Bottoms Up

It’s true. ‘96 was a vintage year in craft brewing. It was too soon to tell, but the industry was climbing out of the doldrums and crashes that marked the early to mid-90s.

Three of those 1996 startups, two brewers, Firestone Walker, Paso Robles, CA. and Stone Brewing, Escondido, CA, and contract brewer Schmaltz, San Francisco, have released “11″ specials this fall.

I wrote about Shmaltz Brewing’s Jewbilation 11*** in my column and I’ll post it here when it comes out tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007.

Here’s a look at Firestone Walker 11 and Stone Brewing XI.

Firestone Walker started in 1996 in barrel warehouse on the Firestone Vineyard estate in the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara, then moved to Paso Robles a few years later. Yes, there’s a link to Firestone Tires. Read all about it here, in an article I wrote for Northwest Brewing News in 2003.

Anyway, FW has won tons of awards from Day One and Parabola Imperial Oatmeal Stout, one of the beers that make up 11, won the People’s Choice Award a few weeks ago at the West Coast Barrel-Aged Beer Festival at the Bistro in Hayward, CA.

Matt Brynildson, head brewer for Firestone Walker, explains “11″ is a blend of 11 different oak-aged beers, some aged as long as 18 months.
“We conduct an oak aging program that has expanded to about 100 barrels,” Brynildson says. “We get a ton of really complex, interesting flavors.”
Last year, a committee of wine makers helped Brynildson decide the blend for 10, the 10th anniversary predecessor. It was a bit of a tower of Babel, apparently _ with opinions ranging across the map.

This year, Brynildson asked two prize-winning winemakers, Matt Trevisan of Linne Calodo Winery and Larry Gomez of Via Vega Vineyard and Winery to help choose the final blend for 11, drawing on their palates and expertise. Brynildson says he’s learned a lot about vocabulary, about taste.

The result is a real wowie. Eleven**** is a deep brown, almost no highlights. High alcohol, 11 percent ABV, there’s very little foam. But the nose is, well intoxicating: Malt sweetness, bourbon, wood, oak, vanilla.

Taste begins sweet, a couple of different levels of malt complexity blended with the heat from the alcohol, then the taste of bourbon, which lingers on the tongue. It’s most unusual, one to savor from a brandy snifter, perhaps. Although, I used a Duvel glass, which is tuilip shaped, beer sized, concentrates the aroma and displays the beer nicely.

Stone XI***/**** is another study in complexity, although not nearly so extreme as FW 11. It’s 8.7 percent and head brewer Mitch Steele calls it a “black India Pale Ale.” Released in September, this beer will still taste great years from now.

It’s a dark brown beer, but lively, with a big head of lasting tan foam, surprising hoppy nose. There’s some sweetness, but the overall taste is dry with notes of vanilla and roast malt. Those hops – we’re talking aroma, not bitterness, last and last. A wonderful beer. Both are well-worth a hunt.

Don’t worry that XI was released in September. It’s strong enough to last a long while.