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USA Today
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
8 best beers I drank at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival
8 best beers I drank at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival PASO ROBLES, CALIFORNIA -- David Walker gets celebrity treatment at the event that bears his name -- or, at least part of his name. He doesn't shy from fans at the 2025 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival. He is -- at least when it comes to passing out beers among the 60-ish breweries represented on a sweltering California afternoon -- a man of the people. Even if said people don't necessarily agree. "This guy is brewing royalty," a man nearby says as Walker pours from a magnum of Firestone Walker's unfiltered Double Barrel Ale. The words weave through a mixture of hop and barley fumes sputtered into the ether. "Gotta get a selfie with him," he tells no one in particular. It all tracks in real time. Walker brings an aura, even as he's pouring beers (with his name on them) alongside employees and volunteers. There's an inherent chillness about him even on a sweaty day that evaporates even the heaviest beers into a glossy sheen on exposed shoulders. Maybe it's the British accent, worn down after decades on the West Coast to a comforting hybrid that lingers somewhere near "posh surfer." Maybe it's the build at a lean 6-feet plus. Maybe it's the hair with flow tailor made to leak out the back of a lacrosse helmet or a face framed for aviator sunglasses. Either way, Walker exudes cool. His beer and, importantly, his beer festival, follow suit. The Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival isn't a smash-and-grab all-you-can-drink affair. It is, in fact, a laid back, knowing-nods-to-strangers-you're-about-to-shoot-the-bull-with-about beers all-you-can-drink affair. This has helped make the fest one of the hottest tickets in California. The 2025 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest sold out in minutes. At a pre-event barbeque for brewers, sponsors and media, I get to meet multiple people who signed up to sponsor just to get access to passes. The signage and charitable donations that come with sponsorship? Sure, that's nice -- but the main draw, for them, is the ability to get to the fest without obsessively refreshing a webpage or paying resale prices (approximately $225 to $250 for the five-hour event on draft day, from what I hear among Saturday's drinkers). Fortunately, I was able to sneak in under the cover of our expanding spiral into beer coverage. The event itself was wonderful, but obviously would have been nothing without a curated list of brewers from across the globe. While I was only able to try a fraction of what was being poured in Paso Robles, pretty much everything on tap was absolutely gorgeous. So let's dig through my notes and make sense of the best. Honorable mention: I tasted about 20 beers at the fest, owing to the heat and the abundance of big, boozy brews. All but two got four stars or higher in my book -- which is a gentler curve than some reviewers, but also a reflection of the quality at the fest. 90 percent of the beers I drank were ones I'd happily order again. The hit rate in Paso Robles was incredible. Let's talk about the beers that didn't make the cut, in no particular order: Firestone Walker's Unfiltered DBA and Barrel-Aged Mellow Mind Control (these were two wonderful displays of Firestone Walker's creativity, flexibility and quality -- from a new twist on a classic British style to a gobsmacking barrel-aged beer loaded with dessert flavors.) Trillium's Express Way peacharine double IPA (almost creamy and wonderfully balanced -- bolstered by the fact a picture at the booth got my New England-based group of beer nerd friends mildly annoyed.) FrauGruber Craft Brewing's Helles (clean, crisp, a little basic and an awesome warm day beer.) Urban Roots Brewing's Huggo IPA (lots of tongue-burning hops and rich, complex flavor lurking underneath in a bit of a throwback to the early 2000s.) Pinthouse Brewing's Jaguar Shark FWIBF barrel-aged 2025 blend (it's got your expected smores notes for a big, boozy dark beer, leaving you with something to sip on that stays crisp regardless of temperature.) Russian River Brewing Company's Pliny the Elder (an imperial pale ale long regarded as one of the best in the world. It was lovely, but there were beers I liked more.) Minoh Beer's Rice Bock (a Japanese bock that tasted more like a light hefeweizen than an eight percent alcohol by volume (ABV) brew. This was really cool!) Wildflower Brewing & Blending's St. Thomas sour beer (lots of tart cherry, very nice.) Green Bench Brewing's Postcard Pils (well, this was a 3.5 star effort, but it was still tasty.) Now, onto the best of the best, presented again in no particular order. The Alchemist's Heady Topper (American Double