For over a decade now, Firestone Walker has provided a formidable number of barrel-aged beers as a part of its Proprietor’s Classic Collection, and all of these brews had been obtainable solely in glass bottles. However not anymore. For 2022, the California-based brewery has launched its first-ever canned Classic beer, Parabolita. Because the title suggests, this beer is constructed round Firestone’s beloved Parabola, which aged for one yr in ex-bourbon barrels earlier than being married with a portion of Velvet Merkin milk stout and infused with Madagascar vanilla beans, cocoa nib, and sea salt. Let’s pop the tab on this one and test it out.
The beer pours a attribute pitch black however with a extra beneficiant, coffee-hued head than I’ve encountered in most bottled Proprietor’s releases. All that carbonation recedes in time to disclose a decadent aroma dripping with notes of fudgy darkish chocolate, chewy caramel, sticky vanilla bean, and a kiss of sea salt. True to its title, this factor smells precisely like a salt-topped, chocolate-covered caramel, recent out of the flamboyant field. The palate is much less wealthy than the nostril suggests, which might be for one of the best, with the Velvet Merkin clearly including texture to the physique but additionally serving to to reduce the booze. It’s creamy with a malty chunk on the entrance of the palate that properly enhances notes of darkish baking chocolate, cocoa, and buttery caramel as they evolve throughout the sip. The end is gentle however lingers with a little bit of café au lait, consuming chocolate, and chicory. I’ve by no means argued that Firestone Walker’s barrel-aged beers are too boozy, however lots of them toe that line with impunity. Parabolita, nevertheless, is about as balanced a dessert stout as you’ll discover, providing barrel-aged brew followers a lot to like even on the barely decrease abv. Whereas the can makes for simpler transport (and shotgunning, if that’s your factor), the actual promoting level right here must be the additional 4 ounces you’re getting over the bottled choices.
9.6% abv.
A / $7 per 16 oz. can / firestonebeer.com
Firestone Walker Parabolita
$7
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