Tag: Firestone Walker

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Coffee + Beer + Dad

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Los Angeles Craft Breweries & Coffee Roasters Team Up with Leading Chefs at Lot 613 on June 16 Los Angeles, CA—Even the gnarliest of old-school dads needs an occasional change of pace from instant coffee, industrial lager and $5 breakfasts… That’s why you’re going to treat your dad to the Father’s Day “Collabrewtive” Brunch on Sunday, June 16 at Lot 613, where his taste buds will be tantalized by leading Los Angeles craft brewers, coffee roasters and chefs—including coffee-flavored beers created specially for the event by each brewery and roaster.

Presented by Firestone Walker Brewing Company and Food GPS, the Father’s Day “Collabrewtive” Brunch will feature six stations showcasing brewery-roaster duos, as well as six food stations helmed by several of L.A.’s most talented chefs. Seating will be communal, with guests free to chart their own culinary adventure, at their own pace.

Brewery + Coffee Roaster Collaborations

· Firestone Walker Brewing Co. + Intelligentsia Coffee

· Golden Road Brewing + Handsome Coffee Roasters

· Eagle Rock Brewery + Tierra Mia Coffee

· Beachwood BBQ & Brewing + Portola Coffee Lab

· Cismontane Brewing Company + Caffe Luxxe

· Ladyface Ale Companie + LAMILL Coffee

with Featured Chefs · Genevieve Gergis & Ori Menashe (Bestia)· Daniel Mattern & Roxana Jullapat (Cooks County)· Zoe Nathan (Huckleberry + Milo & Olive)· Jason Travi (Littlefork)· John Sedlar (Rivera)· Steve Samson & Zach Pollack (Sotto)

The event runs from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and isn’t limited to fathers. The cost is $50 ($60 at the door if available). Children 12 years and under are admitted at half price. A portion of the event proceeds will go to Share Our Strength, an organization that’s dedicated to battling childhood hunger.

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Food GPS Teaser – Firestone-Walker Invitational

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If you haven’t figured out that you should buy tickets for the 2014 edition, then tomorrow’s Food GPS column about the individual beers surely will.

But here is my list of beers that I wish I had sampled but did not:

Three Floyds – Dreadnaught IPA

Sun King – Batch 777 tripel

Pizza Port – Beer Hunter Belgian golden collaboration with Automatic Brewing

Odell – Loose Leaf hoppy session

Cigar City – Invasion pale ale

Braufactum – Colonia Kolsch

Avery – Hand of Buddha

Just not enough drinking time.

 

 

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Firestone-Walker Invitational (the recap)

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As threatened here is my recap of the Firestone-Walker Invitational that was held on Saturday……

With a beer stained shirt, I left the 2013 Firestone-Walker Invitational Beer Festival dizzy from the variety of beers and breweries on display and maybe the triple digit heat too.

The Mid-State Fairgrounds was hopping with crowds attracted by an impressive worldwide brewery list with beers that are rare within miles of their home breweries, let alone seen in California. Dark Lord from Indiana’s Three Floyds or Hunaphu from Peoples Choice winning brewery, Cigar City from Florida.

Both highly rated beers and both excellent but in my opinion, three others made my Best in Show List (plus an honorable mention in Tipo Pils from Birrificio Italiano).

#3 – Dos Osos IPA from Revolution Brewing. A collaborative hop bomb between the 3 year old Chicago brewery and Firestone-Walker. Was super fresh with a great bouquet.

#2 – Nefarious DIPA from Boneyard Brewing. For a big DIPA this (again very fresh) Double was light and nimble.

# 1 – Prickly Passion Saison aged in Peach Whiskey barrels from the venerable New Belgium. My first beer of the day and one that struck a chord that I measured all the rest of the days beers on. Had a bright fruit note that balanced with a smooth and light barrel flavor.

OK, on to my beer festival check list:
water: plentiful (they also had cool zone blowers and misters at most stations to keep things cool)

food: plentiful (and free with admission) I certainly enjoyed the cupcakes but you could really do some great beer pairings.

crowds: There were long lines but that was to be expected. You could easily move about the fairgrounds and if one line was too long another fantastic brewery was close by.

Considering the heat and the massive beer geek popularity of the beers on hand this was well-run and smooth operation. (Which was not a surprise to me)

This will be an annual pilgrimage for me.

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Food GPS Teaser – Summer Camp w/Sean

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Earlier in May, I gave a somewhat subtle hint about an event in the works with Beer Belly.  And as we get closer to the event on June 9th and the beer list gets tightened up, I will broadcast what will be pouring but tomorrow over on Food GPS, I will give a little rationale behind why I am focusing on the “lighter” side of beer.