IPA) I just wrote "lives up to the hype. A remarkably complex and drinkable pale ale." This one came about four hours into a 93 degree day. I promise all the reviews aren't this short. Mahrs Brau's Helles Bavarian Lager I'm a sucker for classic German beers. But I'm even more of a sucker for a lighter, poundable beer on a hot day -- especially when it's surrounded by big bold IPAs and enough barrel-aged brews to fill a Louisville warehouse. The smell off the top is light sweet malt, not especially heavy but enough to let you know there's a well-crafted beer inside. The first sip is absolutely lovely. It's sweet and classic. There's a lot going on in a very small package. It hits your lips and explodes off your tongue in a way that gives you all that malt but a little bit of smoothness and sweetness as well. This is a wonderful hot day beer. Something you can drink all afternoon at 4.9 percent ABV that won't mess you up too badly. I guess I shouldn't be surprised -- it's German brewers (who've opened up an offshoot of an old German brewery in the States) making an incredible German beer, after all. Three Floyds Brewing's Dark Lord Marshmallow Handjee (barrel aged stout) "Oh my God, man. This is just a chocolate bar." That's what Ron, my PR liaison had to say about this beer. After a hefty sniff of very clear bourbon barrel, adult malt and chocolaty goodness, I'm inclined to agree. The first sip, despite its inherent boozy nature, is a little bit thinner than I expected on my mouth. It's very sweet but not cloyingly so; I could drink two or three of these. That would be a terrible idea at 15 percent ABV, but you understand the sentiment. The chocolate and marshmallow work as well together as you'd expect, but instead of being heavy and kind of listless there's a little bit of a lilt that happens at the end of each sip. Three Floyd's found a way enliven the tail end of their beer and snap off each gulp with a crispness you rarely get from big, boozy chocolate-addled beers. You get sweetness up front and though there's not a ton bouncing it off it still works incredibly well. This is dangerous. This is a dessert in a glass. Except it's at 15% alcohol by volume and it will absolutely mess you up. As someone who annually goes through all of Goose Island's Bourbon County Stouts, this is something that really sings to me. It's something that not only would fit in with Goose Island's best beers but exceed them. But what do you expect from Three Floyds? They've been breaking the curve for the past two decades-plus. Horus Aged Ales' Sign The Monarchs (sextuple barrel aged imperial stout) Here's something special; a beer from a members' only brewer two timezones from my actual location. I was fortunate to have Don Tse -- renowned beer writer/judge/reviewer and one-time The Price is Right Showcase Showdown winner -- point me to Horus, who I could have missed otherwise. How was it? Well, uh, let's just say I hit this one later in the day. All my notes say is "good god, man, this is nectar. I gotta stop drinking these stupidly alcoholic beers. 40 proof? Hot damn." So, yeah, Horus makes a sextuple barrel aged stout that clocks in at 20 percent ABV and tastes incredible. That's about all I can recall. Good beer. Boneyard Beer's Pinot Pulp (barrel-aged fruited ale) This is a barrel-aged, blood orange ale. It's also iced and, full disclosure, made me say an expletive the first time I took a sip. Despite smelling like a sour, it's actually got a lot of sweet and balanced flavors to it. The blood orange is the obvious headliner, but that aged vanilla clocks in before just a little bit of lager-ish crispness hits your palate towards the end. I don't think it's hoppy necessarily. Still, there is a minor bitterness that works very well as a cantilever to everything else that is going on. This is a beer I tried on a whim because the folks at Boneyard recommended it. It is not my normal jam and probably not something I would have picked out of a lineup if I were only having one drink. But it smashed my expectations. It's an absolutely lovely beer and, honestly, a little bit of a weird one. But hey, weird is great. Pinthouse Brewing's Side of Ranch (double IPA) This was the easiest possible sell as a Midwest native. I don't know if Pinthouse -- out of Austin, Texas -- is appropriating our culture, but I'll admit I'm here for it. The smell off the top is light with minimal fruit and hops but very appealing. The first sip is genuinely lovely. There's a solid density to it that gives you something to chew on. It's not a poundable beer, but at as an IPA that clocks in at seven percent ABV, it's not supposed to be. What you get instead is a remarkably flavorful double pale ale. You get a chorus of notes from the fruit flavors inside. There are citrus undertones and maybe even a little bit of pear. The hops are apparent throughout but never bitter. They lend a light influence that really balances well against the sweet and sour of that fruit. Those hops ensure the scales never tilt in one direction and keep things pretty much right down the middle. This is a beer I could drink all day. I could have three or four of these without a problem. Well, without a problem *for me.