4th Stop-Firestone Walker Brewery

As promised, we stopped at the FWBC brewery and were treated to an impromptu tour.

It was the tourguide's first tour, but she did a fine job. In reality we interrupted so often she never had a chance to get in the flow.

Firestone uses a patented oak barrel fermentation system unique to them, at least in the US. They have also been increasing production in the past few years, up to 60,000 barrels last year (for some perspective Stone was at 90,000 and Sierra Nevada 5 times that). They are considered a "medium size" brewery.

We also learned a bit more of their history. Firestone is the family name (also responsible for Firestone Tires and Firestone Vineyards). A Firestone son teamed with a brother-in-law, David Walker, in 1996, and started the brewery. They actually ran into a lot of difficulty in the early years but invited head brewmaster Matt onboard soon after and have had success ever since, winning multiple awards in recent years.

We also met a friend at the brewery. Our second friend drop-by (the first was Jason's brother Jon at Eagle Eock). It was a nice stop.

After scoring a few palates for firewood and hitting up Trader Joe's for some dinner grub, we are off to Big Sur.

Location:S Vine St,Paso Robles,United States