A very cool sounding concept: ask winemakers, who blend wines for a living, to make a blend of a variety of barrel aged beers. Unfortunately this is the first Firestone Walker beer I have had so I am unfamiliar with the base beers in this blend, but I’m excited to try it! Note that this was released in 2022 so it’s had almost 3 years to age in the bottle so I’d expect this to be considerably smoother than it was at release.
Flashlight shows as just a single blood red dot, head retention is minimal, smells of raisins, toffee, and vanilla. The taste is sweet and creamy with flavors of sweet cream, banana custard, vanilla pudding, caramel, toffee, and raisins on a soft and silky smooth full body. The finish is long and moderately bitter, featuring notes of herbal hops, bourbon, oak, alcohol, dark chocolate, and coffee. Overall, this is a wonderfully smooth and well balanced beer, definitely a series I want to keep up on now! The range of flavors here is truly incredible, with the barrel flavors becoming just another character in an epic tale that takes place across the palate.
October 2022 Vintage
About The Blending
Every late summer, right before the wine harvest gets rolling, we invite our local winemaker friends to the brewery to help blend our annual Anniversary Ale. Winemakers are practicing experts in the art of blending. and we realized early on that they could provide invaluable input for creating a seamless beer out of numerous barrel-aged component ales. The winemakers come for both the challenge and the camaraderie. They split up into small teams and created their own preferred blends from the provided components. Each of the resulting trials is then blind-tasted by the entire group, and votes are cast for the winning blend. The victorious team walks away with bragging rights and with a set of coveted cardboard crowns.
Final Blend
Parabola (13% ABV) Aged in Bourbon Barrels (32%)
Russian Imperial Stout OG-30P FG-7.5P IBU-80 Color-Black/Massive amounts of Roast Barley, hopped with Styrian Golding and Hallertan Tradition
Velvet Merkin (8.5% ABV) Aged in Bourbon Barrels (32%)
Milk Stout OG-19.5P FG-4.0 IBU-30 Color-Black/Brewed with Oats and Milk Sugar / Hopped with 100% US grown Fuggle
Bravo (11.2% ABV) Aged in Bourbon Barrels (24%)
Imperial Brown Ale OG-24P FG-4.0 IBU-35 Color-Deep Brown / Hopped with Bravo and Styrian Goldings
Heavy Things (16.5% ABV) Aged in Brandy Barrels (6%)
Barley Wine OG-37P FG-10P IBU-25 Color-Deep Brown / Early preview of a collab brew made with our friends at The Bruery / Fermentation fed with maple syrup
Helldorado (13.8% ABV) Aged in Bourbon Barrels (4%)
Blonde Barley Wine OG-29P FG-5.0 IBU-32.5 Color Golden / Lean and focused to express barrel character, hopped with Styrian Golding
Wheat Wine (11.7% ABV) Aged in Bourbon Barrels (2%)
Strong Golden Barley Wine co-fermented with white wine grape juice OG-25P FG-4.3 IBU17 Color Blonde / Strong golden ale, co-fermented with white wine grape juice and hopped with Hallertau Blanc and New Zealand Motucka. A true beer-wine hybrid.
