Firestone Walker Parabola

Brewed by Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial Stout
Paso Robles, California USA

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: DEC 27, 2008 Pours deep brown with a thick pancake colored head. Full nose of chocolate, coffee, roasted malt, vanilla, bourbon. The flavor was quite the same with quite a bit of heat thrown in for good measure. Creamy mouthfeel and lasting oak finish.

FoBAB 08. Pour lkack with a brown head The aroma is light toast with plenty of chocolate and fruit. Well balanced bourbon, oak, and chocolate. Oily and sweet.

UPDATED: MAY 28, 2010 Resampled on draft at TAPS Petaluma during their release party. Much smoother and far less coffee-tinged / burnt bitterness than the batch I remember. Possible much improved. Are we allowed to say that on Ratebeer? 7.5.8.4.14=3.8

Draft @ Bistro BA Fest. Pours a very dense, chocolate-brown color; light tan head with excellent retention and mixed-bubbled lacing; great, foamy pour. Solid amounts of bitter chocolate, burnt coffee, and charred malts in the aroma; a touch hollow in the middle. Full, dense mouthfeel: loads of bitter coffee grounds, intensely dense bitter chocolate; heavily roasted and burnt and mouthcoating; a touch overly heavy and viscous throughout; tons of coffee. Lengthy finish: dark chocolate, coffee, and roasted malts out the wazoo; nothing close to delicate. 7.5.6.3.12=3.3

2008 Bistro Barrel Aged Fest. Dark brown, smooth, creamy, chocolate, malty, dark fruits, little oats, little boubon, little wood.

Draft at the XII release in Paso Robles. Extremely dark pour, chocolate head. Great chocolatly aroma. This tasted like heaven, rick dark fruits and malts, just extraordinary. Wish this was bottled.

GABF 08. A beast of a beer...but not overdone. The lush mouthfeel make this stand out . . . all the epic flavors you would imagine from a 10 month barrel stint. I’m a sucker for these....

UPDATED: APR 17, 2010 Draft at EBF 07. Pours a dark brown body with a tan head. Bourbon oatmeal with chocolate and notes of dark fruit. A bit creamy and enjoyable but not worth another sample. Good brew. 3.7 Draft at SD. Pours a black body whit a tan head. Dark chewy chocolate tones, dutch chocolate. Sweet and malty with some vanilla and coco notes. a modest warming creamy with vanilla and dark fruit. Really nice. 4.1

tried this beer at both the real ale festival and at beachwood bbq last night.....sooo fucking good...great interplay of bourbon and roasted malt flavors.....wish there was more

GABF 2007. Oily in the glass without much head at all, just tracings of foam on top. Oily roasty smell with hop oils and a little bit of malt sweetness apparent. Nicely sweet in the mouth with the roast emerging late and only on the sides of the mouth, the sweetness is like confectioner’s sugar, slightly vanilla. The finish starts with the roastiness in the malts, then the hops emerge and make it chewy, ultimately settling into an acrid bitter burn that was a bit off. The hops are more apparent in this than other impy stouts I’ve had, which makes it nicely unique.

UPDATED: AUG 11, 2011 Bottle. Head is initially small, frothy, brown, mostly diminishing. Body is opaque black (flashlight tested). Aroma is moderately to heavily malty (chocolate, caramel, nuts, roasted grain), with notes of alcohol, vanilla, whiskey, wood, sherry. Flavor is heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Full body, creamy/syrupy texture, soft carbonation, heavily alcoholic. Pleasant but somewhat ordinary aroma that’s bursting with alcohol. Combination of bitterness and alcohol keep the massive sweetness from being too oppressive. Too boozy for its own good, but if you can get past that it’s reasonably elegant underneath.