How Pouring at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beats Winning at World Beer Cup

Walking around the festival grounds on the morning of a Saturday in May, an old question came to mind. Why do small brewing companies from far away take the time to send rare beers and their top talent to the rodeo grounds in the relatively remote town of Paso Robles, California – when that’s the only time they will ever ship their beer to California? How does it benefit them to pour tastes? Can that really be marketing in any logical sense?  

Samu Koskinen, the energetic CEO of Tuju Brewing out of Lappeenranta, Finland, poured the two of us a ruby red glass of Vine, a tasty barrel-aged wild ale made with Haskap Berries. (Nope, we had never heard of the fruit before.) Tuju didn’t bring their best selling beers for two reasons, he told me. First, they are beloved for their hazy IPAs, and they felt it was presumptuous to bring those beers to America. 

But more importantly, they wanted their work to reach the glass in the best possible condition, so they looked to their rarer but more durable barrel-aged stouts and mixed fermentation beers to ship instead. 

When asked about the actual marketing return on spending the travel money, using up rare kegs of special beers and taking the time out from ongoing work to attend, Koskinen said that being at the Invitational is ”huge” –  better for them than winning a medal at the World Beer Cup would ever be.

“Finnish ‘normal’ beer folks don’t really know about American beer competitions, but they sure love to watch us hanging out with all the big breweries at this festival,” he exclaimed. 

Community Habits Become Traditions

For the 13th time, Firestone Walker, the Belgian-backed, California family-run brewery on a highway town in the Central Coast region, proved that they have the recipe for a world-class beer gathering. The host brewery seamlessly provides beer lovers with the enjoyment of top tier tastings and offers elite brewers a most enjoyable (and evidently legitimately business-savvy) chance to connect with brewing peers, fans, and the beer media ecosystem that helps their stories travel.

Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival is, indeed, an invite-only gathering for elite and exciting brewers. The The invited breweries and their attending brewers are selected annually by FW’s “Brewing Wizard,” Matt Brynildson. In addition, the limited availability of tickets most likely contributes to a strong repeat visitor phenomenon. Once you learn to put next year’s ticket sales date on your calendar (and maybe even lock down lodging reservations before then), it becomes a seasonal habit. The fest sold out rapidly again last February. Later some tickets appeared on the secondary market at various prices through the spring months, as original purchasers found out which of their friends would be able to join their party this year.  

For the many patrons to whom FWIBF is a tradition, most of the routine would have felt the same this year. 

Alongside about 70 breweries, the food booths – about 20 of them, as usual – were not to be missed. Because there is ample free food from local restaurants included in the ticket, you discover that people are strategizing about which treats to consume while in the longer lines for the most popular breweries, a few of which had 10 minute lines queued up for a pour. Having a buddy to go forage while in line is crucial. 

The good people at Wild Fields Brewing down the road in Atascadero once again jumped in on the food side of the equation with a veggie bahn mi inspired toast that was light and satisfying. It was worth circling back to later to take advantage of this less filling culinary option. A restaurant called Eureka! out of San Luis Obispo was voted People’s Choice for providing burgers for the second year in a row. 

Land of Lagers 

While IPA is still king at FWIBF, choices of crispy pilsners and other lagers have nearly become ubiquitous among the brewers attending. Firestone Walker has been in the news this spring for scooping up – maybe rescuing – both the Stone and Trumer Pils brands and beers. Trumer was invited year after year – and became the only brewery that brought only a single beer to the festival. Pils like you’d drink in Austria was all they made, for years. Matt Brynildson was an admirer of Trumer long before he created FW’s influential Pivo Pils. He told us he has been working with Trumer brewer Lars Larson to painstakingly flavor-match at the FW brewery. While some had expressed hope via social media that there would be an example to try at the festival, the good but not yet identical batches did not show up for the fest. Perfecting old world pilsners takes time. 

With international darlings like Garage Project and Omnipollo attending, there was certain to be some beer high jinx such as slushies. FW provided an alternative for those who craved a frozen treat but were not up for the long lines. They put their own fruit beer line, Cali Squeeze, into a slurpable icy format over in the area where the beer education panels used to take place. 

The live bands performing in the stockade arena area continued the tradition of shifting the energy over there for final beers at the last hour of the fest as most brewers ran out of beer and cleared out from their booths. Onstage, the People’s Choice brewery award was awarded to first-time invitee Everywhere Beer Co. We have been a fan of co-founder Jeremy Grinkey for years, since he moved from a career in winemaking into the sour program at the Bruery in 2014, and eventually co-founded Everywhere in Orange, CA.  This year they wowed attendees with tiki bar decor and cocktail-inspired concoctions including craft seltzers with extravagant garnishes. 

Their playful presence won many hearts. When the win was announced, someone behind us in the crowd said, “I mean duh, Everywhere’s the LA cool-kid favorite this year.” Yet another way one learns by traveling to such a festival.

Bay Area and other Northern California breweries pouring fabulous beers included Cellarmaker, Ghost Town, Alvarado Street, Faction, Humble Sea, Russian River, Sierra Nevada and Urban Roots. It was wonderful to say hello, and they all clearly delighted the crowds with their best, but we mostly saved our alcohol intake for the breweries we don’t know well.

The FWIBF Partnership with Beer Media People

Last year the two of us wrote “The West’s Best Beer Fest: Firestone Walker Invitational,“ a piece for the Alcohol Professor detailing the various business and community functions this event performs in the overlapping local and beer enthusiast communities that attend it. We looked at the benefits to attendees, visiting brewers, the local history charity, the town of Paso Robles and FW itself. But beyond the dynamics of that story, there has been one additional benefit that has kept us coming back for years now. That has been the “All Access” support for beer media. 

FWIBF has always been exceptionally hospitable and helpful to beer writers. For many years the hosts have hosted a generous welcome buffet where beer journalists can check in and socialize with once another. They have invited the media to the brewers and sponsors’ barbecue and to the “backstage” campground where many of the brewers stay in RVs. And they have taken the time to offer a detailed annual facilities tour of their massive brewery to journalists, usually led by Walker or Brynildson.

On a personal note, for the two of us, FWIBF has been a source of friendships and deep personal learning since year one, in 2012. In 2017 it led us to begin researching our first full-length feature for Beer Advocate Magazine.

For the first few years we came with Bay Area breweries and worked the booths, pouring and in one case being “loaned” to another brewery that needed help. (Brian Hunt of Moonlight was not taking many breaks that year but when he slipped away to see Yvan de Baets at the De La Senne booth, he discovered that the influential Belgian brewer was pouring solo and not taking any breaks to try other beers or meet other brewers.  So Brian came back and sent Gail over to pour for De La Senne.)  

This year, Steve stopped to say hello to Agostino Arioli, by that time in the afternoon pouring solo at the Birrificio Italiano station. Steve quickly stepped in to help pour side-by-side for half an hour. The original “Italian Pilsner” had once again spawned a magnificent line of thirsty people and a need for action.

For us, the festival is a community reunion. We make the pilgrimage to attend FWIBF both to catch up with FW and to meet other American and international brewers as we look for exciting stories to tell over the following year. As usual, we split up to explore the fest, then got back together several times over the afternoon, looking around together in gratitude for this annual opportunity to catch up with brewers and our fellow beer journalists. To all the brewers we know but didn’t catch up with, may our paths cross again soon

Meanwhile, festival patrons all around us were delighting in the main attractions: phenomenal beers paired with good food and live music. No fest is quite like this one.

— Gail Ann Williams and Steve Shapiro

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