Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest 2015

Could not be more excited. I'm definitely down for a meet up in the festival and/or bottle shares.

 

Wild Saison? I have high hopes.

 

Are breweries allowed to sell anything (bottles, merchandise) at this event? I would assume "no" on the bottles, but yes on everything else if they so choose. Correct?

 

I don't remember seeing anything but festival merchandise last year.

Edit: Actually nm, there were some brewery specific shirts and hoodies available

 

So is this collab for sale at the festival, included w/ tickets or what?

 

Last year available for purchase at the brewery starting Saturday

 

Everyone gets a ticket for one taste of the collaboration beer (from 11-12 before fest begins), then bottles will go on sale Sunday, the 31st at the brewery.

 

Last year there was a merch booth that sold various brewery shirts and hats. No bottles of course.

Ticket for a taste, and bottles sold starting Saturday.

 

Just canceled two rooms at the Motel 6 for Saturday night if anybody needs one.

 

More info on the collab from Firestone's press release. Looks like they'll be sold in 2-packs and it is in favt a sour saison

"Multiple versions of the same collaborative dark saison wild ale—called La Piccola—will be unveiled at the 2015 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest on May 30, capping off a year of cross-continental brewing hijinks between brewmasters Agostino Arioli of Birrificio Italiano and Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker Brewing Company.

“With most collaborations, you start the beer together at one brewery, and it gets finished there, resulting in one beer,” Brynildson said. “Agostino and I decided to do something different. We sat down and designed the recipe together, then went back to our respective breweries to brew them on our own. We’ve been emailing back and forth for a year now, trying to replicate what the other was doing.”

It all started at last year’s beer fest, when Arioli and Brynildson hatched their plan to brew a dark saison that would be made with debittered black malt, then soured via secondary fermentation and aged in barrels—and also spiced up with an unlikely twist.

“Like many Italians, Agostino is a true gourmet, and he takes a chef’s approach to brewing,” Brynildson said. “He’s really into exotic spices and he wanted to play around with these Sichuan peppercorns, which are really weird and unique. We had to contact a spice hunter in Italy to get our hands on them.”

After Brynildson brewed his base version of La Piccola, he sent it down to barrelmeisters Jeffers Richardson and Jim Crooks at Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks wild ale facility, where they initiated secondary fermentation and maturation for 12 months in French oak barrels.

In the end, they decided to create one version with the peppercorns (La Piccola Pepe Di Sichuan) and one without (La Piccola Virtuosa). Meanwhile, Arioli is finishing up his own La Piccola made with the peppercorns. All three beers will be first presented at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest on May 30 in Paso Robles. Bottles of the California-brewed beers are limited to 250 cases each, and two-packs will be available for purchase at the Paso Robles brewery and Barrelworks in Buellton starting at 3 p.m. on May 30.

The base beer was brewed with the same Belgian yeast used to make Firestone Walker’s Opal saison, giving it classic fruit and spice notes. The debittered black malt provided dark color without assertive bitterness. The souring and barrel aging layered in just the right amount of earthy funk. And the peppercorn version presents its own distinctive qualities.

“The Sichuan peppercorns are pretty intense,” Brynildson said. “If you pop one in your mouth, your face goes numb. In the beer, it adds black pepper and lemon zest notes, and it also gives this subtle tingle on the tongue.”

He added, “I can’t wait to try Agostino’s version. It will be fascinating to compare and contrast the final results between the same beer made separately in California and Italy.”

 

Wait, what? So on sale while we're all getting blitzed?

 

Are you worried that a dark saison is going to sell out quickly?

 

Who knows? Anyway "it adds black pepper and lemon zest notes" that in a sour saison can be something really spectacular.

 

The amount of folks at the event + it being split with Barrelworks, it would have made more sense to offer it for sale either on Friday or Sunday at both locations. Or at the very least before the event or with enough time after.

 

On FB they said: "It won't sell out immediately, we did the same thing last year. You can pick up after the Fest or the next day."

 

Yeah, exactly this. It wasn't an issue last year, and I can't see it being different this year. Last year bottles lasted for about a week I think?

 

250 cases is 3000 2-packs? There's what, 5000 people at the festival tops? And it's not like it's a fruited saison where the style sells itself. It should last a while.

 

I think last year was a different animal than this year. Were there limits last year? If this is open to the public, and no limits, and at both locations, I could see this selling out Saturday.

 

Six bottle limit last year and open to the public. This won't sellout.

 

This post says Sunday. Their FB post says Saturday.