Tag: Firestone Walker Invitational Festival

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FWIBF Brewery # 3 – Austin Pinthouse

I’m sorta hoping that they bring the pizza to FWIBF19 too but here is a sample tray of beers from Austin’s Pinthouse Pizza…

Beluga Amber – ” Our director of brewing, like so many other brewers, started his journey into craft beer as a homebrewer over 10 years ago, and one of the first beers he ever brewed on his stove was an Extra Special Bitter inspired by some of England’s finest examples. In constructing the recipe for our Old Beluga Amber Ale he looked back on his notes from that first ESB he ever brewed, realized it probably wasn’t as great of a beer as he thought it was at the time, and worked on a recipe that blended elements of the English-Style ESB with those of an American Amber. The result is a delightfully complex, malt-forward Amber Ale filled with aromas and flavors of cherry, nuttiness, and an earthy-herbal hop profile to balance it all out.”

Sw’Elsinore – ” A craft Canadian Lager, Sw’Elsinore pairs well with the start of hockey season, Fall afternoons on the patio with a growler, and sharing a hand tossed pepperoni pie with friends at Pinthouse Pizza. Features: brewed with a mix of North American 6-row and 2-row barley along with rice to keep the body light and refreshing.”

Nitro Seal – ” Everything you read about our Gold Medal-winning Bearded Seal in the paragraph right above this one is true for this beer as well… Our Brewmaster isn’t Irish… at all, stouts are good in all weather, and jet black pints with creamy white heads are sexy… and Dry Irish Stouts on nitro taste really really good. So, we offer up a version of our Bearded Seal on Nitro as well! All the delicious flavors of roasted coffee and dark chocolate remain the same while the nitrogenation adds a smooth creamy mouthfeel to this stout.”

Fully Adrift – ” 2018 Alpha King Challenge winner, 2014 Alpha King runner up and Silver Medal at the 2015 LA International Beer Competition for the Double IPA Category! This is a dangerously drinkable combination of Dank, tropical, and resinous hops… and more hops.”

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Gone in 60 Seconds

Entitlement. Some think that they deserve to go to the Firestone Walker Invitational Festival. Each year, I hope that this year, on sale day will not end up with someone on social media whingeing about not getting tickets and within hours, that is stomped on like Paso Robles grapes at harvest time.

The reason that this festival succeeds like it does is due to the amount of tickets sold. More tickets sold would make hotels more costly, lines longer, tapped kegs more frequent and create a heat vortex that would rival the Sahara in summer.

The beer certainly helps create buzz but as FW notes in their post above, there are a great many great festivals out there, many cheaper and closer to wherever YOU are.

This is not to discourage people from going. Far from it. If there was a way to rotate tickets to first timers that would work without being hacked, I would recommend it. I would highly suggest visiting Paso Robles anytime in the year and even on THE weekend if you don’t have tickets. There is plenty of beer and fun to be had at Silva Brewing alone.

I include myself when I say that no one deserves to go, they are LUCKY to go. And if you think that you deserve it and you find yourself there, I would also highly suggest recalibrating and at least pretend to be lucky because then, the FWIBF truly becomes wonderful.