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.
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.
Up From the Cellar – 2011 Parabola from Firestone Walker
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.
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.
Get it Now, before it’s Gone
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.
Getting Stickee
Following on the heels (literally the same day!) of Bretta Rose this month, here comes more big beer goodness from Firestone Walker.
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.
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.
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.
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….
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.
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…..
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.
LA Beer Bloggers + Firestone Walker = More photos
Last year, Firestone Walker gave the humble L.A. Beer Bloggers group a grand tour of both their Paso Robles brewery and Barrelworks in Buellton.
That means more photos of the Paso Robles area.
Me against the bear. I am not trying to break into the truck. Nope. Wouldn’t do that.
The taproom menu board. Too many choices.
Young whiskey from the distillers Re:Find. Made from an 805 lager wash. Just for our group. Amazing.
My fellow blogger, Rich near the ride that Walker has made Wild.
Firestone Walker + L.A. Beer Bloggers = Craft Beer photos
Last year, Firestone Walker gave the humble L.A. Beer Bloggers group a grand tour of both their Paso Robles brewery and Barrelworks in Buellton.
I thought it was a one time thing.
I was wrong.
Last Weekend, they gave us another tour from a different angle. Starting at their future Venice Beach site, we went to Los Olivos and then to Paso Robles to bask in all things Bear & Lion.
I will put the words to this trip into another, separate post. First, some photos…..
Me at the STILL growing Paso Robles headquarters. Which probably needs more than one traffic cop..
Sitting by the fire with an experimental sour made in conjunction with Andrew Murray winery.
Yup, 805 in cans. Maybe Easy Jack too. Their cannery is a tech wonder to see.
Learning about off flavors and how age affects Union Jack IPA.
Lunch with their taproom only Hammersmith IPA.
Review – Easy Jack Summer Session IPA
Since I am in the middle of two posts about my trip to all places Firestone Walker and since I just reviewed a lovely, light IPA from Kona Brewing I thought I would review another lovely, light IPA (Session, in this case) from FW.
This SIPA pours a very yellow color with loads of bubbles. Looks more like a sparkling cider than a beer once the head fades down. I get both fruit and wine notes along a skosh of cat pee in the aroma. But the taste is delightful. A mix of citrus notes. I get orange and lime and lemon all mixed up. There is a bit of wheat and light grain notes as well but this is a very light drink. It is not watery but it is quite close. It is bubbly and sparkles on the taste buds. The bottles are date stamped so make sure you get a fresh one otherwise I fear that it may not hold that bright note for too long. It has a bit of white wine character too as it warms up. Delicious all the way through.
Easy there Jack
I know that the common perception is that if you write something positive about a brewery then you are just a shill and not a shrewd critical thinker that the brewing industry needs. But when I get a press release from Firestone Walker about a new beer, even one that is jumping on the good ship SIPA, I want to let people know about it.
Simply because they brew damn fine beer and without having a single sip of Easy Jack…
…their new Session IPA, I know that it will be above average (at least). If not awesome. And I can tell that by both past performance and by the notes that Brewmaster Matt Brynildson put together just on the hops used. Read on…
Bavarian Mandarina – Germany
“It’s real orangy, zesty, like a fresh orange off the tree, which I’ve never smelled in any hop before.”
Hallertau Melon – Germany
“As the name suggests, it has this melony, ripe tropical fruit characteristic that complements the citrus of the other hops.”
Mosaic – United States
“It’s a daughter of the Simcoe hop, which is in our Union Jack. It has a nice tropical vibe, with herbal and pine notes.”
Blend of New Zealand Hops
“We are using a blend of New Zealand hops to create this huge Sauvignon Blanc character, with a classic Sauv Blanc racy, steely fruit profile.”
Those notes make me want to try single hop beers of the first two (is it bragging to say that I have had an excellent Mosaic from Ninkasi?)