15 (XV) Anniversary Ale
Firestone Walker Brewing in Paso Robles, California, United States 🇺🇸
Strong Ale - American Series Out of Production|
Score
7.82
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76% Barley Wine style beers, 19% Stout and 5% Imperial IPA. XV introduces our new blonde barley wine Helldorado with flavors of lavender honey liqueur. DDBA delivers its signature American toasted oak, English caramel toffee and light leather nuances. 2010 vintage Stickee Monkee folds in brown sugar, maple, cinnamon, ginger and ripe figs. Parabola brings the familiar flavors of roasted dark cocoa, and chocolate covered cherries. Velvet Merkin carries silky milk chocolate, toasted coconut and creamy textures. Good Foot and Bravo add assertive barley wine warmth and lush barrel derived vanilla bean notes. The game changer this year is the addition of Double Jack to the blend. At just 5% its massive dry hop character brings citrus zest, tangerine and mango aromas making this a completely new beer.
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9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 9
Flavor 9
Texture 10
Overall 9
From the 2/2012 3R6P tasting. +++ Sampled from a 22 oz brown bottle this beer poured a dark brown color with orange highlights and a small soapy tan head that faded and left decent lacing. The aroma was sweet coconut, caramel and pine. The flavor was sweet caramel, tobacco, bourbon and coconut. The finish was long and the body was full and syrupy. Excellent.
Tried
from Bottle
on 04 Feb 2012
at 10:12
7.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
22oz bomber pours a clear deep amber with deep red ruby hues and thin light tan head. The aroma offers up prunes mixing with coconut, vanilla, spicy oak, booziness and bourbon near the end of the draw. The taste pulses with coconut and vanilla and then quickly moves into some molasses covered spicy oak, chocolate, sweet bold bourbon and then straight up booziness. This has plenty of barrel showing through virtually crushing the various beer notes.
Tried
on 02 Feb 2012
at 21:06
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
On draught at a beer dinner at Monk’s Kettle. Perhaps i was a little jaded drinking this after completely enjoying Parabola, as i felt it didn’t hold up to its predecessor. Lots of sherry on the aroma. medicinal and viscous. All of the flavors seem a little disjointed. A nice beer, but i love many of the FW beers more.
Tried
on 26 Jan 2012
at 23:50
7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Pours a deep garnet brown with a decent fluffy off white head that subsides quickly. Smells of oak vanilla and lots of dark pitted fruit with a touch to much alcohol. Slightly oxidized with a malty sweetness. Taste is sweet malty with lots of fruitiness. Hints of vanilla and oak play nicely off some smoke and roast. A touch of heat, but not like I thought based on the aroma. Long lingering fruity and roasty sweetness in the finish. Medium to thick body with a moderate level of carbonation and a sweet almost syrupy mouthfeel. There’s a lot going on here and this is quite a flavorful beer. I think this blend would benefit from a little more time for the flavors to come together a little better.
Tried
on 22 Jan 2012
at 15:19
6.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 2
Overall 7
Oaky fig nose with subtle vanilla notes. Clear brown, thin light tan head. Chocolate syrup initially, woody throughout. Date and horehound notes toward the end. Walnut skins in the finish. Boozy. Too big for my taste and may benefit with a little age.
Tried
on 22 Jan 2012
at 07:10
7.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Bottle thanks to my Secret Santa. Pours a slightly hazy dark brown with a slight amber hue and a caramel brown head that dissipates to the edges. Aroma has notes of sweet grains, caramel, burnt marshmallow and a hint of backing coconut and orange zest. Flavor begins sweet with caramel and burnt marshmallow but has a good amount of coconut, oak and toffee in the finish.
Tried
from Bottle
on 15 Jan 2012
at 12:35
8.8/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 9
Bomber from the Novato BevMo. Pours deeply ruddy with flashing garnet glints. Head is 3 finger creamy dark beige. Aroma is primarily chocolate. It’s almost like there’s orange/cherry under the chocolate. Full bodied. The alcohol is like another flavor. In a way this is like a fruit filled chocolate covered liqueur. Very, very smooth. Getting cherry and orange. It’s hovering on the edge of sweet, but there’s enough hop to keep it there. I could ramble on, but let’s just say it’s a wonderful dark beer that is incredibly easy to drink.
Tried
on 11 Jan 2012
at 16:38
8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 8
Draft at the Cellar Door. A little yeasty in the first impression, like a youngish barley wine. Not much alcohol at first. Deep dark brown, thin layer of foam with very little lace. But the taste is all that. Mainly in barley wine territory. Sherry sweetness, but with a thread of alcohol building up. Notes of punch tobacco, brown sugar, maybe a nudge of hibiscus. Sometimes I want to swig this down and let it lay me low, other times I want to treat it like a civilized big beer. Despite the long winded explanation above, it’s still a big barley wine. Kind of a coffee note, but totally without roast. Just a nice toasty malt, balanced by bitterness to keep the sweetness from taking over.
Tried
from Draft
on 01 Jan 2012
at 23:42
6.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Amber-brown colour. Thin head. Charred and slightly barrelly notes on the nose along with vague grapey accents. Strong with alcohol and fruity on the palate, with more caramels and maybe some light toast. There’s lots of stuff going on but none of it really comes together.
Tried
on 24 Dec 2011
at 20:58
7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Bottle in Vail with Jetson. Brown appearance with a light brown head. Rich roasty caramel malty, toffee, herbal, piney hoppy, moderately fruity aroma. Piney, herbal hoppy, creamy caramel, toffee, vanilla, bourbon, oaky, fairly hoppy flavor. Pretty rich hoppy aspect and the bitterness seems slightly unbalanced. Somewhat boozy. I like it overall but it falls short of being legendary in my mind.
Tried
from Bottle
on 24 Dec 2011
at 19:29