The Best Beers We Had at the 2019 Firestone Walker Invitational
June 3, 2019
With masses of volunteers, sponsors, and media members crowded around the Paso Robles Event Center waiting to enter the 2019 Firestone Walker Invitational, we found ourselves standing by two young men, both dressed for the festival, but conspicuously missing wristbands, lanyards, or anything that would indicate they could gain admission. Someone was asking them if they were in the wrong line– no, they said. They just couldn’t get tickets so they were going to try to swarm their way in during the opening entrance rush. Someone told them there was no way this was going to work. “Hey,” one of the guys said, with a look of desperation on his face. “What do we have to lose?”
To some, the idea of waking up early, getting dressed, putting on sun lotion, and standing among strangers for the exceedingly slim chance of breaking into a beer festival, especially one with meticulous guards standing at every entrance point, may seem like foolishness. To those familiar with Firestone Walker Invitational, your reaction is likely closer to “I get it.” Firestone Walker Invitational is, beer for beer, easily the best beer festival in the state and high on the pile of the best festivals in the country. Tickets sell out in minutes, if not seconds. The breweries are among the best in the world, and the brewers themselves are giving out pours. Want to receive Derivation directly from Cory King, or want pours of Pliny courtesy of Vinnie Cilurzo? If that question geeks you out, you are the target audience for Firestone Walker Invitational.
It’s immaculately run– food, water stations, and shade are plentiful to help keep consumers healthy and upright. Still, the brewery list is such a Who’s Who of the elite of the industry that it can be tempting for attendees to try to rush through or drink too many too quickly. This was our first Firestone Walker Invitational, so we were certainly overwhelmed at first by the bevy of incredible choices at our disposal. We told this to Daniel Drennon from Beer Paper LA, who gave us good advice, telling us to wander around, take our time, and enjoy ourselves at the best beer festival in the world. So instead of trying to elbow through lines for timed Other Half bottle pours or trying to blitz through one series of elite saisons to get to the next, we heeded Daniel’s wisdom and meandered, had great conversations, met some terrific people, and drank more slowly than maybe we would at other festivals.
As a result, we didn’t hit nearly as many tables as perhaps we’d have liked… but we still had an absolutely outstanding time, and we drank a healthy amount of world-class beer. We’ve detailed below the best beers we had at this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational. Undoubtedly nearly every brewery in attendance deserves to be on this list, and if your favorite isn’t in this article, it’s more than likely that we just didn’t get to that table. We’ll try to hit more breweries next time, and we hope to meet you all there in 2020. (Assuming that you have tickets– the gentlemen trying to break in did *not* successfully gain entry, and their strategy is, in our professional opinion, ill-advised.)
One of our first loves since we moved to Southern California, The Bruery is a must-stop any time they’re at a festival— though, to be fair, that label probably applies to most every brewery in attendance at Firestone Walker Invitational. They took home the People’s Choice award for Best Bruery at the festival, and with their bevy of delicious options, it’s no real surprise. Their collaboration with Garage Project, Half a Brain, was a typically delightful sour, a foamy piña colada treat, but the Raspberry Cheesecake Black Tuesday took us aback. It managed to capture that cheesecake flavor without being overly sweet, creating a dessert stout with cream cheese flavor and bourbon heat.
Russell’s from the Southeast and has many friends still living there, so we’d heard plenty about Creature Comforts but hadn’t gotten to try any yet— even Thor got to drink Creature Comforts before we did. Luckily, the Invitational remedied that egregious omission from our beer list. Their Tritonia with Cucumber & Lime gose was a pickle-y treat, but the real winner was the Galactic Space Circus, their IPA. At a festival with many of the best IPA makers in the country, this one emerged as an easy top three IPA at the invitational for us. A showcase for the galaxy hop, it contains oats and a splash of lactose making it ultra smooth and slightly creamy— it’s like the Georgian Other Half. Russell’s friends in Georgia need to quit being so stingy and send us more cans of this, stat.
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to FiftyFifty when we visited Lake Tahoe last fall. The highlight of that trip was their Eclipse flight, a sampler of three different variants of their world-renowned, award-winning Eclipse stout. So when we saw we’d have a chance to drink more Eclipse during the Invitational, it wasn’t 50/50 whether we’d go— we were 100% in. Their Old Conundrum (Aged On Pappy), their Pappy Van Winkle barrel-aged barleywine, was as hefty a glass of life as you’d expect, but the 2018 Cinnamon Nut Bun Eclipse took us back to that back patio in Truckee. If the idea of a top-shelf bourbon barrel imperial stout aged with cinnamon and pecans doesn’t make your mouth water, have a doctor check your tastebuds.
It’s been a while since our travels have taken us to Pisgah National Forest, so we hadn’t encountered Fonta Flora to date. However, their beers were so delicious that they have us checking the prices of flights to North Carolina. The Sedentary Reverence was one of the more impressive stouts of the trip— it’s a collaboration with Perennial Artisan Ales, delivering an elegantly executed imperial with a smidge of ancho chile flavor at the end— but the Freaks the Clips was a festival-wide standout. It’s a mixed culture saison that combines some of the freshest grapefruit taste we’ve ever encountered in a saison with healthy doses of ginger. All praises due to these rural North Carolinian brew wizards.
