Tag: firestone walker

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

Firestone Walker’s Brewmasters Collective isn’t cheap. For a shade under $400, you get an exclusive membership in a tight knit club, discounts on purchases online and at the brewery, access to a rare beer library and — and most importantly for my purposes, a quarterly beer shipment straight to your home.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m not a Brewmasters Collective member. But the brewery occasionally surprises me with deliveries out of nowhere because I am living inside some kind of glorious coma dream as my family worries around me, furious I left no will. So around last November, this showed up at my door (after I signed for it and proved I am, in fact, a grown up).

At the risk of turning into a character from an insurance commercial, it’s a really nice box! I kept it! I’m gonna put stuff in it!

Here’s what was inside:

Five unique, boozy beers (well, four and a barleywine), a couple of boxes of curated cookies and a spiffy brochure explaining the contents and what other perks come with membership. There’s no doubt a lot of thought has gone into this subscription crate. And since it’s Firestone Walker, it’s a near certainty these beers are going to be good.

Let’s see if they’re $99.25 good.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

I do not know you, dear reader, but I know this much about you; you deserve to drink something better than Corona on Cinco de Mayo.

The most popular Mexican beer in America is a bland bottle of nothing. It requires fresh citrus just to register on your taste buds. It’s so inoffensive you can pour a tiny bottle of it into a margarita and not affect the core taste.

Corona is, in layman’s terms, butt.

But there are several Mexican lagers that are not. Today we’re gonna try a new one.

Firestone Walker, out of California, has an entrenched place in the craft beer landscape thanks to its hop-heavy (and incredibly drinkable) pale ales. That made its newest venture, 805 Cerveza, a proper fit not only for a review but one that happens to fall on Cinco de Mayo. The Mexican lager is spun off from the brewer’s 805 imprint, a blonde ale crafted in honor of the company’s west coast roots (and area code). It’s a light lager with lime involved, clocking in at 4.5 percent ABV and 110 calories.

Of course, there are concerns. Firestone Walker is an American brewery. While they can recreate that cerveza style, drinking their beer isn’t supporting a Mexican company on the day Americans choose to celebrate our neighbor to the south. If you’re looking for a great, authentic brew from Mexico there are several proper options. My tastes are pretty basic since Mexican lagers aren’t my favorite and I live in Wisconsin, but I’m always down for a Pacifica or an Estrella Jalisco. There are tons of smaller breweries who probably make incredible stuff as well.

Today, we’re drinking an established American brewery’s take on a Mexican classic. Let’s see how it goes.