* It would be a problem for everyone else around me because these are still pretty potent. Green Cheek's The Inability to Sit Still (double IPA) Green Cheek's prestige was apparent from the moment we stepped onto the fairgrounds. Even as early entrants there was a perpetual line at least 20 people deep that lingered through the afternoon. The Inability to Sit Still is a collaboration with Mac Hops out of New Zealand. It's a DDH West Coast IPA, which means it's going to be dry and a little bitter but on a warm day like today, probably pretty fulfilling. The smell off the top is hoppy but muted. The fruit of that double dry-hopping lingers in your nostrils to suggest that, yeah, slow is the right way to drink this one. The first sip? Extremely refreshing. You get a little bit of citrus up front that's washed away by the heaviness of hops. This doesn't drag down the beer at all, but does lead you to that really dry finish you expected. There's a richness that makes you understand why so many people are waiting for Green Cheek. It's a beer that makes sense on a lot of levels. It really fills an IPA need, but at the same time it's got a little bit of lager-ishness that makes it a very accessible beer for any season. Beachwood Brewing's West Coast Welcome (double IPA) Let's wrap with a style that, unsurprisingly, was prevalent at a California beer festival. The smell off the pour is a little more sour than I might have expected from a West Coast pale ale. The first sip that stays true to that. You get a lot of bitter out of this West Coast pale ale -- not in a way that makes it inaccessible, but a way that makes it a little bit tougher to drink quickly. That's honestly a good thing. While "bitter" is a big part of the proceedings, it's a gentle opening that unleashes a lush expanse of hops that bring loads of flavor to the party. The bitterness doesn't last and, honestly, I might have been overstating it after drinking some sweeter beers beforehand. What you get is a pretty solid pale ale that gives you a lot to chew on behind a slightly denser texture. It's not necessarily a refreshing summer beer, but this thing would absolutely kick butt on say a fall night by a fire or one of those winter nights where, let's face it, everything outside is kind of terrible.
Forbes
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Why Small Beer Festivals Are Thriving
The Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival features rare beers from a carefully curated list of the world's best breweries. Firestone Walker Brewing Company Beer festivals are a great way for beer lovers to sample many beers in one place. Often, such festivals offer beers not otherwise available in the local market which makes them a draw for even the most seasoned beer lover. For a time, the biggest beer festivals were the biggest draw. More beer. More people. More fun. But that seems to be changing. For the 2024 edition of the Great American Beer Festival, the largest ticketed beer festival in America, the Brewers Association, which hosts the event, rolled out a significantly revamped format—for the first time since its inception in 1982. Among the changes to the event, which is held annually in Denver, CO, the number of sessions was reduced from four to three. In its heyday, tickets for the Great American Beer Festival would sell out in minutes. But in response to slower ticket sales, the Brewers Association eliminated one session, significantly reducing the number of tickets available, while at the same time introducing theme areas with more varied forms of entertainment. It is too early to tell whether the changes will revive the Great American Beer Festival, but other 'Great' festivals are also struggling. The Great Canadian Beer Festival has been cancelled for 2025 while the Great British Beer Festival returns in a new venue 2025—in Birmingham, England—after being cancelled for 2024—having been held for 34 years in London. Reports are that attendance has been shrinking in recent years. But reports of the death of beer festivals may be premature. Across the country, smaller, more focused beer festivals continue to sell out, satisfying the beer drinking public's thirst for sampling beers. 'I asked myself, 'What would be the perfect beer festival?'' said Matt Brynildson, brewmaster at Firestone Walker Brewing Company via video call. Firestone Walker hosts the annual Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival in its hometown of Paso Robles, California. 'I'd call up the best brewmasters of the world. We'd bring in the best beer, sent by air freight to ensure it is fresh and brewmasters would be there, so drinkers could meet the maker,' said Brynildson. 