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The Short Lived Series from MadeWest Brewing has thankfully not been short lived and the latest has arrived with a gator on it and the latest partner, Firestone Walker.
It is a Cold IPA hopped with Mosaic, HBC 1019 and Nelson and the description is “bright hop character full of citrus and tropical fruit with notes of orange, honeydew and peach.”
Yesterday, I joined Firestone Walker brewers Jordan Ziegler and Sam Tierney, to see the “many faces Parabola can take on through adjuncts..” There were over seven tastes of new experimental variants of the imperial stout, some only available for very short times.
This event at The Propgator brought together members of the Brewmasters Collective, an enthusiastic group of Firestone fans ready to taste Parabola in its newest incarnation as well as learn about the nuts and bolts of adjuncts in an imperial stout.
It starts with an inspiration. New Orleans offered Ziegler ideas as did the plane ride when the snack was a Stroop Waffle cookie. Then it goes to small bench tests where you try adding adjuncts and seeing what works and doesn’t. Fig was fine in tests but really called for an accompaniment so Ancho Chili was brought in to make a duet.
From there, it becomes how best to get a flavor punch. Thai bananas are good but lacked that Cavendish appeal. (sorry) The way you toast coconut and then deciding if circulating the beer through it or steeping it in the beer is a better preparation.
Mix in that Parabola is aged in differing bourbon barrels from super wet Elijah Craig to reliable Heaven Hill just adds another level of complexity. Then you have to make sure the resulting beer has a Firestone house taste to it as well.
For me, the plain 2014 Parabola was the best. You got a nice bourbon and oak note on top of a luxurious stout but the real action was deciding what of the flavored beers ranked highest. To me it was the Thai Bananas Foster. The interplay of fruit and stout just worked. Second was Coconut closely followed by the Peanut Butter (really peanut flour) with the Fig and Stroop Waffle in a lower tier of interesting and Mixed Berry bringing up the far back.
Oh and another plus, we got a taste of the newly reformulated XPA as well which I thought was a bright and hoppy addition to the line-up.
If you needed a temptation to join the Brewmasters Collective, this type of event would fit the bill.
Firestone Walker is adding a hoppy beer back into the mix that is neither a pilsner or hazy, rather an XPA.
Here are the specs, “Firestone XPA is built around New Zealand’s Nelson hop with its grapefruit and tropical Sauvignon Blanc qualities, all backed up with a dollop of classic Mosaic hops. The resulting beer offers a trifecta of drinkability: crisp, hoppy.”
This very blog has monthly pairing posts of podcasts, books and sports. One that I do not do is music, but Firestone Walker has you covered the next time you reach for their hazy, Mind Haze.
Click HERE to read more.
Firestone Walker (Propagator) has added to the Pivo legacy with the new Slowvo Pils a collaboration with Bierstadt Lagerhaus from Denver. The famed Slow Pour – Side Faucet Pilsner Palace.
Good to see one of my favorite breweries both bringing holiday cheer and bringing back in a new form, the infamous Wookey Jack.
“Wookey wonderland? We’re sippin’ in it! The Wookey has come in from the cold, and it’s fully reimagined for the season. Arctic Wookey is our classic black rye IPA reimagined with abominable amounts of flavor courtesy of a dank and resinous hop profile takes it to frigid new heights. It’s as black and cold as your blessed heart.”
Each year, I taste test the current FW Anniversary blend and then taste the blend from five years ago. This time around it is 27 vs 22.
This years anniversary beer, aka XXVIII or 27 was created by the team of Molly Lonborg from Alta Colina, Kevin Sass from Halter Ranch Beer Club Member Ezekial Palmer. Below are strands used in the blend:
DDBA Batch 10k – Aged in Wheated Bourbon Barrels (33%) – Imperial Special Bitter
Dividing Time – Aged in Wheated and Rye Bourbon Barrels (29%) – Munich Wine Made in Collaboration with Private Press
Bravo – Aged in Bourbon Barrels (13%) – Imperial Brown Ale
Rip This Joint – Aged in Bourbon Barrels (13%) – Imperial Stout Made in Collaboration with Side Project
Velvet Merkin – Aged in Bourbon Barrels (12%) – Milk Stout
XXII is made up of the following componemts: 44% Stickee Monkee, 22% Parabola, 22% Bravo, 7% Rum Barrel Helldorado, 5% Gin Barrel Helldorado.
Now onto the reviews…
22 – even though the rum and gin barrels are only 12% of the total, I am getting a bit of both. There is chocolate and a kick of spice here that I like the interplay between. Has a definite Belgian quad taste, sorry Central Coast Quad.
27 – seems kind of one note to me overall. It is a really good chocolate brownie. in beer form. Thick and muddy in a good way. Not much barrel notes to be found which I was sorta expecting considering the beers in the blend.
Even five years on, the 22 wins. If there has been more bourbon in 27, I might have given it the nod though.
Firestone Walker and the fine folks at the Full pint want to do a Credit Czech in the form of a “Polotmavý Garnet Lager”. We are in a great time for those who love the gamut of Czech lagers.
Clapping hands loudly for the Double Decker new release from Firestone Walker
“Bravissimo lands as a revved-up edition of our signature barrel-aged Bravo brown ale. After a year of maturation in bourbon barrels at our Paso Robles brewery, this small-batch barley wine was blended back into a lot of traditional barrel-aged Bravo. The final blend was 70 percent traditional Bravo and 30 percent high-gravity Bravo. The result was a beautiful barrel character permeating the finished beer, with Bravo’s signature maple sap and chocolate flavors reaching another level.”
One of my most anticipated beers of the year is the anniversary blend from Firestone Walker.
If you are in Los Angeles or Paso Robles, now might be the time to see if their company stores have any lingering 26’s on shelves so you can prepare a taste test.