Forgive me; there is simply no space for me to include a cute introduction here—because I have a festival weekend to recap: In early June, I went to the 2023 Firestone Walker Invitational beer festival, as I have every year for more than a decade (save the two years it wasn’t held thanks to COVID-19).
My good friend Jose and I made the exceedingly boring drive through the Central Valley to Paso Robles and pulled straight into Firestone Walker. Firestone had been kind enough to invite me to the fest again, and the invite included an afternoon barbecue, a rare beer tasting for their Brewmaster’s Collective beer club, a swag bag and a tour led by Nick Firestone, the current COO of Firestone Walker Brewing Company (and son of co-founder Adam Firestone). I won’t recount it step by step as I did when co-founder David Walker conducted the tour in 2019, but there were a few new things of note this time around.
For starters, we went off-roading: Behind the brewery, just past the train tracks running parallel to Highway 101, are the water-treatment and solar-farm areas. The theme of the tour was sustainability, and the ducks swimming in the treatment areas were a good sign. The brewhouse has a centrifuge dedicated to separating out the yeast from fermented beer for use in later batches, and a jacketed pipe that leads from the top of the brew kettle captures heat to heat up the water for the next batch. Firestone also uses a process called “wet milling” which conserves grain. Additionally, they are in the process of installing a Pentair system to recover carbon dioxide, which would mean they don’t have to buy as much (which is a good thing, seeing as carbon dioxide is often harvested through a process that involves petroleum). They don’t just talk a good game at Firestone; they mean it.
Of course, I was really there for the festival. My VIP ticket allowed me to enter an hour early. This can be dangerous, but I had a plan: An aspect of the fest that’s not to be overlooked is the food. Firestone invites local eateries, cheesemakers and chocolatiers to put their talents to work—and when you are imbibing a larger-than-normal amount of beer, attendees should take advantage of this fact.
But first, I pushed past an already long line for Russian River, and an even longer one for New Zealand’s Garage Project. (The Garage Project is known to return festival-goers for out-of-the-ordinary yet tasty beers; this year’s gimmick was a “peanut butter miso and raspberry sour layered stout,” according to the insane description.) My goal was to find Liquid Gravity, out of San Luis Obispo, and try their Really Sketch Vibes IPA as my first pour. It’s a tasty, citrusy beer—and it offered a great start. While nobody was at the booth, I tried WeldWerks’ Colorado Ale, which on a sunny, warm day was a welcome, crisp and light. I found the same situation at another favorite of mine, Cellarmaker, where I tried the gorgeous Maximum Joy IPA, offering a brilliant mix of American and New Zealand hops. I knew I’d be back (I later returned to try their Imperial Coffee & Cigarettes smoked coffee stout), so I kept moving, grabbing a pulled-pork slider with a small cup of jalapeño macaroni and cheese from Side Street Ale House. I enjoyed the food on a nearby bench as I scouted my next move.
Wildflower Brewing, from Marrickville, Australia (part of greater Sydney), was the discovery of this year’s festival. Co-founded by two brothers-in-law, Topher Boehm and Chris Allen, Wildflower is largely interested in nuanced mixed-fermentation beers using select local ingredients. This includes using the yeast and bacteria from local wild flora to inoculate their brews, creating unique tasting experiences. I spoke with Boehm about what he does while trying four beers over the course of about 15 minutes. First was a brilliant organic table beer, 2.9% alcohol by volume, that used Motueka hops from New Zealand; it had a lot of flavor for a small beer. Next was Village 2022. Boehm proceeded to talk about this collaboration with Mountain Culture Beer Co. in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney, where they used ingredients entirely grown in Australia, then let the wort cool in a copper coolship, before using ambient microfauna to ferment and help flavor the final beer, which was finished in oak. Then I tried Hive: Post Brood, which was so unique and involved that I’m just going to link a description to it; I’ll do the same for the final beer I tried, Jaune d’or. This was all in the first 30 minutes of the festival!
I can best summarize the rest of the festival in one word: LAGERS, so many delicious, crisp lagers in varied styles, from breweries including Beachwood, Cloudburst, Mahrs Brau (from Germany), Bagby Beer Co (which also had a killer English-style bitter), Heater Allen and Gigantic (with an excellent kölsch; OK, it’s not technically a lager, but it drinks like one). Finally, Green Cheek offered a delicious hoppy rye pilsner, which was the People’s Choice winner at the fest and a column favorite. I am overjoyed to see all these lagers, and I hope this trend completely blows up and continues long-term.
This year might have been the most consistently enjoyable Firestone Walker Invitational for me; I don’t remember a single beer that was below a 7 on a scale of 1-10. While my beer experience peaked in the first half of the first hour of the festival, I had a great time throughout.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: I will attend the festival every year as long as it is possible for me to do so. Thank you, Firestone; I needed that.