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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.
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.
Tomorrow, I will give the full rundown on my first time at the second Firestone-Walker Invitational, to whet your appetite, here are some photos from my day in Paso Robles….
From Firestone’s Pivo, New Belgium’s Peach Whiskey Barrel aged Prickly Passion Saison, Bell’s Raspberry Wild One and lastly barrel aged Dark Lord from Three Floyds.
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.
Two things that will convince you to be at…
1. David Walker in attendance.
2. He has kegs of XIV, XV, and XVI.
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Be there at 7pm sharp!
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….
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.”
April is the 4th month and in a bit of coincidence, there are 4 Firestone-Walker events this month as well.
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
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….
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.
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
We 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.
We 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.
Firestone-Walker ain’t what it used to be. It’s bigger. My last visit to both their Paso Robles brewery and the Taproom and restaurant in Buellton was many years ago. I had heard about the changes and the new equipment and the addition of Barrelworks but I was not prepared for the scope of the expanded footprint of their entire operation.
They have added space everywhere on what is fast becoming a Firestone-Walker dominated stretch of land just off the 101. They have a huge restaurant where you can get the Central Coast Locals Only beer, 805. They have warehouse space for their “traditional” barrel aging that you see in such releases as their anniversary beer. And these large tanks are another (albeit large) sign of the changes taken place.
The brewery has been tricked out as well as expanded. Brewmaster Matt Brynildson now has new toys like a wet mill which maximizes yield from the grains while using less energy and added an automated hop doser. Which will make the bitterness you get from Union Jack even more consistent.
2012 proved to be a major year of growth for Firestone-Walker and it was great to get a tour of the whole facility and see all the changes firsthand.