First is another reason (aside from beer) that should encourage you to come out to Beer Belly and talk with me and other beer lovers.

I will be raffling off a pair of prizes to those who surrender their e-mail address to me.  I will pick winners a couple days (of recovery) from the event.  So if you love being in the running for craft beer swag then come on down.

One beer that I really hope I get is Pivo Pils from Firestone-Walker.  A light beer with a Saphhir hop bite to it.  But if you can’t wait then you have two Firestone events where you might be able to grab a pint before June 9th…..

Tonight – May 29th Firestone is doing a trivia/BBQ night at Kings Row featuring Parabola and Sucaba. Night starts at 6pm trivia starts at 630pm. Prizes will be given out to the top 3 teams of 4.

and then on May 30th. Firestone pint night at West 4th and jane….featuring Solace for the summer release. Keep the glass while supplies last.

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Parabola 2013

Earlier today, I gave you a shopping list with three excellent choices to take to your local beer shoppe, and now here is a fourth that you had better pick up from Firestone-Walker….

our_beers_PARABOLA 2013

I can only parrot back this quote that I found on the press release from the brewery, ““This is the best Parabola we’ve ever made,” Brynildson says.”

What else do you need?  Seriously?  Buy two or three if you are on a limited beer budget because these will age beautifully.  Or find a tap house that is hosting Firestone-Walker and get there when they open.

Here is the description if you need more impetus to buy it, “As always, brewing this massive barrel-aged Russian imperial oatmeal stout continues to be a challenge—“It’s like extracting liquid from a big oatmeal cookie,” says Brewmaster Matt Brynildson. The recipe is unchanged, but the 2013 vintage comes with a fresh twist on the barrel-aging front, specifically the incorporation of retired bourbon barrels from Four Roses Distillery in Kentucky.”

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4 for Firestone

April is the 4th month and in a bit of coincidence, there are 4 Firestone-Walker events this month as well.

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Thursday, April 11th @7pm
City Tavern Culver City
Come drink FW beers and meet David Walker.

Friday, April 12th @7pm
The Federal Bar in NoHo
Come drink FW beers and meet David Walker

Thursday, April 18th @6pm (Q&A starts at 7pm)
Chloe’s inside the Pub at Golden Road
Meet Jeffers Richardson the Barrelmeister from Firestone

Wednesday, April 24th
Far Bar
A 4 course dinner pairing.

If you are a F-W fan (like I am) then these will be events to mark on your calendar

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FoodGPS Teaser – Bloggers at Firestone

Thanks to the largesse of the folks at Firestone-Walker, our humble band of L.A. Beer Bloggers caught a bus at Union Station early on a Saturday morning and made the trek to Paso Robles to partake in the beer culture created by David Walker, Matt Brynildson and the rest of the F-W crew.

I will use words in tomorrow’s FoodGPS post to paint a summarized picture of the weekend, but here are the final set of photos from that epic journey….

They seem to have won a "few" awards

Brewer Dustin Kral at the DBA tap

A flight at Barrelworks.

Would you like some rare bottles?

 

THANK YOU FIRESTONE-WALKER FOR THE TREMENDOUS RED CARPET TREATMENT!
THANK YOU FIRESTONE-WALKER FOR THE TREMENDOUS RED CARPET TREATMENT!

 

 

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Journey to the Center of the Barrel – Part 3

The last stop on the grand tour of Firestone-Walker that the brewery sent us humble L.A. Beer Bloggers on was in Buellton at the new in 2013, Barrelworks.

And at this stop, after another grand lunch with some really fresh and hoppy Pale 31, we had to do some (gasp!), actual work.  OK, that was bit dramatic but we did get to try our hand at blending a sour beer.

We were given four beers to play with and let loose to create our own sour masterpiece.

Blending FW

My partner-in-crime for this experiment was Craig Berry from LA Beer Blog .  We found a free spot and had to figure out how to blend the following:

Component #1 – Saison-Lil with Brett and Lacto in from an Opus One barrel

Component #2 – Saison with just Brett from a Viognier wine barrel

Component #3 – Saison with Brett and Lacto from a Viognier wine barrel

Component #4 – Bretta Weisse from a retired Union barrel

IMG_4179We then had to find our favorite by blending different percentages of each beer. Since I am a novice at this, it was a bit like playing Battleship.  Guessing which beer should be in lower amounts and which beer needed more and then having to go back and trying again.

IMG_4182We came up with five different blends and liked the last couple attempts better so we were learning fast.  But more importantly, I now know how hard it must be to do this and I have even more appreciation for “Sour” Jim who heads up the program.  To figure out which blend is best is not easy.

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