Of all the barrel-aged beers we’ve created since starting our Vintage program in 2005, one stands tallest of them all: Parabola, a proprietary imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels.
Now comes the 2024 edition of Parabola—the 16th annual vintage release of this Firestone Walker icon. The 2024 Parabola is featured in our latest Brewmaster’s Collective beer club drop and is available for a limited time at our brewery locations and across Firestone Walker markets.
Parabola is always a beast of a beer, with intense flavors of black cherry, dark chocolate, vanilla and roast coffee—yet each annual release also bears its own subtle imprint. For this latest edition, we aged the beer for a year in 12-year Elijah Craig barrels. These coveted bourbon barrels imparted signature notes of charred oak, caramel and cinnamon, taking the Parabola experience to new heights.
Pour some out in your favorite snifter; behold the impossibly opaque color as you allow it to warm up a bit; and then let the dark magic of Parabola stun your palate with its unrivaled flavor and complexity.
Progression & Evolution
Parabola was created by Brewmaster Matt Brynildson nearly 20 years ago as a component beer for our first-ever Anniversary Ale blend. However, it soon became apparent that Parabola merited its own stand-alone release. A star was born with the inaugural 2010 vintage, and to this day Parabola carries a perfect 100-point rating on Beer Advocate.
Parabola is known for its righteously thick textures, thanks in part to the inclusion of oats in the mash bill. On our original brewhouse, Matt likened the brewing to Parabola to “extracting liquid from an oatmeal cookie.” However, the juice was worth the squeeze: “The oats just lend this cool full-bodied texture and mouthfeel that I think pairs really well with imperial stouts,” Matt says. Much to the relief of the brewing team, brewing Parabola got much easier with the installation of our state-of-the-art brewhouse extension in 2017.
While the storied Parabola recipe remains the same from vintage to vintage, the act of aging it in different barrels each year creates a sense of progression and evolution from one vintage to the next.
This time, it was the procurement of 12-year-old Elijah Craig barrels that set the tone. “When we got our hands on these barrels, we knew that they were going to be a perfect match for Parabola,” says Vintage Barrel Master Jordan Ziegler. “They had this beautiful mature bourbon character, and we knew they could take the experience to another level.”