Wandering Don
Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

 

CAN:

High C+ / ABOVE AVERAGE

Look: It pours Yellow with decent clarity. It has a white head with very good head retention.

Smell: It has strong grapefruit and citrus aromas up front. There are some pine and stone fruit notes in support.

Taste: The stone fruit elements, especially peach, are more prominent in the flavor. The citrus fades more to the background with hints of grapefruit. There is a tea like quality to it that actually blends in quite well. There are also hints of pine.

Feel: It has a medium body with medium bitterness, but not harshness in the bitter finish.

Overall, a quite favorable and easy drinking beer in spite of the bitterness.

Look - solid copper with a nice whte and slightly sticky
Smell and taste - mineral with a slight citrus hops, slight dank and slight bitter
Feel - medium body and carb
Overall - not bad

12oz, canned on 040925
L: slightly hazed golden body; frothy off-white head
S: stone fruit, tropical fruit, citrus, light caramel
T: apricot, nectarine, pithy citrus, earthy pine, light caramel, toasted malt
F: medium body, moderate carbonation, very resinous and dry, pungently bitter finish with pine lingering
O: fun beer to try from two of my favorite breweries

 

 

 

Pours soft gold with a thin but foamy head. Getting aromas of pine & grapefruit with hints of baked goods / biscuits. Flavor basically follows suit with slightly more tropical flavors than expected; getting some pineapple / guava in addition to OJ & grapefruit. Definitely getting some of that nice biscuit flavor with notes of malt as well. Finishes nice & smooth - very drinkable.

Can poured into a Firestone Walker Brewing Co pint glass

A: Pours golden yellow with a frothy cream white head that settles to a firm layer and laces nicely.

S: Citrus zest, resinous pine, herbal woody notes, some underlying tropical and stone fruit, slightly bready biscuity malt, and a touch of caramel sweetness.

T: Resinous pine, citrus, grapefruit and tangerine, herbal woody notes, underlying tropical and stone fruit that slowly emerges as it warms, peach, apricot, guava, passion fruit, floral hints, slightly bready biscuity malt, and a touch of caramel sweetness.

M: Medium body, moderate carbonation

O: I wanted to like this one so much. Collab with Odell + experimental hops, sign me up. Unfortunately the herbal woody notes from the Krush strike again and detail things. It's not bad, but I feel like it could be so much better if they swapped that one hop out.

 

fun collaboration with odell, a couple of titans of hoppy beer coming together for something modern and clean and really good, but also not radical or new or as different as i kind of hoped it would be, that said, its a real drinker and something i am happy to have around for awhile, light on the grain side but that doesnt mean neutral in this one, high on the dry hopping apparently, colorado ingredients in this, and there is some distinctive malt character, nutty and grounded without being sweet, light in body but its a nice counterpoint to all the hops, at exactly the right volume in here i reckon, both in aroma and flavor, which are more or less identical to me, a little catty, like there could be mosaic leading on the hop side, northwestern anyway, decently high alpha, candied orange, mango, a little bit of gasoline in that way where its real appealing and you keep smelling it, a little tropical, faint red berry, real late onset bitterness, almost more on the recall than in the actual swallow, but still not super intense. the fruitiness of this is high, but its also very familiar to me from a hop standpoint. light lemongrass, tangerine, wildflower honey, and just a little bit of a breadcrust aspect. clean ferment, off dry, enough carbonation, oily resinous hop palate in the aftermath, heavies it slightly but this is a drinker anyway. well executed as is to be expected from these two, i hoped perhaps for a more original take, but this is decidedly delicious anyway. ill enjoy this one while its here...

 

 

 

Teaming up with O'dell Brewing, Firestone Walker keeps it west with a drier, more bitter and crisper IPA that departs from the haze.

Wandering Don wanders onto the senses with a a classic toasty, nutty and dry granola scent. A bold hop perfume fills the nose with citrus and tropical fruit along with more herbal complements before the first sip leans in with the same granola sweetness. Hop flavors round the middle palate with notions of pink grapefruit, orange and pineapple with a growing bitterness of pine needle, peppery resins and fresh dank herb.

Medium bodied and drying on the late palate, the IPA is a classic taste with a bitter leaning back edge in true IPA form

Clear amber brew with lots of lacing in the Maredsous goblet. Clean, pleasant, and prickly on the tongue. Also quite malty and moderately sweet. Pleasant aroma of nectarine with some grapefruit notes. Powerful fruity hop flavor is quite decent. From the 12 oz can purchased at Skagit Valley Coop. Canned 04/09/25.

Sampled this as a side-by-side with Union Jack - a beer that I enjoy very much.

The appearance is slightly lighter and more golden than Union Jack. The nose is more juicy and fruity than Union Jack. The juiciness follows into the flavor profile, but the flavor notes are not terribly bold.

Nicely clear, what I’d call damn near quintessential golden in body color. Head is fairly dense at a decent height and fairly lasting, Nose is just on the grainy side of bready, interrupted by the herbal hop notes. Digging deeper, some floral and spicy notes trickle in, as well as a hint of ABV that seems more aggressive that the number stated on the can, but it could be an odd s0ice note (probably not).

Cold, this beer alludes to malt and gets into a piney, earthy spice bitterness a bit too quick, especially when paired with its moderate carbonation levels. A lightly-touched with honey water cracker comes to mind, even after a little warmth. A bit more citrus than expected comes out - grapefruit / pomelo with pine shavings and a peppery bite are what come to mind. A classic piney bitterness starts to build as I sip, familiarly.

While it leans towards the coast where I currently sit, it has a softer edge to it than the bitter bombs of old, even given its weaker malt profile. Solid, as one would expect from FW, and tasty but lacking a depth, I guess, in both malt and, to a lesser degree, hop profile for my palate of today.