[Mini-update from Co-Owner, David Walker]

(Buellton, CA) – In a blurb that The Full Pint initially framed as “breaking” news, the website reported this afternoon that Firestone Walker Brewing Company was building a second brewery in California. From the post which has since been pulled:

Firestone Walker, as you may know has a tap room/restaurant in Buellton, CA, a bit north of Santa Barbara, CA. […] Our source has communicated that the taproom is being converted into Firestone Walker’s Specialty and Sour Brewery. Matt Brynildson, Firestone Walker’s Brewmaster conveyed that he wants all the wild yeast and bugs as far away from his award winning Union Barrel System as possible. We reached out to Firestone Walker to confirm this information, and we’re answered with “we don’t have details yet.” Ladies and gentlemen, that was not a “no.”

Within a half hour, The Full Pint removed the post from its website, stating on Twitter:

The Full Pint remains pro-brewery. At the request of @firestonewalker we have removed our post. Thanks for understanding.

Questions around reporter-brewer relationships aside, The Full Pint was onto something with the report.

Just a few hours earlier, Firestone Walker Co-Owner, David Walker, tweeted a photo of what he called the “Beginnings of the funk zone at the Barrelworks” showing somewhere in the ballpark of 100 barrels in the Buellton cellar room.

Walker did not immediately reply to a request for comment though a source tells BeerPulse that the temperature-controlled Buellton cellar room is being used for the company’s wild yeast program. To this point, there has only been “talk” about building any kind of brewing system there.

For now, it remains noteworthy that the perennial champion brewers are expanding their interest into the increasingly popular field of sour and wild ales. Beer Advocate’s database only lists five such beers from the brewery to date.