I find it refreshing when I find a full flavor stout with a wonderful aroma that is not strong or imperial. Firestone-Walker Brewing has done a wonderful job in doing this with creating this superb oatmeal stout with a familiar, yet complex, aroma and flavor profile.

Although Velvet Merlin is now available in bottles since 2010, and 6-packs for that matter, it started it’s life as a very limited release beer under a different name. It was previously called Velvet Merkin. Due to potential issues with labeling as well as possible marketing problems with the work merkin [wikipedia link but still NSFW], the name was changed to Merlin and a magical beer it is. Update: Additionally, Velvet Merkin is a slightly different beer, it is 100% barrel-aged whereas Velvet Merlin is partially barrel-aged.

One of the unique aspects of this beer is that it is partially aged in bourbon barrels. It’s not enough to detect a strong bourbon flavor but it does provide a little something extra that you might not find in a traditional oatmeal stout.

Date Reviewed. November 1, 2011

Where I Found It. Whole Foods Market in San Francisco, CA.

Serving Type. 12 oz. bottles into a nonick pint glass.

Appearance. Velvet Merlin has an opaque inky black color with just a tinge of glowing dark brown on the edges of the glass. The head is a tan color with large foamy bubble and a little above average head retention.

Aroma. This beer smells fantastic. It has a hint of oats that, when combined with the malt aromas, makes the beer smell a bit like an oatmeal cookie. It also has a creaminess that comes off like milk chocolate. The typical roastiness of a stout is nicely balanced by the sweet creamy bouquet. There is no discernable hops and little to no coffee aromas. If it were not for the oat smells, I would think this to be a milk stout. There is just a small hint of cola in the background.

Taste. Velvet Merlin falls half-way between a sweet stout and a dry stout. It has strong flavors of malt and dark roasted malt with out being too sweet. It is also not dry by any means. The bitterness from both the hops and the malt is quite light. The flavor is reminiscent of a chocolate milk with a dash of espresso with an oatmeal cookie on the side. The bourbon barrel aging comes off in the flavor as a hint of vanilla.

Mouthfeel. This beer has a smooth texture that is just short of velvety, despite it’s name. Even though this is a beer made with very dark roasted malt, it comes off as smooth with little to no astringency.

Overall. Velvet Merlin is a great stout that keeps you going for more and allows you to drink more without falling off your chair. It has just as much flavor as many stouts, that are higher in alcohol percentage. This is a full flavored oatmeal stout that I feel fits well into the category with the added benefit of a slightly creamy aroma pushing it close to a milk stout in aroma but not in sweetness.

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.

• Appearance (6%): 4.0
• Aroma (24%): 5.0
• Taste (40%): 4.5
• Mouthfeel (10%): 4.5
• Overall (20%): 4.5
• Total: 4.59

Information

• Style: oatmeal stout
• Brewery: Firestone-Walker Brewing Company [more info]
• Alcohol by volume: 5.5%
• Original Gravity: 1.061
• Hops: U.S. Fuggle
• Malt: Maris Otter, 2-Row Pale, Roast Barley, English Dark Caramel, Medium Caramel, Carafa Malt, Oats (15%)
• Other ingredients: Partially aged in bourbon barrels
• RateBeer rating: 97 overal, 97 style (as of November 2, 2011)

After my tour of the Firestone-Walker brewery, I had the opportunity to try a few of their beers. The first that I tried was Lil Opal. Lil Opal is a a Belgian style Farmhouse Ale and is Firestone-Walker’s summer seasonal offering this year. One reason behind the name “Lil Opal” is that it is a small beer created from the second runnings of a wheat wine, called Big Opal. The wonderful beer was fermented with Belgian Saison yeast and then racked into neutral Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc oak barrels.

Where I Found It. I enjoyed this beer at the Firestone-Walker brewery in Paso Robles, CA.

Serving Type. Lil Opal was served from the tap into a glass.

Appearance. The head of this beer is thick, foamy, frothy, and white. A thin layer of head remained in the glass throughout drinking it. The color of Lil Opal is orange-brown, or a clover honey-like hue. The beer is cloudy opaque as an unfiltered wheat beer of this style should be.

Smell. Lil Opal has a slight bouquet of cloves and an aroma of under-ripe bananas. It has a slight fruit flavor but the smell on the whole is not as intense as other Belgian saison beers.

Taste. This beer has a light saison taste with less cloves and banana than is expected from the smell. Lil Opal has a more of fruity and sweet taste than would be expected. The fruity taste might be described as a hint of pineapple or maybe peach. Just a touch of bitterness comes through in the finish.

