Firestone Walker

After brewing for five years at a small, private facility on a corner of the Firestone Vineyard estate in Santa Barbara County, Firestone Walker recently transitioned to a new brewery in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County. The original brewery, built in 1998 and purchased by Firestone Walker in 2002, featured seven 200-barrel JV Northwest unitanks and a 200 barrel JV Northwest bright beer tank. Firestone Walker added four 150-barrel and three 100-barrel Santa Rosa Stainless tanks to the fermentation program, with a concurrent addition of three bright beer tanks of 85, 120 and 150 barrel capacity. These smaller fermentation vessels bring flexibility to the brewing operation, enabling the brew team to efficiently manage smaller batches of beer in the Firestone Walker tradition.

Firestone Walker’s ales are also selectively fermented in the patented Firestone Union oak barrel brewing system. The Firestone Union incorporates 60-gallon, medium-toast American oak barrels. The portion of beer that is fermented in the Firestone Union is racked to oak barrels 24 hours after pitching (adding yeast to) the unitank. The beer ferments in the oak for one week, after which it is racked and blended back to the unitank.

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