After winning the People’s Choice Award for best brewery last year, this New Zealand-based operation had, as one may expect, massive lines forming the second the gates opened. For those who braved the elements and waited in the sun to receive Garage Project pours, they were rewarded with rich flavor to soothe their sunburns. The Aro Street— Hapi Sessions Vol. 1, their collaboration with Trillium, was, unsurprisingly, a tropical New England hazy IPA, but it packed a nice dry bite at the end. Most people in line weren’t clamoring for IPAs, though: they wanted the Boysenberry Ripple, a creamy vanilla base beer with a sour boysenberry beer drizzled on top. It may be creamier and sweeter than those expecting “beer” would think, but it was undoubtedly refreshing for the sun-drenched, line-weary masses.
Highland Park Brewery is a frequent haunt of ours in Los Angeles, so we likely didn’t need to swing by this tent… but their beer is so good that it’s hard to ever refuse. They make our favorite pilsners in LA, so after a series of heavy stouts and imperial options at this festival, something like the Timbo Pils, a dry-hopped West Coast pilsner, is an absolute godsend. Their Griffith J. Griffith variants are always dynamite, and the Chocolate, Coconut, and Cinnamon version being poured at the Invitational is absolutely no exception. Yet with all this brilliance, the MVP must be given to the Cold Box Cool Ship, a spontaneously fermented wild ale that is tart, funky, and bright in equal measure. They’ll see us again in their Chinatown taproom very soon.
Emily’s from Chillicothe, a small town in Ohio, so we were overjoyed to find a kindred spirit and fellow Ohio small towner in Seth Morton, the head production brewer at Jackie O’s in Athens. After riding the Buckeye State nostalgia train for a spell, Seth poured us some of Ohio’s finest beer. Gingham is an oak-aged cherry sour that comes across as a subtler, more complex Kriek— which loyal readers would think would be our favorite of this batch. We didn’t count on the Coconut and Vanilla Rum Barrel Oil of Aphrodite, which is their always-terrific Oil of Aphrodite imperial stout conditioned with, as we were told, “a shitload of coconut and a shitload of vanilla.” Not only was that the most effective beer sales pitch of the Invitational, it was also one of the best stouts of the day. Boozy without being overwhelming, rich without being syrupy sweet, and absolutely top shelf. The 740 should be proud.
Look, we realize Monkish doesn’t need us to hype them up here. The can releases lines speak for themselves, the beer trade market speaks for itself, etc. So a beer like Dry in Drums, their triple dry hopped hazy double IPA? Yes, it’s stellar, but you already know that. A beer like Little Twin Stars, their 12% imperial stout, a luxurious coconut-laced motor oil? Yes, it’s stellar too. Again, old news. Instead, attention should be paid to their lighter fare. The Subliminal Sequel is a hoppy Belgian blonde, crisp and refreshing, and the Old Monte Carlo is a downright home run of an unfiltered pilsner— in a just world, these beers are getting just as much attention from buyers as the IPAs and stouts. Finally, the Same Tree is an oak-aged saison with incredibly rich nectarine and peach juice. It’s as if you took the ideal brunch cocktail and kicked up the tartness and funk. Maybe Monkish doesn’t need our hype— be that as it may, we’ll be stunned if Same Tree doesn’t make our best sours of the year list.
We’ve spent considerable time attempting to plan a New England trip for 2019, so we were thrilled to see Oxbow Brewing from Portland, Maine making their way to Paso Robles. Oxbow is a farmhouse brewery whose flagship beer is, appropriately, the Farmhouse Pale Ale. It’s dry, yeasty, and a touch funky— in a festival with a lot of bold, rich flavors, it was refreshing to settle in with something so light and effervescent. The other beer we had at Oxbow was First Fruits, a barrel-aged farmhouse that hits you with smooth and tart raspberry, strawberry, and cherry juice… but it makes sure to include a little bit of that trademark farmhouse funk on the finish. Save us some seats at the bar, Oxbow— we’ll be in Maine soon enough.
We worship at the Altar of Sour, so whenever we encountered anyone from The Rare Barrel all weekend, we spent time geeking out about our love for their tart bombs. The night before the festival, we enjoyed Summer’s Gonna Hurt You at a bottle share— Russell had so much Summer that he was hurting the next morning. It’s your typical Rare Barrel banger: wonderful fruit juice (Masumoto peaches and nectarines in this one) aged to a delightful mouth-puckering sourness. We ate some Tums and went straight back to Rare Barrel at the festival, heading straight for The Kind You Find, another one ((c) DJ Khaled) from these sour alchemists, this one a jammy raspberry warhead. Finally, surprisingly, they had a hazy IPA, Invisible to the Eye, that gave the tropical juiciness of a hazy with a slight sour undercurrent to keep it distinctively Rare Barrel-y.