Mouthfeel. This is a light bodied beer with a lower alcohol content. Despite the light body this beer was well carbonated which gave it a wonderful creamy texture.

Drinkability. This is a great summer beer that is very smooth and easy to drink. The saison style makes it interesting but is not over the top and subdued enough to make this a great session beer for the summer.

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.

• Appearance (20%): 4.0
• Smell (20%): 4.0
• Taste (40%): 4.0
• Mouthfeel (10%): 4.5
• Drinkability (10%): 4.5
• Overall: 4.1

Information

• Style: Belgian Saison/Farmhous Ale
• Brewery: Firestone-Walker Brewing Company [more info]
• Alcohol by volume: 3.8%
• Hops: 100% Saaz
• Malt: premium two-row malt (50%), wheat malt (25%), torrified wheat (25%)
• Yeast: Saison yeast
• Beer Advocate rating: 3.67 (as of June 24, 2009)

Other Reviews

• Beer and Nosh – ‘Lil Opal
• Better Beer Blog – Spotlight On: Hopmonk
• The Thirsty Hopster – Boonville Beer Festival 2008: The perfect Saturday, until the sun goes down…
• Beer Advocate – Lil’ Opal Saison
• Rate Beer – Firestone Little Opal

Back in April I arranged for a tour and visited the Firestone-Walker Brewery in Paso Robles, CA. During the tour of their facilities I took several photos and learned a few interesting facts about Firestone-Walker.

First off, the brewery was founded in 1996 by two brothers-in-law, Adam Firestone and David Walker, who also happen to be members of the Firestone family, known for making rubber and tires. The original location of the brewery (according to the ol label pictures below) was in Santa Maria, CA. In 2001, Firestone-Walker moved to their current facility in Paso Robles where the San Luis Obispo Brewery used to be.

Firestone-Walker distributes their beer only to locations that are within a 24 hour, or so, drive to make sure the beer stays cold and fresh. Their beer can currently be found in California, Nevada, and Oregon. They recently added Washington and Arizona to the list. Last year in 2008, they produced 60,000 barrels of beer and for 2009 they are planning for 75,000 barrels, that’s 1.86 M and  2.325 M gallons respectively. A barrel is 31 gallons and standard size kegs are considered half-barrels with 15.5 gallons of beer.

Firestone-Walker Brewery has created several award winning beers, including a Gold Medal at the 2008 GABF (Great American Beer Festival) for Union Jack IPA in the American Style IPA category. In 2007, Firestone-Walker was awarded with the Mid-sized Brewery of the Year at the GABF.

One interesting fact that I learned is that Firestone-Walker brews more than just their own brand of beer. In 2005, Firestone-Walker acquired Humboldt Brewing Company and their line of Nectar Ales, including their unique strand of yeast. Firestone also brews a few brands for exclusive distrubtion by Trader Joe’s including all of the Mission Street beers, Jumping Cow, and one of the Fat Weasel ales. If you want to know which brands at Trader Joe’s are brewed by Firestone-Walker, just look at the location of the brwery and if it says Paso Robles, CA it is brewed by Firestone. Although I have not tried Mission St., I much prefer Firestone-Walker branded beer to the other Trader Joe brands.

With regard to the brewing process, Firestone-Walker uses local water that is filtered using reverse-osmosis. Depending on the style, various salts are added to the water to replicate water from other areas of the world, like London. They have the ability to mash-in every three hours to produce up to 550 barrels every 24 hours. I was informed by one of the staff walking by that they use the step-mashing technique for the mash.

For fermentation, Firestone-Walker uses both their own house yeast as well as the proprietary Nectar Ales yeast. Sample of both are stored in an off-site lab for safe keeping. The brewers will re-pitch the yeast 10 times before discarding it.

Of all the beer that Firestone-Walker brews, 70% of the production is Double Barrel Ale. A portion of the wort used to make DBA is fermented in brand new 65 gallon American oak barrels. After it is fermented in the oak barrels, it is blended back with the beer and filtered. After a barrel is used 20 times, it is discarded.

At the brewery, Firestone-Walker is able to fill 50 kegs per hour using their kegging machine and 110 botles per minute on the bottling line, which requires 6 people to operate.

I concluded the tour with a sample of the Lil’ Opal farmhouse ale and Walker’s Reserve Porter. Both are very tasty beers.

I would like to thank Sarah and Firestone-Walker Brewery [more info] for the wonderful tour.