Every month Peaks and Pints invites a craft brewery to create a three-hour soundtrack off our Jukebox, pour its craft beer and host a specific theme. We call the Monday nights SudsPop. Firestone Walker is our guest brewery this month. At 6 p.m., Firestone Walker will celebrate British pub life with 20-ounce pours of its DBA and Union Jack India Pale Ale and three hours of British pub tunes. We thought we’d offer a sample beer flight of British-themed beers to the mix, including the two Firestone Walker craft beers. Enjoy Craft Beer Crosscut 4.24.17: A Flight of British.
Samuel Smith Organic Raspberry Fruit Beer
5.1% ABV
One of the oldest operating breweries in the world, Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery has been brewing with the same derivative yeast strain in the same stone vats for the last 255 years. They even keep a small team of Shire horses — a breed that traditionally pulled brewery wagons — to deliver beer around its hometown of Tadcaster. But for all this tradition, Samuel Smith is remarkably modern. All but one of its beers are vegan and the brewery has an entire line of organic ales, including its Raspberry Fruit Beer. According to Samuel Smith’s, it’s brewed at the All Saints Brewery in Stamford, England using all manually operated equipment. Barley and wheat are combined to make an ale, fermented and aged for an extended period, then taken to Samuel Smith’s brewery in Tadcaster, England. It is at this stage where they blend in pure fruit juice to create a fruit-forward ale with malt and some bittering hops on the back.
Samuel Smith’s Organic Chocolate Stout
5% ABV, 28 IBU
OK, it’s chocolate time. Samuel Smith’s has always brewed the old-fashioned way and the British operation still pulls water from its original well dug in 1758. Its Organic Chocolate Stout pours dark brown with a thin, khaki head. Breathe in the sweet milk chocolate, roasted malts, chocolate malt balls and a touch of vanilla. It’s velvety and delicious, with creamy chocolate milk, chocolate syrup and cocoa powder dancing on the tongue. Caramel, whipped cream, marshmallows and vanilla try to cut in.
Firestone Walker DBA
5% ABV, 30 IBU
DBA — a.k.a. Double Barrel Ale —is the trailblazing flagship beer that started it all for Firestone Walker Brewing Co. back in 1996. Partially fermented in its patented Firestone Union oak barrel brewing system, DBA stands as an iconic tribute to traditional cask-¬fermented English ales. The hops are toned down to let the malts dance. And dance they do — the waltz. Pale malts create a smooth middle with ribbons of caramel, English toffee and toasted oak. East Kent Goldings hops add sweet bitterness in the finish. It’s balanced well — not too sweet and not too bitter either.
Samuel Smith Yorkshire Stingo
8% ABV, 35 IBU
Some of the oak casks at Samuel Smith’s date back more than a century with the individual oak staves being replaced by the Old Brewery coopers over the years. Gradually the casks soak in more and more of the character of Yorkshire Stingo strong ale fermented in stone Yorkshire squares. Yorkshire Stingo is aged for at least a year, matured in these well-used oak casks in the brewery’s underground cellars deriving fruit, raisin, treacle toffee, Christmas pudding and slight oaky flavors, before being further naturally conditioned in bottle.
Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA
7% ABV, 70 IBU
The name Union Jack is a nod to the colonial origins of the India Pale Ale style, and to the British expatriate who co¬-founded Firestone Walker, David Walker. Union Jack IPA, originator of our “Jack” IPA family, is double dry‐hopped to create bold grapefruit, tangerine and citrus flavors, all contrasted by pale malt sweetness to rein in the intensity. Union Jack is the epitome of hop flavor; hop aroma, balanced malt, and pleasant alcohol working together to produce a symphony of flavor. Union Jack has won every major award conceivable.
