then finish with the barrel-aged barleywine, Remains – “Aged for eight months in cognac barrels, this barleywine has developed a truly unique flavor, while retaining all the best elements of its natural character. “Remains” possesses rich, inviting aromas that open the olfactory portal to smooth notes of dried fruit and toffee-like sweetness, while giving way to a dry, brandy-like finish, courtesy of the barrels.”
Tomorrow, tickets will go on sale and then quickly sell-out for the 2025 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival and this year brewery “lineup includes 15 first-time breweries and marks the most ever for what is renowned as “the best beer fest in the West.”
Below is the graphic with the brewery list and it makes me happy to see so many names that I do not recognize at all. One can trust the selection process so much at this point that you quickly enter giddy phase just to see what is up with that brewery named Uncharted.
Firestone Walker will also be releasing the Wandering Don IPA. A “limited-edition official 2025 fest beer made in collaboration with Odell Brewing Company in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. PST, if you have fast fingers and faster wi-fi.
First off, I am so glad any time a summer beer festival chooses a lighter beer style for their marquee beer. It is just smart. That being said, this is the first year of the FWIBF beers that I have been really m’eh on.
Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe past beers have set a high bar. Either way this beer is not a favorite of mine. Firstly, it is labeled as a pilsner but it seems more a lager to me so right from the jump, I am on the back foot. It is also got a weird mix of corn and minerality that doesn’t mesh for me. If they called it a midwest lager, I would have rated it higher. But if pilsner was the target, they missed.
Each year Firestone Walker finds a partner and concocts their own Festbier and the style has run the beer gamut. Now we know this years beer is….
“Trailing West is this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival signature, collaborative release. A limited-edition pilsner made with our friends at Half Acre Beer, the recipe pairs a decoction mash of an Austrian barley variety over 100 years old with old-world Hersbrucker and Hallertaur Mittelfruh hops.”
One of my favorite parts of the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival brewery announcement is finding the new invitees, seeing which foreign breweries are flying in and the number of my home state, Oregon breweries (7 this year!) in attendance.
There is not really a weak link in the bunch. But let me take a different tack this year, there are a few breweries that I would bench for a year to let in a few more fresh faces.
Revolution out of Chicago is great but I would love to see Funkytown or Turner Haus involved to bring a bit of diversity in.
Omnipollo and Garage Project garner big lines. I mean big lines but I would like to see some English or Scottish micros in California, The Kernel or Thornbridge come to mind.
I would also like to see a Mexican craft brewery involved as well, I think that would add a new dimension to the festival. Or maybe Bow & Arrow out of New Mexico.
I think removing the big line breweries would have the effect of creating more exploration. Instead of waiting 20-30 minutes for one beer, you might try two beers from breweries you don’t know much about plus a food sample.
This is, of course, the most nitpicky of posts you will read about FWIBF. It is such a fantastic festival that you have to resort to it so as not to repeat ones self.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10am. If you haven’t been, try.
After a night spent with an unhappy tummy courtesy of the sour beers consumed on Saturday, I made a short hop from my bucolic Creekside Inn to the Booker Wines for the Wine Down brunch.
And it did not disappoint (except for one thing), the Booker compound is amazing. At the end of the road with multiple other wineries, the vineyards surrounding the hill. The architecture was super fancy. I can easily imagine an extra fancy wedding being held here. All open air and great views. I hopped up when they said they were doing a cave tour but it was more a quiet walkthrough the cave which also had a special room with the limestone on one side. Food was great as usual but it was time to say goodbye, but not to Paso Robles just yet.
Then just down the road was Bethel Rd. Distillery. More on that in a distillery post in a day or two.
Next up was KiloKilo, where I eavesdropped on the owner expound on the beer industry and what makes a festival good. The Cold IPA was my choice, Frosty Little Nugget. It was what I needed before heading south.
I made two stops on the way home. One to reacquaint myself with Figueroa Mountain in Buellton and two for a first visit of Bellringer Brew Co.
FigMtn has a lovely outdoor patio and the same weirdly situated indoor seating. A tiny little room with a cubby for taps overlooking the brew deck. Food pick-up in another room which is weird. Recommend the outdoor bar.
I drove further south to the somewhat new Bellringer Beer Co. I get worried when the brewing equipment is tucked tightly into a space as it is here. I had half pours of the Galaxy IPA and the Ringer Pilsner. The IPA tasted a little old, hop-wise. Murky in flavor but not in color. The Pilsner was better for sure so I hope the equipment is being dialed in.
I took a little walk around Ventura then has one last beer….
It is no secret that I am not a fan of the Humble Sea branding. But, the beer is what counts so when I saw that they had a Pivo Pils homage, I had to seek it out at the festival.
Seavo Pils pours a bright yellow. First beer of the fest is this humble version of Pivo pils. Very crisp. Bit of a metallic hit to it as well. Simple and nice to drink. Compared to lager titans like Heater Allen and Bierstadt Lagerhaus, well it pales a bit. Overall though, quite nice.