'And we would have wonderful food and world-class music.' The first Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival was held in 2012. It sold out in minutes then and now, about 3,500 tickets per year continue to sell out in minutes. 'We have a lot of wine-savvy consumers in Paso Robles,' said Brynildson. 'They have high expectations in their food and beverage experiences, so we have to set the bar high.' By keeping the beer festival small, Brynildson says ticketholders are given a better experience. The festival is built on the back of the relationships Brynildson has built during his brewing career and he knows the breweries he invites make great beer. Curation is the key. On the other side of the country, Good Word Brewing hosts three, small annual festivals in Duluth, Georgia, more or less 40 minutes from Atlanta. The city of 32,000 people has an open container zone within which people can drink alcohol in public spaces. That includes the town green, making it the perfect location for a beer festival. 'I created an event for brewers,' said Todd DiMatteo, owner and head brewer at Good Word, via telephone. 'Bigger festivals don't have the same feeling. They all become the same old, run-of-the-mill events with lots of breweries, mediocre food and maybe some band in the corner.' 'I attend a lot of festivals and a lot feel cookie cutter,' he says. 'So I wanted to create something totally different—something that feels fresh.' Good Word now organizes three festivals each with a theme and each with a curated list of invited breweries. According to DiMatteo, the more focused beer list draws a more interested consumer who is actually interested in tasting the nuances of each beer, rather than just trying to taste as many beers as possible. Having the event on the town green also means the festival goers can bring their families. There was a time when craft beer was a novelty and so was trying them amongst fellow beer lovers. But as the craft beer industry has matured, so have its drinkers. Awash in beer from almost 10,000 breweries in America, craft beer lovers have become more discerning and the curated offerings and more intimate settings of smaller beer festivals seem to be resonating with them. Here are seven small beer festivals worth visiting: About 70 of the best breweries from around the world present their beers each year at the Paso Robles Event Center, at the end of May or beginning of June. As a condition of invitation to the festival, breweries must have a brewer in attendance to answer questions and explain their beers. Consumers' choice awards, one for beer and one for food, ensure exhibiting breweries and restaurants bring their A game. 'Breweries bring something extra special to try to win the award,' says Brynildson. Ironically, Little Beer is the largest of these three annual beer festival hosted by Good Word Brewing in Duluth. Little Beer is a celebration of lower-alcohol beer held in April each year. Each of 80 to 90 brewers offers beers less than 5% ABV to 500 ticket holders. The outdoor festival is held in Duluth's town square, making it a family-friendly event. Le Bon is a celebration of saison and oysters held next to Good Word Brewing, in September. A dozen and a half breweries offer their finest saison to be paired with oysters supplied by famed shuckers. Mighty Fine Fest, a celebration of west coast IPA, is debuting in June 2025. About 50 breweries will have their hoppiest beers available and will help make Duluth the beer festival capital of America. Since 2009, the Denver Rare Beer Tasting has, as the name implies, served rare beers from some of America's most-respected breweries. Limited to 450 tickets at $200 each, the festival is held each year on the Thursday of the weekend of the Great American Beer Festival, in October each year. Brewers are in attendance to answer questions and proceeds support Pints For Prostates, a 501(c)3 non-profit charity established to raise awareness about prostate cancer, particularly within the beer community. FOBAB is held each year in Chicago, typically on a weekend early in November. The festival primarily pours beers that have been aged on wood or in barrels, ranging from strong, high-ABV imperial stouts and barley wines, to more moderate, but sour and funky barrel-aged sour beers. The festival awards the best barrel-aged beers in multiple categories. Recent editions of FOBAB have added a lager lounge and a non-alcoholic area to offer palates a refresh between the hundreds of palate-wrecking beers. Alaska is not always cold. But it certainly is in January. The Alaska Craft Beer & Barley Wine Festival is held in January each year in Anchorage to spread liquid sunshine during the dark winter. With an emphasis on strong, rich barley wines, the festival keeps festival goers warm as the enjoy local food and live music.
