Tag: Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest

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#FWIBF16 – Quick Notes

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That is just the first four beers on the app for the Firestone Walker Invitational or to be put easier FWIBF16.  Here are my thoughts on the day.  Sort of like a Livestream but in words and not live and posted a day after. But first a quick recap of….

…Friday which started with a drive from Burbank to Paso Robles through 100 degree heat. Arriving at my hotel to a room that could double as a walk-in cooler. I didn’t have much time to waste and walked the few blocks to the Event Center to pick up my credentials. The press check-in had been moved but with typical grace, FW employees golf carted me to where I needed to go and then back to the pre-fest BBQ where the core beers plus Luponic Distortion 01 were being poured. After that and hot mini-donuts, a group of us marched over to the afterparty hosted by Societe and The Rare Barrel which would have been worth the trip alone. Cucumber/Mint Sour and Elderberry Sour being my winners along with Tropicalia IPA from Creature Comforts. Then to bed by midnight because Saturday is a long day.

1. Damn hot! You could stand in masters and still sweat.
2. I am fascinated by lines. I guess if Project is in the name you are automatically popular.
3. The fest is so well run. Cannot emphasize that enough,
4. Even with planning the choices are near paralyzing.
5. Revered breweries missed: Founders, Lost Abbey, Bell’s and many more.
6. Favorite beers: Tipopils, Pony Pilsner on gin barrels, Yuzzila Phantom Gose, Poppin’ Pils
7. Donuts and beer. Very good. As was the selection of food available.
8. STiVO pils did not impress me but the fest was Pilsner laden.
9. Habanero and Rosewater can mix.

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Happy FW Invitational Day – STiVO

Could this be a pilsner whale? Well, if STiVO Keller Pils a collaborative beer from Russian River owners Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo and Firestone Walker’s Brewmaster Matt Brynildson isn’t, then I can’t imagine what could be.
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STiVO Keller Pils was brewed for this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest on June 4. Perusing the list that Firestone Walker made public, it is one of many pilsners that will be offered which is fantastic considering that it might be another hot day.

According to Brynildson, the STiVO recipes were already pretty close, “Our water philosophies and malt profiles were already essentially the same, and our yeast strains were pretty similar, so it really came down to how we wanted to handle the hops, and the overall weight of the beer we wanted to make.”

The beer will be hop split between Pivo’s German Saphir hops and STS’s Alsatian Aramis hops. Plus it “was racked to kegs unfiltered and will be presented in the classic keller style, naturally carbonated and slightly hazy.”