Anticipation for the next Firestone Walker barrel release.

Saucer o' secrets!

but i guess that is higly unlikely due to the change to quad of stickee monkee. maybe they will change saucer of secrets to central coast english bwine

helldorado would be cool

 

The beers mentioned, ex. Stickee Monkee, DDBA, Velvet Merkin, and the Brettas are on a completely different level than Union Jack.

Don't let a couple entry level brews sum up an entire, very highly regarded brewery. If you can get your hands on some Ol Leghorn do so. It will change your mind.

 

We just got 2 week old Union Jack in DFW and it is delicious.

 

I have it on very good authority that Parabajava will get a limited release this year.

 

Union Jack is a perfect representation of an English IPA. Unless you got an old bottle, I'll go out on a limb and say you probably don't like those or at least its not what your used to. Thinking back to your thread on how much you loved FFF beers, you seem to like the much more pungent and piney/citrus flavors of American hops in American style Pale Ales/IPA's.

Just because you don't like something doesn't make it overrated. It might take a bit but its important to be able to tell the difference between a beer that was made well and one that was poorly executed regardless of whether or not you enjoy it.

I think a brewery's "entry level" beers tell you a lot more about them than their limited/barrel age/ones offs do.

 

I hope so, so much that you are right.

 

I've heard this as well, in particular that it will be part of a limited four pack style box of 22's that will likely be Union Jack, double jack and wookie jack. The java would be the fourth bottle and you would have to buy the four pack.

 

That would awesome. The only reason I've discounted Parabjava and Winter Wookey is because they are simply variations on existing beers. Winter Wookey is new and is a blend of both Wookey Jack (available in bombers) and DDBA (cardboard bombers and just discontinued). Parabjava is just the coffee variant of Parabola. So, they would have to double or triple Parabola production to do both releases (regular and coffee), to equal the lost amount of beer that used to be DDBA (I only say triple, because I don't know the production size of DDBA, which always seemed to exist in greater quantities; however that could be due to the lack of hype for it, but all of the normal cardboard releases seem to have the same footprint or are supposed to). I love Parabola, but if it means splitting up the regular Parabola production into regular and coffee, then I'm against it (but that likely isn't the case, since they will have more time now since DDBA is gone). They need to bring their draft-only barrel stuff to Max's for a festival or brewery event.

Kind of like what Stone is doing with their early release bomber packs, except this would have a limited beer in it (like some brewery variety packs already do). That is awesome and would likely ensure freshness (assuming the state would get it on time, which is unlikely here in MD). However, I would hope that they would switch out the Union Jack for Opal, and basically make it into a Proprietors Reserve Pack, since MD is apparently not getting Opal (or Easy Jack or Pivo Pils). I think MD only gets Reserve (no Opal), Vintage, Union Jack, and Velvet Merlin.


p.s. Are they ceasing production of DDBA altogether or just not bottling it anymore?

 

I chatted with Matt Brynildson real quick at the BCAA event in Chico last Saturday.. I said that i was disappointed they killed off DDBA, he reply was that the replacement will be worth the wait... So no real info...

 

Why must they replace DDBA with another beer? They've released two new BA beers in bottles this year, they could just keep making those instead.

That being said Helldorado does sound interesting, but I'm perpetually wary of any "American barleywine" aged in whiskey barrels. I've had too many bad experiences with clashing hop-barrel messes.

Firestone variously describes Stickee Monkee as a quad (on the bottle) and an English barleywine (on some parts of their website). It's made with British ale yeast and looks like a stout, I think we can stop calling it a quad. Belgian my rubbery ass.

 

He has never given me bad info yet and he told me just taking a break til it will come back for 2017

 

Sweet. Good news all around then. However, I wonder if they put Parabjava in 22oz. mixed 4-packs, would that equate to one less cardboard box release. It is still a rise in overall money spent on FW bombers, since I will want that 4-pack and it will be quite expensive with something like Parabjava in there ($17 for Parabola around here, and $6 for Walker's Reserve [discontinued but relevant price point for regular YR FW bombers], so $18 for 3 regular bombers, comes to a mixed pack price of $35, but hopefully under $40 when everything is taken into account). I guess it could be from $8 to $10 a bottle, or like $0.50 an oz.

If it doesn't mean one less cardboard box release, then that would mean we are seeing 2 more barrel beers from them (which seems unlikely but possible). If there are 2, then that would mean that the Parabola batch is split (making both the carboard release and mixed packs even harder to acquire), or Parabola is doubled, allowing equal amounts of Parabola and Parabjava mixed packs (unlikely, because that would be a huge undertaking and involve brewing equal amounts of the other beers to go into just these mixed packs).

I might be thinking about it all wrong or just over-thinking, but Parabjava being in the mix just seems to make all both forms of Parabola even more rare. That is why I think it would be easier for them to just release a different barrel beer (easier on all of us and gives us more variety, depending on the style of the release).

FW just seems to be doing a ton of stuff and making a lot of changes (nothing bad unless you were a big fan of the recently discontinued beers). I mean they are doing Barrelworks (brewery-only, or at least for the most part), change of labels, and mixing up their beer portfolio. I am just wondering if they have the capacity for all this stuff or if some of them will get short-changed, since I haven't heard anything about expansions from them. I don't know how they do all this stuff, especially with so many barrels (I think they got a new barrel room, or was that just Stone?). They truly are world-class.

 

They just bought the storage unit next door, they will be expanding again and doubling production.

 

You know what this means though, right? Cue next year's cries of "It was better before they expanded!"

 

Union Jack is definitely not an English IPA. There were tons of cascade and chinook hops. My biggest problem with it was that it left a lingering hop aftertaste at the back of my tongue that I didn't much enjoy. Can't say it was well-balanced either, IMO. Rather have Stone.

 

I personally can't stand any of the Jacks. And boy have I have been trying to like them lately.

 

What does this have to do with the OP's thread? The thread is about FW's next barrel aged release and you're complaining about some IPAs that you didn't like?

 

It's all about me, bra. Plus my parents think I'm great. Anndd I'm drunk, therefore it's totally cool. Besides, who doesn't base their entire opinion on a brewery on two beers? Why would I revisit that brewery after having two beers from them I didn't like? I mean, IPAs always taste the same, no matter how old, so there's that. Maybe I'm just a troll. Maybe I'm someone who the minor characters in Parks & Rec were based off of. I don't know, bra.

 

From a previous thread discussing the last release of DDBA someone posted a FW rep stated Helldorado will be the new release. But we all know how shaky that info is. I would love to see Helldorado so I hope it's true.

 

Oh man, fresh assortment of Jacks AND Parabajava? SOLD