Tag: Firestone Walker

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XVIII

When I see the all cap words, THE FINAL BLEND, in a Firestone Walker press release, I start scrolling like a madman. And when it refers to their 18th Anniversary beer, I pour over the list and start comparing to past years.

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38% Parabola Aged in Bourbon Barrels
16% Helldorado Aged in Bourbon and Brandy Barrels
16% Bravo Aged in Bourbon and Brandy Barrels
14% Stickee Monkee Aged in Bourbon and Whiskey Barrels
5% Velvet Merkin Aged in Bourbon Barrels
4% Hydra Cuvée Aged in Bourbon Barrels; collaboration with Flying Dog
3% Wookey Jack 100% Stainless Steel
2% Ol’ Leghorn Aged in new American oak barrels; collaboration with 3 Floyds
2% Double Jack 100% Stainless Steel

Now I won’t presume that I could pinpoint the flavor and aroma that each component brings to the bottle but the addition of two collaborations beers is what jumps out to me.

More numbers to throw at you, FW “blended together 227 oak barrels and nine different beers” to create this year’s version.

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Where (and when) the Wild Things will be Released

If you thought tickets to the Firestone Walker Invitational were hard to get and worth every penny then how about the special Barrellworks beers?  One new one is coming out shortly, Agrestic which has been seen in the past but is now coming back in 375ml bottles.  Believe it or not it is a weird spin off of a DBA base.  Just with a bunch of what FW calls “a proprietary collection of microflora.”
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Then of course aged for a bit and blended just so to the point where even super beer geeks are wondering what sort of magic they do.  But that is not all….

Feral Vinifera
Feral Vinifera is an ultra-limited release also being liberated on September 20. Feral Vinifera was born of a collaborative effort with local grape growers and winemakers in Barrelworks’ backyard of the Santa Ynez Valley. Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Orange Muscat grapes were co-fermented with wheat-based wort, then inoculated with proprietary wild yeast to create this trailblazing hybrid.

SLOambic
SLOambic is Barrelworks’ foray into the funky world of lambic style beers. It was inoculated with brettanomyces lambicus, brettanomyces bruxellensis and lactobacillus, then infused with ollalieberries to create a distinctively, dry, cidery, fruity, vinuous and oh-so sour beer. November release date TBA.

El Gourdo
El Gourdo is what happens when the local pumpkin patch calls the barrelmeisters on the day after Halloween, asking if they want some orphaned gourds. Not only did the barrelmeisters take the leftover pumpkins last year, they roasted them in a pizza oven with brandy staves, bay leaf and walnuts before tossing them into a base wheat beer for secondary fermentation prior to oak barrel aging. We’ll just leave it at that for now. November release date TBA.

Reginald Brett
Big, malty, and alcoholic, this hefty brew is supported by a firm oaky backbone and slight tartness from its time in French oak barrels in the discreet company of a certain B. Lambicus. Scandalous! Release date TBA.

 

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Wild Ride Time

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Do you like sour beers?  Do you like driving around LA?  Or are you like me and picking one spot to grab some Firestone Walker beer?

“Walker’s Wild Ride is back during L.A. Beer Week! Join the Lion & the Barrelmeister on Saturday, Sept. 27th as they make their unruly trek in “Olivia”, the ’64 Land Rover, hosting a crazy LA pub crawl with four sour beers in tow! Follow along as we make stops at Tony’s Darts Away (12pm), Library Alehouse (2:30pm), Naja’s Place (4:30pm) & The Federal Bar – Long Beach (7pm).”

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Merkin ’14

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In ten days, Firestone Walker’s Velvet Merkin barrel-aged oatmeal stout will return with the new 2014 Vintage.

Here is the barrel breakdown from the brewery: “The 2014 Velvet Merkin was primarily aged in bourbon barrels from Elijah Craig and Woodford Reserve, along with a selection of Rittenhouse Rye whiskey barrels. The Elijah Craig and Woodford Reserve barrels imparted fine bourbon qualities, while the younger Rittenhouse Rye whiskey barrels provided subtle spiciness with an elevated vanilla character.”

Five different iterations of the beer have been blended to come up with this beer, almost a test blending drive before the Anniversary beer which comes later in the year.

Last years oatmeal was splendid and I can’t wait to see how this one turns out and how it compares.

