2017 Firestone Walker Parabola

I had bottles of '15 and '16 earlier this week and am having a bottle of '17 now. The fresh bottle is coming off significantly hotter than the others, which is to be expected given the freshness and higher ABV. I'm not usually one to shy away from hugely boozy beers, but, yeah, this one really needs the age. FWIW, of the three, I liked the '16 best. Maybe one year is just the magic spot for me.

 

where did you score today?

 

Gleesons in ocean view

 

Thanks, I was hoping it was in North Jersey

 

Damn all you guys with multiple cases. I'll be out there visiting 2 weeks from today and just hoping to be able to get a couple bottles. Of course I'd take more, but with all of the Bruery beer we have to get back I doubt much more than a couple bottles will fit in our bags.

 

Most decent liquor stores have it out here, but if you are visiting the central coast and going to the brewery they usually have an ample supply for about a month after release. With the smaller bottles that supply might last longer.

 

Can you share the recipe? I might give that a shot, just built a brutus!

 

Yeah, arriving at LAX Friday night, and headed straight to the Venice location from the airport since it's so close. Might venture up to the Buellton location if time allows, but primarily sticking around the LA/SD areas.

 

Why are you being so overly defensive? You responded to a comment about the quality of Boulevard's stouts with a negative review of a scotch ale. That's all I was noting.

 

Parabola being brewed by Boulevard with any level of supervision is not the best thing. Firestone walker and boulevard are on different planets in terms of quality.

 

To be fair, I haven't commented at all in regards to the quality of either brewery.

 

Yeah, totally different planets: Boulevard is consistently WAY more available, and MUCH less expensive. I'd put Saison Brett and the Love Child series on par with anything from Barrelworks, and at about 1/2 the $/oz. BBQ, RyeOn, and the Imperial Stout series are awesome, maybe not quite on par with Parabola/Sucaba/Anniversary, but better than Merk/Stickee/etc. I love the 8x12oz variety packs at Total Wine with 4 awesome beers, and they are like $12 total

Meanwhile, on the east coast at least, an account can pray for a case of (6) 12oz bottles in mini cardboard boxes that they'll have to sell for $12 each , and they must load their store up with old/OOD FW hoppy beers to get even that meager allocation.

 

Grabbed 3 bottles today here in the mountains of Colorado for $7.99 each. I asked the manager if he had the price wrong haha

 

That is probably the funniest thing I have read in some time. Sir, thank you for the good laugh!

 

Picked up a case a few days ago, had one last night and I did not notice any difference in quality except that the bottle I had last night was a bit more charred, smoked than I remember having Parabola fresh the last few years. It was also drier than in years past but still a quality brew and I really love the new 12 ounce format.

 

Yeah, not sure of the comment of the guy who refused to buy a $10 bottle because they're not a fan of Boulevard dark beers and it's too risky.

I picked up 4 bottles of Parabola this year. Will probably crack the first one open in a month.

 

Hopefully more of you that haven't had access to this in the past can get some of this. I'll probably upset some of you that don't see a lot of parabola (some have mentioned your honey holes only getting 2-3 cases in your area) but there's a lot of parabola floating around here in Northern CA. I know some Costco's here got several cases at $8/bottle and one of my awesome beer places, who allows you to purchase stuff online and pickup in the store, must've got a shit ton of this. The first week they had it at 6/pp then the next week they got more and upped the limit to 12/pp at $10 ea. Their online inventory simply shows >60 bottles and no specific number when inventory exceeds 60. It still showed that they had some 18 hours later before selling out. Personally I feel like a 12 per person limit seems a bit excessive but really it's just 6 bottles (of last years sized bottles). Does it make u a bad personal to buy the 12/pp max if that's what the limit is? I guess that my original intent here is to say that we've gotten buttloads of this here in my part of Northern California so it is pretty plentiful and I feel people here are more apt to buy more while still leaving plenty on the shelves.

 

I gave my fellow local beer geeks 3 days to buy it all up before I had the urge to buy more. It's both a good and bad thing I suppose. I went to a different place looking for some Fortem. I guess people aren't aware, or dont care, or dont like the price etc. More for me.

Onto some impressions of the actual product. Used to a bomber, I went two deep over a 3 hour period.First was at fridge temps, then sat for an hour, then proceeded to be sipped for another 1.5. Second 12 oz. was truly room temp the entire time. I have yet to have this cold, like so many places tend to serve it at.

It's definitely drinking a bit IBU heavy and boozy up front. I actually catch more flavors in my mouth after I take sips, if that makes sense. Like an overall mouth flavor lol. There is a real nice chocolate and wood char flavor sort of trying to come through. Right now, its really close to technically be called a "hot mess". But I will give this 3-4 months before trying it again, and we'll go from there. Yet I see the beauty under the harsh IBU and booze heat.

I've only ever had it in trades before. But that wow factor didnt seem to resonate here at all. I had a 20 IRS/IS sampling over a course of a week a couple years back and Parabola scored the highest. Before said sampling, and even after that, it scored nearly perfect 5/5. Barrel influence only seems to be here in aroma only in 2017.

Memories can be fuzzy though. I may try to dare myself and others into a KBS/BCBS/BA1050/Lag HW sort of just overall blind tasting. I remember the parabola that I liked the best to have at least 5-6 months on it a couple years back, so I will go check yall in 5-12 months.

 

Love Child number 2 and 3 were incredible.