On the north end of Monterey Bay, in the tiny town of Capitola, Sante Adairius Rustic Ales is producing some of the best beer in California. The two we had at FWIBF were both eye-poppingly good. Family Whistle is a barrel-aged saison with passion fruit, and we were full-blown passionate about this passion fruit. Tart without being an acid bomb, juicy without completely losing some barrel funk on the end, it definitely contends for being the best passion fruit beer we’ve ever had. Yet equal love must be shown to All Mammals Play, their rustic heirloom pilsner. We’re unsure if it’s the *best* pilsner of the Invitational, but it’s definitely on the medal podium. It’s bready, herbal, and hoppy, achieving complexity of flavor without sacrificing the crispness for which pilsners are known. We could genuinely drink these all day, every day.
When we entered the Invitational, our plan was simple: go straight to Side Project. The St. Louis brewery had won back-to-back People’s Choice awards in 2016 and 2017, and its concoctions are among the most acclaimed beers in the country, so we knew the line was going to be absurd. An hour in, the line stretched farther than we could capture in a panoramic photo, so we were grateful we got in early. These were our first experiences with Side Project, and the delivery matches the description— Maltvin, their Evil Twin barleywine collab, is a chocolate maple bourbon bomb, Pulling Nails Blend 9 is a blackberry beauty that played our sour receptors like Victor Wooten does a bass guitar, Saison du Ble Blend 8 is a clean, lighter saison that exceptionally balances the sour with the funk, and the Biere Blanche Blend 2 is a superbly refreshing tart and bubbly barrel-aged wheat. Four beers, four stars each.
Our travels have yet to take us to Indianapolis, but based on our experience at the Sun King tent, we’d definitely start our trip there. They brought a series of beers they’d recently released as their “10-4 Good Buddy” 10th anniversary four-pack, each a different collaboration. The Maximum Overdrive is a collaboration with fellow Indiana brewery 3 Floyds, a full and roasty Baltic Porter, but we preferred the Collaberge, an imperial Brut IPA they cooked up with Austin Beerworks. It’s got the typical dry finish of a Brut, but it boasts some considerable hop punch. We got to enjoy these while chatting with Clay Robinson, co-founder of Sun King— one of the best things about Firestone Walker Invitational is the opportunity to get to know many of the people responsible for the beers you’re drinking. Cheers to Clay and the entire Sun King crew— we hope to come visit in the near future.
Dark Lord Day was two weeks ago, but the demand for Dark Lord obviously hasn’t diminished since then. The 3 Floyds stout remains one of the more frequent answers you get when you ask attendees of the Invitational what beer they’re most eagerly anticipating drinking— it has two previous FWIBF People’s Choice victories under its belt. We got in on it early before the lines got too deep. If you’re trying to determine whether Dark Lord is worth the hype, we’re sure your results may vary, but irrespective of its reputation, it’s certainly a terrific stout: this batch is chocolatey, rich, and a bit smoky in its aftertaste. They were also pouring Canus Invertus, a tart Flemish red that deserves attention from Invitational attendees in its own right… but when we think back upon the best tastes of the festival, we admit that our minds keep bringing us back to that smoky chocolate Dark Lord finish.
Firestone Walker Brewing Company
It’s hard to write enough praise about Firestone Walker for everything about this weekend. They’d deserve effusive praise for how well this Invitational is brought together and executed alone. Yet somehow, on top of that, they also deliver fantastic beers. My favorite Firestone beer of the weekend actually came at their brewery— the 2019 Los Leñadores is an imperial brown ale made in collaboration with Cigar City Brewing, aged in bourbon barrels, with brilliant cinnamon spiciness laced into every sip. They still saved several winners for the festival, including the Violet Underground. This cuvee, made in collaboration with Wild Beer Co, has some terrific berry tartness, but those who dig their beer with a more floral kick will get a big time kick out of the violet petals brewed into the mix here.
And now, a bonus paragraph to give shout outs to our favorite food at the Invitational! We started the day with the roasted mac-and-cheese from Railroad BBQ Co.— while it’s hard to mess up mac-and-cheese, the noodles tasted like they were cooked directly on a smoky grill, and holy cow (BBQ pun?), it’s a fantastic addition. We didn’t get to eat anything from Fish Gaucho, this year’s People’s Choice winner for Best Restaurant, but we were eternally grateful for Eureka!, last year’s winner, for having so many 28-day-aged mini-burgers that, hours after the other restaurant booths ran out of food, they were still dishing out meat to those who desperately needed it. Finally, Leo Leo Gelato— look, after a day of drinking beer in the sun, if someone offers you artisanal gelato, you thank the heavens and say yes. And then you get seconds. And thirds.
What were your favorite beers at this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational? Which tables do we need to hit next year? Were *you* one of the men posing as volunteers who attempted in vain to storm the gates? Please let us know in the comments below. Thanks again to everyone involved– especially all of the organizers at Firestone Walker– and we’ll see you next year!
