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, 

Oaktoberfest (Firestone Walker)

Cooking with Men

I don't claim to be the most sophisticated man. The truth is there is nothing in this world I love more than Tostitos with melted cheese on top. We call it shreddy cheese in my neck of Hanover and its a staple. Like Firestone Walker, the hear of many men has belonged to union jack or double jack for decades. This year the northern California brewer has brought many new offerings to the table, and a wider spread release of their fall favorite, Oaktoberfest. 

I had high expectations after all the hype last year, but have heard many mixed reviews this year. I split this one with my wife and we enjoyed it. The Marzen flavor was there but was made more complex with the Oak. It had a slight buttery sweet flavor but was far from cloying. The mouth feel was phenomenal and it really helped that it was still fairly warm outside when we drank this, it was refreshing.

In conclusion, I will buy Oaktoberfest next year, maybe even in draft for my Firestone-Walker kegerator. Luponic Distortion has been a huge hit for us, and loved by hop heads all around. I have seen the plan for 2017 and don't worry about wooky, opal, and double jack, they will have a fresh bed of money to roll around in next year. We will see new things, current trends that Firestone will be able to do as well if not better than the existing supply. The Liquid Will Remain Top Notch! 

Reserve Series (Firestone Walker)

Well I sat down to type an entry about a limited beer of a different style I was fortunate to fall into and saw that I had this draft chilling in the Que. Firestone walker celebrated their 18th anniversary this year as well as fellow California breweries stone and Coronado. It must have been a booming era in California beer, and these folks have proven that they have the staying power to get it done.

I got trapped into collecting these beers for a special occasion and settled on breaking them out for my 1000 check in on untapped. Two dear beer friends of mine treat me to the spoils of their aggressive trading hobby, so south I went to share these. 

We had six participants at this particular bottle share and started with velvet merkin, a barrel aged oatmeal stout. This beer has a light flavor profile and is only 8%, most of the others we drank this night are well over 10%. I had to trade to get this beer, a 2013, and had been kind of let down when I got to try the 2014 on draft months ago. It was better out of the bottle.

We had sets of 2013 and 2014, sucaba, parabola, and double DBA. I wanted to end with Parabola, my favorite. I believe the order was Merkin, Double DBA, 17th Anniversary, Sucaba, Stickee Monkey, and last the huge BA stout. Luckily these were pretty cold so we tried to take our time and sip through all the beers to experience each as they warmed up. Anniversary and Sucaba really benefited from this tactic. The sticky monkey was a huge let down for me. It was too cloyingly sweet, and was damn near honey like. 

We blind taste tested all of the verticals, and Parabola was the only one that actually aged the way we expected. Most beers just lost the sharpness in flavor with age, parabola mellowed and gained a deeper complexity with only one year of cellar aging. I hate to do it but this year I have to thin out my hardywood collection. I am afraid that some of their early barrel series beers may have gone to far. I think my attitude about cellaring beers has changed in 2014. I will no longer age any coffee or flavored beers. Most signs say that aging coffee stouts deadens the coffee flavor. I love the coffee flavor!