Beer Spotlight!
Firestone Walker Proprietor’s Vintage Series: 2024 Parabola
$10.99 for the 12oz bottle
Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
Look who walked in the door to pay us another visit!
It’s Parabola time! The legendary Bourbon Barrel-aged Stout from Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles, CA returns!
Though in previous years, Firestone Walker has aged its stout in different barrels, for 2024, they have opted to focus. This year’s imperial stout has spent 12 months in 12-year-old Elijah Craig Bourbon barrels from Bardstown, KY.
In Georgetown, KY, in 1789, Orange County native (yes, our Orange County) the Reverend Elijah Craig was the first distiller to age his whiskey not just in new oak barrels but in charred oak barrels — a move that has earned him the name (at least according to the distillery that holds it) “the Father of Bourbon.”
Of course, in 1789 Kentucky, a reverend and businessman who built the town’s first paper mill and wool mill didn’t tend to his distilling himself. He had people to do that — that is to say, he held captive forced laborers. However, here’s what today’s distillers have to say about their brewery’s history …
“Elijah Craig was an enslaver, relying upon enslaved people to run his distilling and broader business operations. Uncovering the identities and roles of these laborers, how they contributed to the birth of the Bourbon industry and the legacy their families left is a critical mission of our brand today. Elijah Craig is actively engaged in academic research with the University of Kentucky's Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies and Central Kentucky Slavery Initiative, as well as other initiatives, to not only share a more transparent and inclusive account of our past, but to also make America today a more just and equitable country.” - Elijah Craig Bourbon
Where such efforts, of course, don’t translate into the quality of the bourbon nor its barrels, they’re admirable enough to be worth a mention (if not kudos). In any case, Elijah Craig barrels are coveted among brewers, and Firestone Walker is pleased to be able to use them for the cuddle into a rich, warm, bourbon-tinged blanket that is the 2024 Parabola.