Bravo (Firestone Walker Brewing)

Well another year older and deeper in debt. Last Wednesday night, I celebrated my birthday (March 2nd) the way I wanted to, in my garage with a good cigar and a beer. It was a wild day, one that was forecast to have crazy wind and rain storms. I originally was going to Total Wine to audit the store and pick up these supplies. They had lost power due to high winds and were closed, so I went down to Corks and Kegs instead. I was so surprised to see all of the highly limited Capt. Lawrence beer still on the shelf as well as left over boxes of Firestone Walker Bravo and Perennial Sump bottles. These sure are odd times in beer indeed, but in this case it worked out in my favor.

http://www.firestonebeer.com/beers/products/bravo-2017

I am sure that Firestone Walker can weather the storm this year. They saw huge success with the Luponic Distortion series last year and will continue to roll those in 2017. The biggest change so far this year has been the down sizing of the reserve series package size from 22oz to 12oz bottles. You still get that swanky little box tho . . We also get a Va. brand rep fresh off Terrapin Brewing servitude as well as Leo Vs. Ursus, An unfiltered imperial IPA in 4pks 16oz cans. I see lots of Firestone IPA's in my future this year. Even Union Jack pricing has gone down to match Easy Jack.

Bravo is a brilliant way to ease the public into this new format. It is the first beer ever to wear the reserve series stamp, series 001. I know, barrel aged brown ale, who does that? Well Firestone does, and they do it really well. This beer is bright with the barrel character that you have come to love from all the other releases. This beer has the perfect amount of sweetness to pair with a large gage cigar. This is a beer that I sipped on for nearly 2 hours, from right out of the fridge to room temp (garage room) it was so smooth. I'm sure there are probably a few more of these around so pick it up if you see it, 

12% Imports

This is one of those posts where I took the pictures so long ago that I don't have much input about the beer itself. I do feel like these are under appreciated breweries and the beers go largely unnoticed for a number of reasons. These are all property of 12% imports, which is an importer, like a distributor inside of a distributor. They pulse their products into the market based on a pre sell system that make many customers uncomfortable, and see limited distribution. Its a shame these incredible breweries don't get wider spread brand recognition because they release some very good beers.

Off Color Brewing - Sparkles and Trouble - Chicago Illinois - http://www.offcolorbrewing.com/. Off Color produces very delicate beers mostly belgian or german influence, some wild fermented beer and added fermentables often to create unique combinations. I have reviewed Dino Smores before by them which I didn't particularly care for, but these saisons, farmhouse, and gose beers are top notch. So if you tire of IPA's and malt bombs pick up a saison from these guys.


Against the Grain - Coq De La Marche - Louisville Kentucky - http://www.atgbrewery.com/

Evil Twin Brewing - No Hero - Brooklyn New York - http://eviltwin.dk/

Walking Boston (The Trillium Stories)

So work sent me to Boston this past October to hang with Harpoon Brewery for their Octoberfest weekend. We were a small group of like minded adventurers that put up with me making them walk all over the city. Well I thought they didn't mind being on foot exploring but boy was I wrong.

So I am nearly 6 months removed from this trip but I wanted to put some words to the pictures on this draft. This was the first time I was able to get to Trillium and they were open. We bought one can of everything available and watched trash TV in the hotel. It was grey and rainy the weekend we were there. I get so annoyed with Uber tabs when I am stuck places with out a car.

So we through caution to the wind and drank from the plastic hotel cups. I really enjoyed all the beers and the trip in general. The soggy shrimp roll that I had the Saturday night before left was a big let down. I'm more and more in love with Boston. This jet blue credit card and the Bruins need to come back into my life soon.