by Mark Lasbury
by Indiana On Tap editorial staff
The Indiana craft beer community is happy to welcome Firestone Walker Brewing Company to our fair state. Firestone Walker was founded in 1996 at Paso Robles, CA by brothers-in-law David Walker and Adam Firestone. The iconic lion and bear logo for Firestone walker depicts occasionally epic battles between Adam (the bear) and his sister’s husband David (the lion).
According to The South Bend Tribune, March 5th, “We didn’t want to go national all at once,” said Sophie Helens-Hart, Midwest sales director for Firestone Walker. “The Midwest is an important area for us in general. But specifically now, we’ve been in Chicago for so long, we wanted to add a couple more states at the same time.” Outside of Chicago, Iowa and Missouri were the closest regions distributing Firestone Walker.
Anderson York, a veteran craft beer representative, is the Indiana Market Manager for the brewery. He has planned several launch events across the state, including:
March 5th: The Pint Room in Carmel, 5pm
March 6th: Twenty Tap in Indianapolis, 5pm
March 7th: Fiddler’s Hearth in South Bend, 5pm
March 7th: The Brass Rail in Ft. Wayne, 5pm
March 8th: The Franklin House in Valparaiso, 5pm CST
March 8th: DOC’S BBQ in Dyer, 5pm CST
David Walker will join York at some of these events, as will some of Firestone Walker’s best offerings, such Bravo Imperial Brown, 2015 Parabola, 2017 Stickee Monkee, Opal, 2017 Agrestic, or 2015 Parabajava.
The FW beers available at local beer stores and on most taps will be the Union Jack IPA, one of the highest rated IPAs in the country, Pivo Pils, Luponic Distortion, the sessionable Easy Jack, and a nitro Merlin. At some point the Firestone Lager will join these beers, having be revived this past week after an 18 year hiatus. There will also be mixed 12 packs available to introduce FW to Indiana.
