DBA (Double Barrel Ale)
Firestone Walker Brewing in Paso Robles, California, United States 🇺🇸
Bitter - ESB / Strong Bitter Regular|
Score
6.64
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DBA—a.k.a. Double Barrel Ale—is the trailblazing flagship beer that started it all for us back in 1996. Partially fermented in our patented Firestone Union oak-‐barrel brewing system, DBA quickly took the Central Coast by storm and set the pace for future beers to come. Today, DBA is regarded as a California classic, and stands as an iconic tribute to traditional cask-‐fermented English ales. Pale malts create a smooth middle with ribbons of caramel, English toffee and toasted oak.
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7.5/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 6
Bottled. Beautiful red tinged brown. Malty smell. Malty toffee biscuits and bitters. Very flavorful.
Tried
from Bottle
on 20 May 2025
at 01:05
7.5/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Bottle. Clear dark golden body with a big, dense white head. Nice aroma, fruity and floral with some malt. Taste is nice, smooth, clean hops, light fruity and mild malt. Fine balanced body and pleasant aftertaste. Very nice.
Tried
from Bottle
on 12 Mar 2025
at 07:41
5.6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 5.5
The barrel ageing of this beer really just melded everything together in a sweet, cereal, caramely malted mess. The hops cant be found, and the sweet bready caramel malts just dominate. Dont get me wrong, its quite tasty, but the sweet malts just get old fast. Id lkke some nice goldings to come through, but nothing, just, round bready maltiness. Maybe an old bottle? Disapointing.
Tried
from Can
on 28 Feb 2025
at 05:17
6.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Bottle at home. Aroma is malt, bread, biscuits, some caramel and toffee, touch of vanilla and other barrel notes. Flavour is moderate to medium sweet and light to moderate bitter. Body is medium. Nice malt-forward beer with subtle barrel notes.
Tried
from Bottle
on 11 Feb 2025
at 15:34
7/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
355ml bottle from AbeerVinum, Rimini, Italy. Pours red/brown, transparent, with Aroma is malty and caramel, a little liquor and barrel. Body is average, with good carbonation. Taste is medium sweet, a little earthy bitter. Final is fairly dry.
Tried
from Bottle
on 06 Oct 2024
at 12:23
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottled. Copper colour with slightly off-white head. Aroma is fruity, some nutty, mild grapes and some floral tones. Flavour relies on the same profile as the aroma, but also has a quite strong wooden edge with some caramel to it. Pleasant ESB.
Tried
from Bottle
on 19 Mar 2024
at 22:12
7.6/10
—
Appearance 7
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 7
Overall 7.5
Pours a beautifully clear deep amber, with a finger of white head. Good enough persistence, decent lacing. The aroma is classic bitter ale with a pleasant underlying touch of wet/sweet woodiness: biscuity, slight toffeeish malts, delicately earthy and leafy (tea like) hoppiness, with a hint of fresher grassy feel, light marmelade-like fruitiness, wet woodiness as mentioned. Taste notes follow the aroma closely; hits a bit more than a classic english bitter in both sweetness and bitterness but still feels nicely balanced, with a touch of (clean) earthiness in a moderately bitter, semi-dry finish/aftertaste. Light to medium bodied, light to medium carbonation, quite smooth and easygoing. Very nice!
Tried
on 10 Aug 2023
at 19:12
7.5/10
Tried
on 14 Jun 2023
at 18:53
6/10
Am amber ale with a thin off white head. In aroma, caramel malt, light mineral notes, British hops, pleasant. In mouth, caramel malt with light grassy hops, light mineral notes, pleasant.
Tried
on 30 Jul 2022
at 19:29
6/10
Tried
from Draft
on 11 May 2022
at 21:32