Firestone Walker Beer to Debut in Chicago at Piece

Firestone Walker Brewing of Paso Robles, Calif., will debut in Chicago on Jan. 20 with a party at Piece Brewery. During the event, which will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., guests will get to sample beers from Firestone Walker's Proprietor's Reserve Line, including the Anniversary 14, Walker’s Reserve Porter and Double Jack Imperial IPA.

What makes the Chicago launch more exciting than beer geeks getting to drink beers that won awards at both the World Beer Cup and the Great American Beer Festival is that the company's brewmaster, Matt Brynildson, has strong Chicago ties.

Brynildson first attended the Siebel Institute before landing a job at Goose Island brewery, where he eventually became head brewer. He's a founding partner of Piece, where he recruited brewmaster Jonathan Cutler from Goose Island to helm the brewery there. And Revolution Brewery's head brewer, Jim Cibak, was a brewer at Firestone Walker for two years. So it looks like things are coming full circle and at the end of the day, Chicago's gearing up to get even more drunk.