The throwback

A drizzly grey evening seemed like the appropriate occasion to open this Californian take on brown bitter: Firestone Walker's Double Barrel Ale. I hadn't realised when I bought it what a throwback it is, being the first beer the brewery ever produced, in 1996.

If it's meant to be a bitter it doesn't look like a good one, being dun-coloured and murky. A head forms but doesn't last long. The aroma is sweet, though more in a fruity way than malt: I get red grape and cherry in particular. So it goes with the flavour: no biscuit and no caramel, but a very tasty raisin and plum pudding effect set on a lightly carbonated base. It tastes clean too, with the murk minding its own business throughout. It is just as drinkable and refreshing as a cask bitter, even if it doesn't taste much like one.

It's an unusual beast and doesn't really fit the profile of any beer style I could identify. That's not a criticism, however. With beer fashion moving as fast as it does, it's lovely that a recipe from the mid-1990s is still around for me to catch up with.