As our friends over at Vinepair explain, “it would be easy to call 2020 a wash. Without the ability to travel to breweries, browse beer shop aisles, and attend the endless events the craft beer community provides across the country and world, looking back at the year in beer took us deep into our photo streams and tasting notes. Tasting and ranking our favorite beers of this unusually challenging year had its many roadblocks. But then, as tends to happen to any beer geek in a bind, we found a way — going to great lengths to source, sample, and online shop for hundreds, possibly thousands, of beers throughout the year.”
We’re excited to announce that our XXIV Anniversary Ale made a list securing the number one spot of Vinepair’s top 50 beers of 2020.
Grab a beer and get comfortable as you read through Vinepair’s selection of the 50 best beers of 2020, tasted and ranked. In case you want to skip right to our section, here’s the excerpt from the article about XXIV Anniversary Ale.
It’s hard to believe this barrel-aged blend is not an adjunct stout. In fact, it’s not a stout at all, but a blend of barrel-aged strong ales from select lots of Firestone Walker’s cellar: 16 percent Parabola Russian Imperial Stout, 16 percent Smoked Imperial Walker’s Reserve Porter, 26 percent Stickee Monkee Central Coastal Quad, 27 percent Velvet Merkin milk stout, 11 percent Bravo imperial brown ale, and 4 percent Tequila Helldorado blonde barley wine. The highly anticipated 24th-anniversary blend of six vintage ales is a triumph in many ways. Rich layers of chocolate frosting and vanilla bean tantalize the taste buds as vividly as the real thing, reminiscent of creamy French vanilla ice cream with chocolate mousse. All this is lifted with a fruity character. Although many barrels were used in the making of this final beer, no additional adjuncts were added. It, along with other labels in Firestone Walker’s Vintage Series, reminded us how amazing this brewery is. Happy 24th. We cannot wait for what 25 has in store.
XXIV Anniversary Ale is available in select retailers wherever Firestone beers are sold. Also available for sale, direct from the brewery to thirsty Californians through our online webstore.
Order a bottle (or two) and give our latest anniversary ale a try. Cheers!