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Review – Torpedo Pilsner from Firestone Walker & Sierra Nevada

In any variety pack there are beers you mark as special and this was one that I dog-eared when I first saw it. How would two California Beer Titans mesh into one beer.
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Well Torpedo Pilsner from Firestone Walker and Sierra Nevada pours a yellow to orange color. The first taste and aroma is Sweet Tart candy. Bitterness is there but that unique candy taste is the boss. Some citrus but it us sweet orange not Farmers Market orange. Their is a lightness and metallic bit that is the pilsner part if the equation. Very light and almost a pils version of Easy Jack except for a lingering perfume aroma and taste. I’m getting flower shop mixed with parfumerie type of feel here.  The Southern Cross and Motueka hops used haven’t given me this flavor and aroma profile before so I don’t know what alchemy the two breweries have been up to but this is quite unique.
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Up From the Cellar – 2011 Parabola from Firestone Walker

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The theme for Up From the Cellar for July is a year. 2011 to be specific. Also Imperial Stouts. A favorite style amongst beer geeks and snobs alike.  And we start with a barrel-aged Imperial from Firestone Walker.

This 12.5 stout pours jet black with a beautiful espresso rim of foam. That foam quickly dissipates and you are left with impenetrable darkness. The aroma is incredible. This decidedly falls into the camp of beers that you can smell and be satisfied without ever taking a sip. Though you will want to.

This beer spent 12 months in barrels before I even thought about cellaring it. And it shows. Big bourbon and rum notes intermingle. Some coffee bitterness is in the background as well but this is a barrel show.
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There is some serious warming here as well. Each sip brings a flare of heat. But it fades quickly allowing for the bourbon and late flavor addition of chocolate and tobacco notes to power through. You cheeks will warm. But they won’t be red.  Even when another warming spice sensation emerges as the beer warms up.

The Verdict? – Parabola in all it’s yearly versions, tastes fantastic.  The fact that sitting for an additional three years hasn’t changed that, is almost a moot point.  Of course it’s gonna taste great.  It’s a barrel-aged stout from Firestone Walker.  I don’t think that even a rank amateur cellarman could do any appreciable damage to this beer.

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Get it Now, before it’s Gone

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I am a fan of Firestone Walker.  For two reasons.  1- the beer is great. 2 – they treat bloggers well.

And a third reason is that their barrel aged beers are fantastic to cellar.  And one you had better grab plenty of is “the third and final bottled release of Firestone Walker Brewing Company’s barrel-aged Double DBA begins on July 12, setting the stage for an as-yet-unchosen replacement next year.”

D-DBA is being squeezed out due to room.  Even with the major growth of the brewery in Paso Robles and Barrelworks in Buellton, other beers are begging to be bottled and released.  Ones like….Bravo, Helldorado, Parabajava, PNC, Saucerful of Secrets and Brownie Wine.

I have never tasted the last one, so I would vote for that one.  But before we jump ahead, here is the description of what is in the 2014 version of the D-DBA bottle, “the imperial special bitter is Firestone Walker’s flagship DBA brewed at double strength, using twice the amount of malts and hops. As with the regular DBA, the 2014 Double DBA was partially fermented in a union of new American oak barrels. After fermentation, the beer was racked and returned to the union barrels as well as bourbon barrels, where it aged for one year. The barrel mix for the 2014 Double DBA included vessels from Woodford Reserve, Elijah Craig and Four Roses.”

If you don’t get Double DBA now, it is also the base beer for Reginald Brett, a bretted barrel-aged ale which is coincidentally  to be released later this year from Barrelworks.

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Getting Stickee

Following on the heels (literally the same day!) of Bretta Rose this month, here comes more big beer goodness from Firestone Walker.

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This a barrel aged Belgian Quad with candi sugar that they call a Central Coast Quad. And for the Barrel aged fanatics, this description should set you to drooling, “Stickee Monkee swings away from tradition, however, by being aged up to 14 months in bourbon barrels from Woodford Reserve, Elijah Craig and Four Roses. The Woodford Reserve barrels impart a smooth, rounded wood character. The Elijah Craig 12-year barrels bring more of a spicy, rustic note to the beer, while the Four Roses barrels contribute pure oak notes.”

This is the first bottling of this beer that (in various forms) been a component of the Anniversary beer.