USA Today
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Cali Squeeze is a wild departure for Firestone Walker. It works... if you like fruit beer
Cali Squeeze is a wild departure for Firestone Walker. It works... if you like fruit beer Welcome back to FTW's Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. When I think of Firestone Walker, I think complex pale ales and big, bold and slightly weird heavy beers. Neither is all that great for casual summer cookout drinking. Thus, Cali Squeeze -- a fruit-forward line of wheat ales designed to tone down the intensity of Firestone's other brews and provide an easy drinker. They come in a variety of coastal flavors, from passion fruit to peach pomegranate and promise something a step beyond Blue Moon with an orange wedge. Firestone Walker is a circle of trust brewery. Let's see what happens when they tackle big fruity, juicy beers. Blood Orange: B+ A pour straight down a nine-ounce mug unveils a foamy, quickly dissipating head. It simmers down to a minor ring at the top. The citrus is the headliner coming off the pour, with bright bursts of orange held back by the unmistakable Hefeweiz-ish tang of a wheat ale. The opening sip is just as fruit forward. Since this is Firestone Walker I keep waiting for some big boozy flavors to roll in. A bitter hop or a malty sweetness. But instead you get some light wheat and a whole bunch of blood orange. Which, really, just tastes like orange to me. It's a little sweet and acidic, which vibes since it's got orange juice in it. While I expected something like a lager equivalent of a juicy pale ale, this one skips the tempering element of the hops and pretty much just gives you citrus. It works with the carbonation and the minor wave of wheat that rolls in toward the end. That makes it a solid summer beer. A great post-lawnmower swig. It's not as complex as the beers I've come to expect from Firestone Walker, but it's not supposed to be. This is supposed to be a step up from your airport pours of Blue Moon, no orange slice needed. In that regard, it's a winner. Peach Pomegranate: A- OK, interesting flavor combination here. I don't think I've ever had peach and pomegranate together. Like the blood orange it pours with a booming, fluffy white head. This one takes a bit longer to dissipate into something easy to drink. Despite the promise of the label, the smell off the top is all gummy peach rings. Toward the end you get a little bit of that pomegranate tang -- though, admittedly, due to the effort involved in eating one I tend to eat one pomegranate per decade. It's possible I'm misreading this. The peach and wheat work wonders together on your tongue. The juicy sweetness of the fruit takes the blank canvas of a wheat ale and brings it to life, adding enough flavor to make the blood orange seem heavier by comparison. I'm still not getting much pomegranate, but there is enough of a slight twist at the end that keeps this beer from getting cloying or driving home a sticky aftertaste. The result is, again, a simple beer that's easy to finish. It's a proper hot day drink, something that can be plucked from an icy cooler and pounded before it gets the chance to warm up with minimal effort. It's sweet, light and juicy. Two of those adjectives aren't how I'd normally describe a beer, but hey, it works. Tangerine Daze: B It pours like the blood orange, just with a lighter hue. It smells, as expected, like sweet citrus with a light current of wheat beer running underneath. The beer is a little more prevalent here than in the other two. But it's still sweet and a little creamy, which tempers those beer vibes. The result isn't quite creamsicle, but it's clearly headed in that direction. That makes it a little less crisp than the peach, but it's still a nice departure from your regular beer. True to form, it's an easy to drink summer beer. The vanilla here makes things a bit more complex, though it's still fairly straightforward. Passion Fruit: n/a The smell off the top of this is powerful passion fruit. Which is great if you like passion fruit. I do not. Like the rest of the Cali Squeeze cohort, it's a proper wheat ale base from which a fruit complex is built. If you like passion fruit, then hell yeah, this is your jam. To me, it tastes like stale rubber. I am not qualified to grade this one. Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's? This a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I'm drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That's the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm's. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Firestone Walker's Cali Squeeze over a cold can of Hamm's? That's all gonna come down to whether I'm feeling a fruit beer or not. The whole thing is a vibe. But Cali Squeeze captures it well with juicy flavors riding atop a current of quality wheat beer. It's a bit of a niche play, but Firestone Walker pulls it off exactly as you'd expect.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Firestone Walker goes all-in with imperial radler beer
A California craft brewery has gone all-in with radler beer. Firestone Walker just released a trio of imperial radlers, or high-octane, fruit-infused beers. It's another creative pivot within a craft beer movement that continues to navigate heightened competition and ever-changing consumption patterns. It's an interesting move for a number of reasons. First, radler is traditionally a lighter, lawn-moving style drink that's both refreshing and low in alcohol content. Firestone Walker is flipping the script a bit, as the three new options come in at 8% ABV (hence the imperial designation). Second, it's a creative and seasonally-appropriate way to throw fruit at IPA. The hop-forward beer has long complemented citrus and the match seems to make a lot of senes. The three Mind Haze Rage releases include Grapefruit Lemonade, Original Lemonade, and Watermelon Lemonade. The offerings join the brand's broader Mind Haze family of juicy, tropical beers that taste like a beach day in summer. Firestone Walker launched the lineup back in 2019. As the new beverages clearly demonstrate, there's some nostalgia involved. From the neon colors to the typography, the 90s are very much alive. Even the concept of a fruit-infused beer is something a bit retro, with its first heyday back in the same era. Based in Paso Robles, Firestone Walker is one of the larger west coast breweries. The original brewery was born in 1996 in Los Olivios, the brainchild or brothers-in-law Adam Firestone and David Walker. In addition to making a large family of IPAs, the label is behind some exceptional barrel-aged beers, among other styles. The post Firestone Walker goes all-in with imperial radler beer appeared first on The Manual.
