Tag: Paso Robles

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Journey to the Center of the Barrel – Part 1

Right up front, I have to inform you, the reader, that you are going to be hearing A LOT about Firestone-Walker in the coming days here on the BSP blog.  This will be part 1 of a series of posts about a recent trip that FW hosted for the L.A. Beer Blogger community.

Our writing and photo crew left Saturday morning from Union Station (LA) headed north to Firestone-Walker (Paso Robles) for the 1st stop of a beer tour of epic proportions.

The weather and scenery was gorgeous as our large bus navigated ever smaller roads on our first leg of our Journey to the Center of the Barrel, our lunch destination, Windrose Farms.

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We reached a fork in the road where we needed to go right on but the prudent bus driver was not going to go all Dukes of Hazard on us.  We rolled to a stop and waited.  What was the plan?  Then we see David Walker riding to us on a tractor!  We hopped onto the back of a flatbed towed by a tractor driven by Bill Spencer.  The owner of Windrose Farm himself.  Now I am not a country boy.  Far from it.  But that lazy, bucolic ride with the David Walker which ended at a table of Firestone-Walker Bretta Weisse was beyond cool.

photo courtesy of Firestone-Walker
photo courtesy of Firestone-Walker

Bretta Weisse is a new beer in the Berliner Weisse style with an addition of Brett.  (It may become the house beer for the Barrelworks location)  It pours a hazy orange/yellow and has a rounded flavor of toast, sourness and a smidgen of funk in there too.  Very refreshing and it clocks in at 3.4% abv.  This would not be the final time, I was lucky enough to taste this offering.

photo courtesy of Firestone-Walker
photo courtesy of Firestone-Walker

Then we got a talk about the methods and philosophy of Windrose Farm from Bill.  Most in our group (and I include myself) almost forgot to drink their beers as he described bio-dynamics or the 45 varieties of apples with book suggestions too!  We headed deeper into the farming operation for lunch after that and were greeted with a wild menagerie of salad greens and Chef Arlis Borden of the Taproom Restaurant.

photo courtesy of Firestone-Walker
photo courtesy of Firestone-Walker

Our four course lunch included four rounds of Firestone-Walker beers.  I saw the Double DBA with DBA caramelized apples and vanilla ice cream for dessert and knew that this was going to be good.  Our main course was lamb braised in Walker’s Reserve accompanied by Parabola Russian Imperial Stout.  I could have drank the whole bottle.  It was viscous and sweet and beyond tasty.  But the best of the lunch were the two salad options and that is saying something because I tend to avoid the green spectrum of the food scale.  But braised greens with Wookey Jack was one of the best pairings that I have had.  The lettuce stood up to the Black IPA.  The first salad was fresh picked greens.  Literally steps from where we were sitting.  It had a Union Jack vinaigrette and was paired with Double Jack IIPA that was bottled the day before.  That is seriously fresh!

IMG_4097Combine the setting with the great beer and the great food.  The freshness of both and the passion that both the Spencer’s and Firestone-Walker have and you can begin to imagine how great this lunch was.  If I had been driven home at that point, I would have been more than happy.

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But more awaits!  Including a trip to the top of the brewery, wine and blending sours!

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Firestone-Walker Invitational

Last year’s Invitational from Firestone-Walker was a rousing success from all accounts. (I did not make it, can’t make every event) and the tickets will be going on sale in a week for the 2013 version.
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Firestone-Walker Invitational Beer Festival
40+ breweries 20+ restaurants
Ticket price: $75 (plus fees) includes:

An afternoon of tasting amazing domestic and international craft beers with the brewers themselves, as well as delectible bites from the best restaurants on the Central Coast. The event will run from 1:00pm to 6:00pm, however, food and beer service will end at 5:00pm.

There will be live bands playing throughout the day on the Frontier Town stage, with the headliner band taking the stage around 5:00pm.

“Behind the Beer Sessions” will occur each hour and feature beer tastings and Q & A sessions with the brewmasters themselves.

A commemorative tasting glass

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the new Firestone-Walker Brewhouse


I recently got a press release from Firestone Walker Brewing Company that “announced that it has begun brewing beer at its new state-of-the-art brewhouse at the brewery in Paso Robles on California’s Central Coast.”

Here are the nuggets that I think are most pertinent to us beer geeks…..

“The brewhouse occupies a new three-story tower that has been integrated into the front of the brewery building. The tower now serves as the brewery’s primary visual icon and features broad glass walls on two sides of the second story, providing a permanent window into the brewing process.”

“The brewhouse was installed with extensive custom features made to meet Brynildson’s vision for maximizing beer quality, including his personal modifications for milling, hop dosing, and kettle efficiency. The new brewhouse equipment allows Brynildson the ultimate flexibility for making every beer style imaginable. “By the time we got done with it, it essentially became a full-blown custom hot rod brewhouse,” Brynildson said.”

