Beer Wednesday: Solace by Firestone Walker

There is a new seasonal beer out from Firestone Walker called Solace. Firestone Walker is the maker of my favorite pale ale, their Pale 31. I was excited to see that the Solace is another light style, which they describe as a hefeweizen-saison fusion of styles.

Beer Wednesday: El Camino (un)Real Black Ale by Stone, Firestone Walker, and 21st Amendment

The El Camino (un)Real Black Ale is another collaboration effort initiated by Stone Brewing and featuring Firestone Walker and 21st Amendment. (We previously sampled this as an adjunct to the FIWK IPA Tasting.) One of Stone's previous collaborative beers, the Kona Coffee Macadamia Nut Porter, was a delicious product of their team-up with Kona Brewing and a Hawai'i homebrewer. Much like that beer, the El Camino has a particular mission in mind. It seeks to use local flora found along the historic El Camino Real in California and create a unique black ale. They achieved their goal.

Beer Wednesday: The FIWK IPA Tasting

Towards the end of April, Aaron came down to LA. We decided to celebrate this occasion by assembling a crew and drinking some beers. Aaron loves IPAs so we focused the tasting mainly around those. Here is the list:

IPAs
- Longhammer IPA by Redhook (6.5% ABV)
- Blind Pig IPA by Russian River (6.1%)
- Pliny the Elder IPA by Russian River (8%)
- Torpedo IPA by Sierra Nevada (7.2%)
- Hop Ottin' IPA (organic) by Anderson Valley (7%)
- Big Daddy IPA by Speakeasy (6.5%)
- Ruination IPA by Stone (7.7%)


Non-IPAs
- Noble Pilsner by Sam Adams (5%?)
- McGarvey's Scottish Ale by Left Coast (5%)
- El Camino (Un)Real Black Ale by Stone, Firestone Walker, and 21st Amendment (9.5%)
- Red & White Ale by Dogfish Head (10%)
- Victory at Sea Vanilla Coffee Imperial Porter by Ballast Point (10%)


Pictures are forthcoming. Feel free to add your comments in the meantime, especially if you've had these beers before.