Firestone Walker Twelve, the twelfth special release beer to celebrate the brewery’s anniversary, got label approval earlier this week. According to Marketing Director, Jamie Smith, production was bumped up from last year’s 500 case mark to 600 cases this year. The release party will take place at the Paso Robles brewery on Saturday, November 8, at noon, with bottles hitting the retail market the following week.

Firestone Walker is widely recognized for its use of oak barrel-aging, its program being code-named, “Quercus Alba” or “White Oak.” What is especially unique about the anniversary series in particular is the blending of SEVERAL beers into one, the strategy for which has been driven from exhaustive research and experimenting. Brewmaster, Matt Brynildson, gave a talk on beer blending techniques in general as well as how it is done at FW at the Homebrewers Convention last year. It is available for download at The Brewing Network website. (It starts at the 2hr 24min mark). Accompanying presentation PDF link here.]

For the Tenth Anniversary edition, the reigning GABF Mid-Size Brewing Company and Brewer of the Year champs decided to use an English Barley Wine as an approximate 50% base and to build around it through the addition of brown ales and imperial stouts, among other styles. Last year’s Eleven used a heavy dose of Bravo, an Imperial Brown Ale, considering it measured at 86% of the blend (more figures available in Stan Hieronymus’s article at Appellation Beer.) Some of the individual beers that make up the blends are not released except for during special occasions/festivals.

So what about this year’s beer? The blending sessions have yet to take place. What is intriguing is that Smith thinks that Parabola, an Imperial Stout that has traditionally been a very small part of the blend, will be a much bigger part this year. A result of the brewing team’s previous experimenting was that a higher amount of Stout created “burnt acrid roasty flavors,” but maybe they have figured out how to make it work with an Imperial Stout.

What we do know is that Abacus will not be making a comeback nor is there any left in barrels. Bravo will be part of the blend again as well as new additions, Opal Wheat Wine and A Saucerful of Secrets (ever heard of Pink Floyd?), a high-gravity Belgian Dark Ale. For more on the latter brew, visit Sean Paxton’s picture-filled brew day post. He also wrote another nice photographic piece for Firestone Walker Eleven.

Aside from a sneak peak at Twelve, Smith confirmed that tickets are on sale for Firestone Walker’s Oaktoberfest IV 2008, a tribute to the German mega event, on Saturday, September 27. The brewery hopes to exceed last year’s fundraising level of $20,000 for the Hospice of San Luis Obispo County by another $10,000 through the event. The benefit will be held at River Oaks Hot Springs Spa in Paso Robles from noon to 5 p.m. The full press release can be found here.

As far as distribution, more beers will be hitting the new distribution channels of Portland, Oregon, and Southern Washington next year. I would take this to mean that Firestone Walker Reserve will be available, possibly Union Jack IPA, and, who knows, maybe a few cases of Firestone Walker Thirteen could make their way north.