“The new brewhouse tower was designed by local architect Val Milosevic and incorporates design features that honor two iconic structures in the Paso Robles region—the Farmer’s Alliance building in Paso Robles, and the Templeton Feed & Grain building in the nearby hamlet of Templeton. Both of these buildings are visible testaments to the region’s rich agricultural heritage, and Firestone Walker Brewing Company was inspired to reflect this heritage in the design of its new brewhouse tower.”

“The brewhouse is adjacent to the brewery’s new visitor center, which features viewing windows into the hop storage room and the brewhouse control room, as well as a tasting bar and retail shop.”

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Parabola

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“We present Parabola, the first-ever bottling of this barrel-aged Imperial Stout. Just 1,000 cases [22 oz. bottles] were produced. This bold beer features nuances of bourbon and tobacco aroma. Rich dark chocolate flavors meld with charred oak, dark cherry and espresso finishing smooth on the palate. Parabola is best enjoyed in moderation and is a perfect addition to chocolate desserts.”

Tobacco? Charred Oak?
Now dark cherry and espresso, I can understand. But will it make me swoon like Velvet Merkin does?

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Quantum of…

firestone-walker-solace

Firestone-Walker has a new six-pack entering the world. A wheat beer. I am glad that they are moving in this direction. They have IPA’s and specialty releases in bottles but this marks a broadening of the portfolio. And I am all for that.

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From Los Angeles to Portland

Los Angeles to Portland by car seems foolhardy. You can be at PDX in under 3 hours by plane and be going from brewery to restaurant to brewpub tasting all that you can.

The problem for me is that when I am up there, I see all kinds of bottles that I want to bring home and try at my leisure. And the TSA thinks it is strange to want to bring 5 or 10 bottles of great beer on a plane. So driving it is. And to make the most of it, I decided to stop along the way at the great beer places in California and Oregon.

My first stop was Paso Robles. The home of Firestone-Walker and lead brewer Matthew Brynildson. I chose a stool in the tasting room and ordered a glass of their Bavarian Wheat and Li’l Opal.

The Bavarian Wheat is a lovely hefe. Great clove and banana aroma. It pours a hazy golden with a spicy bite at the end. Very refreshing. It really cools a person down. The Li’l Opal is a saison. Very similar in color to the wheat. Has a sweet, malty aroma as well as a touch of the farmhouse funk. Just a touch sour with yeasty notes to it. Then I asked for a quick tour before I got back on the road. Veronica was kind enough to show me around and halfway through we ran into Matthew and he passed over a sample of their new Imperial IPA, Double Jack. It wa great to try something that hadn’t even been released yet! Just from that taste, I could tell that Double Jack will be a hit with the hop crowd. But I like that the malt was balancing all that bitterness.

I bid adios and headed for San Francisco, and after getting through some typical Bay Area traffic, found myself at 21st Amendment Brewery on a night that the Giants were playing just down the street. I had a glass of the Dahm Kolsch which was a lovely straw color. It is a very crisp beer. No soft edges on it. An uber-pilsner. Then I had the Rathskeller Alt. Not much aroma on it and unfortunately not much flavor either. Little malt sweetness. All of the beers were lower alcohol which is great.

I headed over to ThirstyBear to re-try one of the beers that started me on this journey to beer consultant. The Valencia Wheat. A California wit bier. Alas, it was not as good as the memory of ten years ago. Perhaps, I have had too many great beers since then and this one has faded to middle of the pack.

Then I found by serendipitous chance, the awesome City Beer Store that I will talk about in a separate post because I loved it so much.

The next day it was on to Chico, California. The home of Sierra Nevada. After a couple of wrong turns, I found the huge complex that houses their brewery operations, gift shop and restaurant. I had their new Kellerweis, served in the traditional glassware. It was a hazy orange/yellow color with an aroma more banana than clove with a little sourness at the end. Good Stuff. I also sampled their Southern Hemisphere IPA which was delicious. So delicious that I bought a bottle of it.

Then it was on to Ashland. After walking around the town, I headed for Standing Stone Brewing and ordered up their beer sampler. I received their Cream Ale, Hefeweizen, Amber, Rye, IPA, DIPA and the Oatmeal Stout. My favorites were the Cream ale which was golden and clear with fruit tastes to it and the Oatmeal stout which was a lovely, mild roasted coffee stout.

My last stop before Portland was Eugene, Oregon where I stopped at the McMenamin’s on High Street. I ordered up the Ruby Ale. My sister-in-law’s favorite beer and thanked the gods that the driving was close to the end. I also tried the Jalapeno Wheat. I could not even finish it. I am a pepper wuss and this was peppery.