity, how the basic flavors all combine into a whole of satisfaction and refreshment. Medium to full body, creamy texture, soft carbonation, and mellow, long finish. Similar to Black Butte Porter from Deschutte’s. I highly recommend it, if you can find it.
Pours a clear dark dark brown. Medium frothy tan head, lasting with good lace. Aroma is subtley roasty, light chocolate, dryish, a bit nutty or maybe woody, perhaps licorice, hit of hoppiness.. Wonderful mouthfeel. Soft, smooth, creamy, velvety. Softly sweet, roasty, and bitter, and perfectly matched. The bitterness is piney. Just right dryness to finish. Chocolatey. Super drinkable. I had high expectations and this exceeded them. In a different league than other porters. So glad I got to have one before it is discontinued.
Sweet creamy, chocolate, woody, nutty. Sort of smells like a bittersweet version of the fudge I’m currently eating. Taste begins lighter than expected, has a slight hoppy, bitter finish. Creamy, milky, roast, chocolate, woody. Very smooth
I picked this up at the local Food 4 Less. It had a clear mahogany body with a skinny brown head. The aroma was sweet dark malts - caramel, toffee and a bit of chocolate. The flavor was pretty reflective of the nose, adding a light earthiness and a touch of lactic sourness in the finish. Over all, not too shabby a drink.
16 oz draft at Freshcraft. This is a solid porter for sure. Pours a nice very dark brown with a tan head. Aroma is roasty with suggestions of toffee and chocolate. Seems English-leaning. The palate is silky with medium heaviness. It’s bittersweet with a good balance of chocolate and light coffee flavors. It’s not as roasty as many other porters.
Pours a dark black with a fizzy light tan head, lots of carbonation here. A sweet, malty, caramel scent pervades. Chocolaty, caramal taste with a coffee aftertaste. You can taste the oatmeal and barley and not too heavy of an alcohol taste. Overall its a nice porter stout.
Appearance - Body is a dark brown, like taupe, and atop it sits a frothy head of ecru (yellowish-grey light brown/tan). I had to look that one up to find the color shade that most fit. Head is about a finger and a half thick and dissipates after a couple minutes, leaving a healthy mottling of lace all around the glass. The mottling is complex enough that it's hard to make out the rings as I drink the liquid down, but they are certainly there.
Smell - Nothing really blows me away with the aroma. Pretty standard notes of fresh-brewed coffee, baker's chocolate, charred bread and some nuttiness--perhaps some walnut. Even a little earthiness, like fresh peat, but faint. But the roasted grains are the predominant profile here, even if the entire aroma is a tad subdued.
Taste - Here, many of the same notesare present, but more obvious. The overwhelmingly predominant flavors are wonderful notes of fresh-toasted bread, like you get when you turn the toaster to the darker setting and pull the bread out right before it turns into a nasty charred mess. You get the complex roasted flavors from the grain, like fresh buckwheat biscuits, and the faint cacao and coffee grounds make their presence felt, but in a supporting role. I don't think I've had a more "toasty" tasting beer, and I mean that in a very good way. In some ways, it's nice to taste a porter that does a couple of profiles so well, without the dark fruit or licorice elements that are common in many of the same style.
Mouthfeel - Medium bodied and moderate carbonation. Full enough to provide a little chewiness, but not overpowering or difficult to get down. Highly drinkable for a dark beer and a dry, but not overpoweringly so, finish.
Overall, I must again express my regret at waiting so long to have had this beer. And if what I've heard about it being discontinued is true, that only magnifies said regret. I will definitely have to grab another bottle or two and since there isn't really a large hop profile to this American porter, perhaps I can sit on one for awhile and prolong my enjoyment. Either way, if you haven't had this beer and you fancy yourself a fan of the style, make no delay and grab a bottle NOW.
A little to bourbony for me. A little burnt coffee. Another Firedtone disappointment for me.
Bottle. Dark brown with reddish tint, chocolate aroma, small beige foamy head, high carbonation, bitter chocolate taste, long finish. Great porter!