Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
The barrels at Firestone Walker are getting a work-out. On the heels of the cocktail inspired Manhattan beer comes a dessert beer that should give you a nice rum fix. I like the use of the blonde barleywine for this. This should be a very decadent drink.
It is easy to write an Invitational recap. Talk about the heat. Talk about your favorite beers. Talk about the lines. Talk about how well this event is run and voila, word count is hit.
I will instead focus on a different tack…
Each FWIBF is safe, structured and similar. That may seem like faint praise but it is not. I know that everything will run smoothly. They will be ready with information weeks before the event, they will follow up, badges will be handed out, the BBQ will start on time and the festival, well, the festival will have too much. I would like to spend three days going through the beers.
What is great is that there are the in-between times where you can explore Paso Robles and you had best explore it because for a smaller, out of the way town, there is a lot of beverages to check out and food to eat. I have my own schedule of visiting Silva Brewing, Twisted and Glazed Donuts and Tin City but you can do the new Field of Light exhibit now or hit up Templeton and their quaint Main Street. Or head to the other side of the 101 and all the wineries there. Firestone also has a morning after wine brunch to ease you back into Sunday and to be able to talk about the beers from the day before.
This year, my wife and I stayed in an airstream trailer outside of town that overlooked a vineyard and had a friendly pit bull named Ladybug along with chickens and rabbits and a beautiful night sky. Next year, I might stay in a different part of town (if I go of course, let’s not get ahead of ourselves). Who knows, I might go up next year even if I don’t go to the festival. I might head north just to visit all the breweries that I can’t get to like Tent City or in SLO.
As far as the festival itself, it is all just nitpicking but I have come up with some quick greater than – less than notes from the 28+ samples that I tasted on the day.
Great Leap from China > Balter from Australia
Green Cheek booth display = Alvarado Street booth display
Side Project line > Garage Project line (due to The Bruery doing ½ of the beer presentation of one Garage Project beer)
Pils as Festival collab beer > barrel-aged collab
Not following my own set festival rules because I am easily distracted > following my own set festival rules
Oh, and my favorite brewery was Rare Barrel. They have seriously dialed into my taste buds. Sadly, I did not like the two Hair of the Dog beers that I sampled even though I was really pumped for them to be there. I also missed Sante Adairus and Russian River which is very, very bad of me.
You have to try really hard to find a bad beer at The Firestone Walker Invitational. You also have to try really hard to highlight those that truly stand out because, well it is degrees of awesome. You could also highlight all pils, Kolsch and Helles or all IPA’s and the list would slap.
But here are the beers that punched through the general level of awesome to make me scramble to my notes to learn more.
Rare Barrel Cyboogie Sour IPA – Not super sour and more tilted to just hazy IPA with Citra, El Dorado and Nelson Sauvin, this was both soft and bitter with just a touch of tart.
Crooked Stave Sour Rose – Canned Rose is a thing but the results are all over the brewing map. This Colorado Rose was super light, super watery but that water was Rosewater and it was perfumey beer greatness.
Burial Beer / Visual Amaro – This cocktail styled beer had smoky blueberries, quinine, raisins and licorice flavors per the brewer. How that mixture works together is a mystery but this was a lovely spicy dark ale.
Great Leap Honey MA Blonde – 1st beer of the day from this Chinese brewery and it was a great choice. Bright with a big pepper note but still easy to drink. One of the most complex blonde ales I have had.
Side Project A la Table – a super low (under 3% ABV) table beer made with buckwheat, oats, pilsner and two different types of white wheat that is then aged in American oak barrels for six months.
Back home from the FWIBF19 and here are a few photos that I posted to the ‘gram or Facebook or are seeing the light only here.
Onto the good stuff, my 2nd day recap of the 2019 Invitational. There was a breeze in the air as I made my final approach into the festival. I always walk around the Mid-State Fairgrounds around the same time to gauge how many people line up a full two hours before they are allowed in. This year seemed lighter in General Admission line and larger in the one hour wait VIP line.
The booths had been changed up a bit. FW keeps people guessing so that muscle memory doesn’t move people to the same spots each year. I will touch on the favorites poured this year in another post but I want to talk about the two panels hosted by the Brewing Network. First was cocktail beers. If there is anything that will bust up the hard seltzer train it will be this area and though Boulevard Brewing brought an actual canned cocktail which I passed on because nothing could reach the heights of last nights Re:Find offerings, I found the Corpse Reviver #2 from Gigantic Brewing to be really good. Burial Beer brought a beer called Amaro from their Visual line and this digestif meets beer was great as well.
The sour panel held a couple surprises too. Crooked Stave had a twelve-ounce can of Sour Rose. Not super sour but boy did it smell and taste like Rosewater, and it was fantastic. Rare Barrel poured Cyboogie which was also canned and also fantastic though calling it sour IPA was a stretch. That panel ended with a table beer from Side Project whose line was long all day and has been since they first came to the festival.
More coverage and photos to follow.
Unfortunately, this post is targeted towards those who will be attending the best beer fest of the year. But you might learn some things that you can use at the next festival you have tickets to.
It is easy to be overwhelmed when the beer list for The Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest drops. It is akin to seeing a mound of presents on Christmas Day. Here are my (4) rules to follow when deciding which beers to add to your wish list.
I have a few suggestions of beers not to miss. My Wish List is largeenough for three drinkers but in the spirit of 4. Here are the ones that I will probably have first:
Brewery Ommegang BWX|OMG! Collaboration with Firestone Walker Barrelworks
Hair of the Dog Opia (another Firestone Walker collab)
Oxbow Farmhouse Pale Ale
Russian River Intinction – Merlot
When I was at the Venice locale of Firestone Walker, I noticed this poster…
I was immediately drawn to the bottle on the left, seeing as how not to many Saisons come our way from Firestone Walker. I am sure that many more are drooling over the Parabola with aging on wine barrels.
On the last weekend of this month, I took in the sights and sounds and beers from the 3rd Anniversary of The Propagator.
Here is the re-cap: It was a strangely slow early morning at the Venice adjacent Firestone Walker location. This despite the high quality and higher creativity beers on tap. Haven’t had Rosalie, it was there. A Watermelon kettle sour, yup as well as many hoppy treats on hand. Plus the deal was great. (2) beers a side and a cup for one price. I assume that as the day wore on, that it got more crowded.
For my two beers, I started big with the Gen 3, triple IPA. Double digit ABV and for me, a return to those big bruiser Imperials from back in the day. Lots of malt and caramel and boozy. I backed down for the second and had the Eichenkeller because Keller beers are always an attraction. This did not disappoint. Super malty and bubbly with a nice minerality versus hops.
And I got to talk with some grand folk in the beer writing community as well as Merlin himself.
For those holding golden tickets to the 2019 version of the Firestone Walker Invitational, the brewery list went live at the start of this month and now the collaboration beer which ticketholders get a special ticket for is now known….
It looks like the new beer plays to the strengths of both Firestone Walker and Cigar City.