The Brewery: Firestone Walker Brewing Co. (Paso Robles, CA)
The Brew: Wookey Jack (Black Rye IPA)
Availability: Draft and bottles (Reserve Series)
ABV: 8.3% | 80 IBUs
Rating: 9.1/10
Location: Home
The Story? For being just six months into this blog, I've felt pretty decent having discussed over 150 beers in that amount of time. But then, I back and realize some of my favorite breweries still haven't been covered yet and I know I still have a lot of ground to cover. Better start pouring!
Firestone is one of those that came to mind. I scoured my collection to see what I could post. I'm not pulling out their Double DBA, Parabola, or §ucaba anytime soon... but I found one of my birthday gift beers left, Firestone's Wookey Jack, Black Rye IPA. I used to be a sucker for a big, black bitter beer, but haven't ventured much down that road this year.
The Beer? Wookey Jack pours out jet black with a voluminous, fluffy, lacy mocha head followed by a spicy, high-resin and pine nose with slight tropical fruit notes.
For a high ABV and IBU beer, this goes down incredibly smooth, with a fantastic mouthfeel - creamy and wet up front, wrapped up with a drying, hoppy finish.
The hops are deep and spicy, but so well-balanced on Wookey Jack, settled in comfortably with mild esters, dark roasted malt, and caramelized sugar notes and low/mid level of carbonation.
Overall, this was was far more elegant than most Black IPAs and Rye IPAs I've run across. Recommended example of balance and composure in a full flavored beer.
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