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Firestone Walker + L.A. Beer Bloggers + RE:Find Distillers

What truly sets apart the trip that Firestone Walker provided the L.A. Beer Bloggers group is that it isn’t all about beer.  Yes, there is plenty of Easy Jack and Pivo Pils flowing but these guys want to showcase all that the Central Coast and Paso Robles in particular has to offer.

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Last year, the spotlight was on the bio-dynamic farming of Windrose Farms and the wines of Herman Story.  This year Andrew Murray Vineyards was showcased along with an amazing dinner and spirits extravaganza at Re:Find Distillery.

Alex and Monica Villicana are winemaker’s first.  But they wanted to find a use for grape juice that got bled off to enhance the finished wine.  What to do with what is technically called saignée.  Well, they went the distilling route.  They make vodka and gin and brandy and limoncello all from grape juice!

Now Firestone doesn’t just stop at the introduction.  I should have been hip to that after the Friday we enjoyed.  No.  We not only got to taste the vodka and gin.  We got to try our hand at blending our own gin for our own gin and tonics!  Now my first two stabs at it were over lavendered and way over Angelika Root’d.  My third attempt yielded a passable gin.  But now I know much more of what makes spirits so good and what goes into making and blending them.

But folks, that was not all.  Re:Find had been in contact with Firestone about our trip and they went even further and made us a white whiskey from a wash similar to the 805 lager recipe.  With the appropriate name of Writer’s Blanc.

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They could have stopped there.  Told us to get back on the bus and find our own food and we would have been happy.  But then out comes a five course meal from Chef Thomas Yun?

There was octopus which I tried but didn’t super enjoy but there was a glass of Opal saison to drink.  There was a lamp chop and a rib eye cap and, well… here’s the menu….

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It was an amazing melding of food, spirits and beer and people.

And we in the beer blogging community should be hailing passionate producers of cheese, lettuce, wine or whatever because they are the same as our brewers.  Artisans who are raising the bar on how we see our food.

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Firestone Walker + L.A. Beer Bloggers = Craft Beer Memories

As threatened in previous posts, Firestone Walker gave the humble L.A. Beer Bloggers the full red carpet treatment from Venice to Los Olivos to Paso Robles.

Here is the re-cap of what happened over the three-day weekend…..

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Our intrepid group was picked up at the corner of Lincoln and Washington at the future home of what will become the southernmost outpost of the growing Firestone Walker brewing empire.  It isn’t much to look at now.  Two unused white buildings with a weed choked parking lot.  The location will need to be transformed with their typical classy design touch.

Imagining how it would look is a lot easier than imagining a 405 Freeway with movement.  What was in store for us on Friday and Saturday night was kept under wraps  After a stop to gas up and stretch our legs, we finally arrived at our destination in the wine country near Los Olivos.  From this point on, it was one pleasant surprise after another.

It was hard to pick one highlight.  The dinner was marvelous, as was scenery.  More importantly we were afforded looks into both the past and future.  The name Andrew Murray Vineyards may not mean much to beer geeks.  But he is a vintner who is also currently fermenting in what was the ORIGINAL Firestone Walker brewery.  This square building in the middle of fields, far off the beaten track was where DBA started.  We heard tales from David Walker about the balky equipment and the good ol’ days while sipping on wine.

From the future came a bottle of Bretta Rose which won’t be released to the public (in limited amounts) until the 17th.  This beer pours a lovely dark pink and has all the farmhouse funk you can handle plus so much raspberry that you will wonder how they did it.

We also were treated to two experimental beer/wine “hybrids” that had such great aromas it was hard to drink them.  These are still in the early stages but I will keep you informed if/when they come around.  Let’s just say that wine drinkers will think that beer was added to wine and beer geeks will say that wine was added to their beer.  Divisive.  But in a good way.

The next day, our bus zoomed up the 101 to ground zero.  The Paso Robles brewery.  In just a year, the place has changed in big ways.  A new building houses the canning line.  Their is a new store in the back.  An old building has been torn down and a new one is coming.  It seems that if you blink the place sprouts another building. We got to sit down with Norm Stokes in their QC division who ran us through a gauntlet of off flavors and a very eye-opening look at how even just 1 month of aging changes an IPA.  The take-away?  Drink IPA’s within a month of bottling.

Saturday night was an eye opener that I will save for another post.  Suffice to say, Opal soaked octopus was on the menu.